For a look pack at the headlines Mother Nature made this year, check out National Geographic’s top ten list of the year’s news headlines. The readers’ choice list includes

Last year’s tsunami claimed 300,000 people’s lives. However, the Moken – or sea gypsies (explore National Geographic’s interactive feature on them) – of Thailand, have a tradition which warns that when tides recede far and fast then a man-eating wave will soon head their way: so they should run far and fast. Last December they did – and survived. (Full story at The Observer.)