AncientPages.com - On the afternoon of August 26, 1883, Krakatoa erupted 1883 in one of the most powerful natural eruptions in recent time.
Krakatoa is an island volcano between the islands of Sumatra and Java.
An 1888 lithograph of the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa. Credit: Public Domain
The explosions were heard on Rodriguez Island, 4653 km distant across the Indian Ocean and over 1/13th of the earth’s surface.
Ash fell on Singapore 840 km to the north, Cocos (Keeling) Island 1155 km to the SW, and ships as far as 6076 km west-northwest. Darkness covered the Sunda Straits from 11 a.m. on the 27th until dawn the next day.
Giant waves reached heights of 40 m above sea level, devastating everything in their path and hurling ashore coral blocks weighing as much as 600 tons. At least 36,417 people were killed, most by the giant sea waves, and 165 coastal villages were destroyed.
When the eruption ended, only 1/3 of Krakatoa, formerly 5×9 km, remained above sea level, and new islands of steaming pumice and ash lay to the north where the sea had been 36 m deep.
See also:
Krakatoa Prophecy – Samson’s Mysterious Dream
Every recording barograph in the world documented the passage of the atmospheric pressure wave. The wave bounced back and forth between the eruption site and its antipodes for five days after the explosion. Blue and green suns were observed as fine ash and aerosol erupted perhaps 50 km into the stratosphere and circled the equator in 13 days.
Three months after the eruption, these products had spread to higher latitudes causing such vivid red sunset afterglow that fire engines were called out in New York, Poughkeepsie, and New Haven to quench the apparent conflagration.
Unusual sunsets continued for three years.
Rafts of floating pumice-locally thick enough to support men, trees, and no doubt other biological passengers crossed the Indian Ocean in 10 months. Others reached Melanesia and were still afloat two years after the eruption.
The volcanic dust veil that created such spectacular atmospheric effects also acted as a solar radiation filter, lowering global temperatures by as much as 1.2 degrees C the year after the eruption. Temperatures did not return to normal until 1888.
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