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Krakatoa
27 August 1883
The biggest bang of all
An explosion that echoed round the world.
The eruption of Krakatoa is one of those global events that etches itself into the consciousness everywhere, It is in every history book and the name has become a legend. Films have been made about it, books written about it,many paintings (real or imaginary) made of it, and the name seems destined to live forever.
So, in truth, it should — as a warning as well as a reminder of what actually happened. Its echoes literally did carry round the world, asdid the colossal cloud of ash and dust,producing dramatic sunrises and sunsets for years afterwards.
There was some warning. The island of Krakatoa lies between Java and Sumatra in Indonesia. Six miles (10km) long, it held a number of volcanic cones, as did two adjacent smaller islands, Danan and Perboewetan, but they were considered mild compared with others in the archipelago. The highest hill on Krakatoa, called Rakatam, was under 3,000 feet (900m) high. But in May 1883 Krakatoa began to serve warning of what was tofollow, with a series of eruptions, some of which could be heard in thecity ofBatavia (now called Jakarta), nearly100 miles (160km) away. Minor eruptions continued through the summer, but were nothing when set beside the events of 26 and 27 August.
Permanent darkness
The major eruption started just after midday on Sunday 26 August, followed by further eruptions every few minutes. Huge clouds of ash and dust were flung miler into the atmosphere, and everywhere within 50 miles (80km) of Krakatoa was in permanent darkness for the next two and a half days. A British ship. the Charles Ball, was in the area at the time, giving us one of a number of remarkable eye-witness accounts. The ship’s log records the scene:
‘The intense blackness above and around us was broken by the glare of varied kinds of lightning; that and the continuous explosive roars of Krakatoa make our situation a truly awful one’. In the circumstances, that seems almost an understatement.
Later that day, Captain Wooldridge of another British ship, the Sir Robert Sate, noted in his log that ‘the sky presented a most terrible appearance, the dense mass of clouds covered with a murky tinge, with fierce flashes of lightning’. Ships were covered with phosphorescent mud, and another observer, Robert Dalby, felt ‘such a hurricane as no man had experienced before. The wind seemed a solid mass, roaring like an enormous engine and shrieking like a demon in torment. In the heavens there was a terriblecommotion, clouds whirled around at terrific speed, and most of us thought we were in the vortexof a cyclone.’
It seemed impossible to believe that worse was to follow, but on Monday 27 August the volcanic activity reached an unprecedented crescendo. On the morning the central part of the island collapsed inward, into the hole created by the volcano, and the sea rushed into the abyss. The explosion that followed, described graphically later as ‘Krakatoa’s death cry’, was the largest sound ever recorded on the earth. It was heard clearly as far as 3000 miles (4 800km) awayon Rodrigeuz Island in the Indian Ocean; the coastguard there reported it as gunfire’.
Huge waves
In the area around Krakatoa, the devastation was colossal. Apart from the damage caused by the ash, dust and pumice from the volcano itself, there were many tsunamis created, and nearly 300 towns and villages suffered grievous damage from these waves, which reached over 100 feet (30m) in height. In the port of Merak, on Java, only two of the 2700 inhabitants survived the tsunami. A Dutch gunboat, the Berouw, was lifted bodily by the wave and deposited a mile inland from its port ofTelok Betong on Sumatra. The port itself was completely devastated.
The tsunamis travelled for thousands of miles before dying out, and were seen on the west coast of America and in other places around the Pacific as well as inAustralia. The huge cloud from the eruptions reached a height 17 miles and then dispersed, following stratospheric winds right round the world and giving rise to strange atmospheric effects for several years. Vivid sunsets were seen as far awayas Europe, and the dust had the effect of dimming the sun’s rays so that a noticeable cooling was experiencedin many countries.
Underwater crater
When the volcanic activity had died down and the island could be examined, its shape had been drastically altered. Instead of being mountainous, the principal feature was now a huge crater, water-filled and 1,000 feet (300mn) deep. Danan and Perboewetan had simp1ydisappeared. It was later estimated that over 7,000 million cubic yards of rock (5,600 million cubic meters) had been blasted into the air by the eruptions.
It was a long time before anything like a proper count of the dead and injured could be made. At least 36,500 people died, possibly more because ofunreported deaths. Few of these deaths were directly as a result of the eruptions (Krakatoa was uninhabited) but were due to the tsunamis that followed and to destruction of buildings from the shockwaves. As well as those who died, thousandsmore were left homeless and ruined.
Krakatoa is a vivid example of the awesome powers constantly in motion under the earth’s fragile outer crustal layer. It is the greatest eruption so far, but it could yet be exceeded.
Krakatoa’s baby
Despite the devastation, the heat and the thick layer of volcanic ash and pumice, what was left of the island of Krakatoa slowly reverted to its former densely vegetated state. In 1927 volcanologists observed that growth had begun from the caldera floor left behind by the 1883 eruptions. A new volcano was starting to emerge. It was called Anak Krakatoa, which means ‘child of Krakatoa’ It is now several hundred feet high, and minor eruptions from it have already occurred. Krakatoa’s death cry was a birth pang as well. The area continues to be studied, and a centenary conference held in 1983 presented new reports.
Krakatoa erupting in La Nature