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

[John Scully]

Not 1.9 km

On Thu, Nov 26, 2020, 6:48 PM Kreigh Tomaszewski <kreigh at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
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