In this book, nature snows vigorously. And it blows violently, either as a gale-force wind or an exploding volcano. And it thunders and storms and shakes and quakes. The natureyou will meet here is furious, uncontrollable and quite often deadly.

Nature has been described in various ways by great thinkers from William Shakespeare to Ralph Waldo Emerson to Rachel Carson. In many, if not all, instances, nature has been painted at best as beneficent, nurturing and kind, and at worst as benign.

That is not the nature you will meet on these pages. The nature here is closer to the one that the writer Maya Angelou had in mind when she said,"Nature has no mercy at all. Nature says, ’I’m going to snow. If you have on a bikini and no snowshoes, that’s tough. I am going to snow anyway.’"

In this book, nature snows vigorously. And it blows violently, either as a gale-force wind or an exploding volcano. And it thunders and storms and shakes and quakes. The natureyou will meet here is furious, uncontrollable and quite often deadly.

We begin with a survey of the spectacular cataclysms of ancient times, from floods of biblical proportions to the eruption at Pompeii to a 16th-century earthquake in China that claimed as many as 83o,ooo lives. This walk through history lends context to the constantly active force that is nature, and then you will witness, as LIFE’S editors claim, "nature’s fury firsthand, through 25 dramatic events that have occurred since the advent of photography. Cameras record many things well, but they record few things as dramatically as they do natural calamity. What you will see on the pages that follow really happened, in our time or the time of our immediate forebears. You won’t believe your eyes But you must."

Through the stunning photography that is LIFE’s hallmark and in vivid historical accounts, we revisit the Johnstown flood, the San Francisco earthquake, the Dust Bowl, the eruptions of Mount St. Helens and Mount Pinatubo, the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 and, of course, the 2005 tragedy named Katrina. There are lesser-known, even surprising episodes as well. What caused London’s deadly fog in 1952?Do you recall when the lovely city of Florence flooded in 1966? How many tornadoes rampaged through the eastern United States during the two-day Super Outbreak of 19747 (Hint: There were way more than a hundred.)

Interspersed throughout the book, there are special sections that will help you understand the factors at play when nature unleashes its fury. If you’ve ever wondered what conditions bring about a hurricane, where and why volcanoes form or how much energy is contained in a bolt of lightning, you’ll find what you seek in these chapters, illustrated by the most thrilling pictures of nature gone wild that you will ever see.

Nature’s fury is a terrible beauty to behold, and it’s a fascinating topic of study and contemplation. This book allows you to see, learn and think.

It allows you to thrill at the wonders--and the fury--of nature.

In Ancient Times: Imagining the Violent World of Yesteryear

Nature’s Fury: Cataclysms of the Modern Age

The Great White Hurricane

The Johnstown Flood

The Galveston Hurricane

Mount Pelee Erupts

What Isan Earthquake?

The San Francisco Earthquake

The Tri-State Tornado

The Dust Bowl

What Is a Hurricane?

The New England Hurricane

The China Floods

London’s Deadly Fog

The North Sea Flood

The Good Friday Earthquake

Florence Drowns

What Is Lightning?

The Bhola Cyclone

Iceland’s Endless Volcano

Ethiopia’s Drought

What Is a Tornado?

The Tornado Super Outbreak

The Tangshan Earthquake

The Blizzard of’78

What Is aVolcano?

Mount St. Helens Erupts

The Mexico City Earthquake

Mount Pinatubo Erupts

Europe’s Heat Wave

The Indian Ocean Tsunami

Hurricane Katrina

Nature’s Glory