Every corner
of the globe endured events of historic proportions, even as soccer,
surfing, and polar bears served to arouse smiles.
I ran into this breathtaking 120 photo anthology of 2008 over at the Boston Globe (via Steve McCoy). Here are a few samples:
Lightning
bolts appear above and around the Chaiten volcano as seen from Chana,
some 30 kms (19 miles) north of the volcano, as it began its first
eruption in thousands of years, in southern Chile May 2, 2008. Cases of
electrical storms breaking out directly above erupting volcanoes are
well documented, although scientists differ on what causes them.
Picture taken May 2, 2008. (Carlos Gutierrez)
Kartoula,
14, a refugee from Sudan's western Darfur region, enters a distribution
centre to receive monthly food rations at Djabal camp near Gos Beida in
eastern Chad, June 5, 2008. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #
The
Space Shuttle Discovery lifts off from launch pad 39-A at Kennedy Space
Center on May 31, 2008 in Cape Canaveral, Florida, en route to the
International Space Station on a construction mission. (Eliot J.
Schechter /Getty Images) #
An
aerial view of floods caused by Tropical Storm Hanna is seen in
Gonaives, Haiti on September 3, 2008. Haiti's civil protection office
said 37 of the 90 Hanna-related deaths had occurred in the port city of
Gonaives. (REUTERS/Marco Dormino/Minustah) #
A
U.S. Marine, from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, has a close call
after Taliban fighters opened fire near Garmser in Helmand Province of
Afghanistan May 18, 2008. The Marine was not injured. (REUTERS/Goran
Tomasevic) #
The
hand of a dead body lies on the ground amongst the rubble of the
earthquake ravaged town May 15, 2008 in Beichuan, Sichuan province,
China. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images) #
Italian
soccer club AC Milan's newly signed player Ronaldinho of Brazil attends
his presentation at San Siro Stadium in Milan, Italy on July 17, 2008.
(REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo) # (for those who claim this image has
been digitally altered, here is a larger detail of the photo - the halo
is from backlighting, not photoshop)
Buildings
and debris are seen floating in the Cedar River against a railroad
bridge Saturday, June 14, 2008, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Days after it
rose out of its banks on its way to record flooding in Cedar Rapids,
the Cedar River has forced at least 24,000 people from their homes,
emergency officials said. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson) #
A
man stands in front of the Marriott hotel after a bomb blast in
Islamabad September 20, 2008. A truck bomb was detonated outside the
Marriott in the Pakistani capital Islamabad on Saturday, killing at
least 54, injuring at least 266 and starting a fire which swept through
the hotel. (REUTERS/Faisal Mahmood) #
Swiss
pilot Yves Rossy, the world's first man to fly with a jet-powered
fixed-wing apparatus strapped to his back, flies during his first
official demonstration, on May 14, 2008 above Bex, Switzerland.
(Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images) #
Cyclone
Nargis victims huddle in torrential rain as they await assistance in
Dedaye Township, southwest of Yangon, Myanmar on May 19, 2008.
Political resistance to outside aid and a slow response by the
government worsened an already devastating situation - an estimated
146,000 people lost their lives. (REUTERS/Stringer) #
Tear
gas cannisters fired by Israeli soldiers fall from the sky on
Palestinian and Israeli peace activists during a protest agaisnt the
construction of Israel's controversial security barrier in the West
Bank village of Bilin, near Ramallah, on June 6, 2008. (Abbas
Momani/AFP/Getty Images) #
Maasai
warriors cover a battle field as they clash with bows and arrows with
members of the Kalenjin tribe in the Kapune hill overlooking the
Olmelil valley located in the Transmara District in Western Kenya on
March 01, 2008. The Massai, the Kalenjin and the Kisii tribes have
recently clashed over ongoing land disputes that erupted after botched
local elections during the general elections held in Kenya in December
of 2007. Over twenty warriors from the tribes have been killed in bow
and arrow battles near the borders of these tribes in the last couple
of months. (Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images) #
The
head of a male student, still alive, trapped under the debris is
pictured at the scene of the church school that collapsed on the
outskirts of Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince, November 7, 2008. At least
30 people were killed when the three-story La Promesse school building
collapsed while class was in session and some of the walls and debris
crushed neighboring homes in the Nerettes community near
Port-au-Prince. (REUTERS/Joseph Guyler Delva) #
A
polar bear shakes his body to remove water at the St-Felicien Wildlife
Zoo in St-Felicien, Quebec on March 6, 2008. (REUTERS/Mathieu Belanger)
#
Cambodian
families living on the grounds of the disputed 900-year-old Preah
Vihear temple, along the Thai-Cambodian border October 16, 2008. Nearly
200 Cambodian residents living near the temple have taken refuge on its
grounds, after recent fighting killed two Cambodian soldiers, a local
Cambodian newspaper reported. The International Court of Justice
awarded the temple to Cambodia in 1962, but the court failed to
determine the ownership of 1.8 square miles (4.6 sq km) Hindu ruins, a
ruling that has rankled with Thais ever since. (REUTERS/Adrees Latif) #
Kerby
Brown rides a huge wave in an undisclosed location southwest of Western
Australia July 6, 2008, in this picture released November 7, 2008 by
the Oakley-Surfing Life Big Wave Awards in Sydney. Picture taken July
6. (REUTERS/Andrew Buckley). #