[Rockhounds] When Krakatoa Blew: How the 1883 Eruption Changed the World

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

In May 1883, the captain of the German warship Elisabeth observed a column
of smoke and ash that he estimated be 6.8 miles (1.97 kilometers) tall,
rising into the sky over an uninhabited mountainous island in the Sunda
Strait between Java and Sumatra in Indonesia. "Ash fell so thickly as to
obscure the sun," according to a report <https://bit.ly/36AUbl6> later
compiled by Great Britain's Royal Society. Over the next few months,
according to the report, other ships noticed ominous rumblings from the
island, whose Indonesian name was Krakatau, though it would later become
famous — possibly due to a typographical error by someone transmitting a
news dispatch — as Krakatoa.

Finally, on Aug. 27, 1883, all hell broke loose, as a colossal volcanic
eruption
<https://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/natural-disasters/volcano.htm>
demolished
Krakatoa, causing two-thirds of it to collapse and fall into the sea, and
generated massive lava
<https://science.howstuffworks.com/lava-tubes-on-earth-could-prepare-us-for-life-on-moon-and-mars.htm>,
pumice and ash flows. The explosion also triggered immense tsunamis
<https://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/natural-disasters/tsunami.htm> that
inundated hundreds of coastal towns and villages, causing the deaths of an
estimated 36,000 people, according to
<https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/day-historic-krakatau-eruption-1883> the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Krakatoa, which
scored a 6 on the Volcano Explosivity Index
<https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/vsc/glossary/vei.html>, was one of the biggest
documented volcanic eruptions in the last 760,000 years of natural history.

Krakatoa became one of the most famous volcanoes ever, not just because of
its fearsome power and effects, but because it was the first really
gigantic volcano to blow in the era when humans had communications
technology — telegraph lines and printed newspapers — to transmit accounts
of what was happening, as well as scientific instruments to measure its
effects. The legend gradually grew, and Krakatoa eventually became the
veritable King Kong <https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/king-kong.htm> of
volcanoes, even serving as the subject of a 1968 cinematic historical
thriller, "Krakatoa, East of Java
<https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073LZ7NZ3/ref=as_sl_pc_tf_til?tag=howstuffwo029-20&linkCode=w00&linkId=a80c25c019a1211716a605f5a6049c06&creativeASIN=B073LZ7NZ3>,"
starring Maximilian Schell, Diane Baker and Brian Keith, and the subject of
a 2003 bestseller, "Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883
<https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060838590/ref=as_sl_pc_tf_til?tag=howstuffwo029-20&linkCode=w00&linkId=60f3d1bef53e53a3a80dbd7ba91f773b&creativeASIN=0060838590>,"
by author Simon Winchester.
Just How Powerful Was It?

The Krakatoa eruption produced the loudest sound in modern history, one
that was heard across more than 10 percent of Earth's surface, according to
NOAA. On the island of Mauritius
<https://www.britannica.com/place/Mauritius> in the Indian Ocean, more than
2,800 miles (4,600 kilometers) away, people heard what sounded like distant
gunfire.

It generated intense pressure waves that traveled several times around the
planet, causing spikes on scientific instruments in Great Britain and the
U.S.

https://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/natural-disasters/krakatoa.htm