Before and after tsunami (tidal wave) sequence

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Bandah Aceh, Indonesia. main city

1. The City of Banda Aceh, Indonesia .. Northern shore.
   Seems to have taken the brunt of the wave. There is much more than massive structural damage here -- Parts of the island are now simply gone. The image more than speaks for itself.
   
2. The City of Banda Aceh, Indonesia .. Main city .
   Not as bad as the north shore, but obvious widespread destruction..Large areas are filled with debris. Many buildings are either entirely demolished or missing large chunks. You can see large blocks of debris backed up in the rivers behind bridges.

• In each case, there are five numbered images (0-4) They start with the undamaged area, and progress to the post-tsunami image -- in 25% transparency increments.
• If you are using Firefox, then you can middle-click on each image link to load it into a new tab, then use control-PageUp / control-PageDown to flip between images for a simple (but effective) fade effect.
• The xcf file is the raw GIMP file I used to create the jpg images. If you have GIMP, then you can load the xcf file, hit control-L to choose the Layers tool, and play with the transparency slider.
• If you've never seen it before, GIMP is a good-quality open source (free) alternative to PhotoShop. You can find out more about it using the link above, or download GIMP from here.
• Transparency effects added by Stephen Samuel

Postscript:
To pick a nit with the expert who claimed that 'tidal wave' was a misnomer because it did not properly describe the source of it: The name is not meant to describe the source of tidal waves -- It is meant to describe the visual effect. Tidal waves are waves so big (in length and possibly also height) that they first appear like an incredibly fast tidal effect.

The water goes out ... the water comes in ... splat (depending on how big the wave is).

Even the Japanese name Tsunami (harbor wave) describes a visual effect -- a wave so big that it can effect an entire harbor at once.