An hour of darkness. An ice-cream vendor works next to the India Gate in New Delhi on March 31, 2012. (Parivartan Sharma/Reuters)

Earth Hour 2012 | The Big Picture

A siberian husky is ready to start at the sled dog race in Schoeneck, eastern Germany on Jan. 28. (Hendrik Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images)

Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race 2012 | The Big Picture

1 Year Later. Buddhist monks offer prayers for victims of the disaster at Kitaizumi beach in Minamisoma, Fukushima prefecture on March 10, 2012. (Yuriko Nakao / Reuters)

More from The Big Picture:

Japan remembers, rebuilds one year after tsunami

Japan’s nuclear refugees

Japan tsunami pictures: before and after

Japan tsunami pictures: before and after | The Big Picture

In this first of three Big Picture posts on the anniversary of the Japan earthquake-tsunami-nuclear disaster, we have a series of paired “then and now” pictures, with the first image taken recently paired with a picture from the same vantage point taken during or in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy.

Pictured: This pair of pictures shows a bridge in the city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi prefecture, Japan as it looked on January 13, 2012 and as it looked covered with debris from the tsunami on March 15, 2011. (Kim Jae-Hwan/AFP/Getty Images) and (Toru Yamanaka/AFP/Getty Images)

[via: the big picture]