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When Krakatoa in Indonesia blew up in 1883, its effects were felt in faraway Galle
How history repeated itself
Krakatoa (Indonesian name: Krakatau), a volcano on the Indonesian island of Rakata in the Sunda Strait had erupted repeatedly, massively and with disastrous consequences throughout recorded history, but the most well known of these events occurred on August 26, 1883.

Krakatoa was dormant until May 20, 1883, when it erupted catastrophically. By August 11, three vents were regularly erupting on the volcano. During this time tides were unusually high and phenomena such as windows suddenly shattering were commonplace. Ships at anchor were sometimes tied down with chains as a result.

Worst explosion ever
The August 26 eruptions occurred at 5.30 a.m., 6.42 a.m., 8.20 a.m. and 10.02 a.m. local time. The last of these eruptions opened fissures in the walls of the volcano, allowing seawater to pour into the magma chamber. The resulting explosion of superheated steam destroyed most of the island.

The sound of the explosion was heard as far away as Australia 3500 km away (2200 miles), and the island of Rodrigues near Mauritius 4800 km away (3000 miles). It is the loudest-ever sound in recorded history. (A possibly louder sound is believed to have been generated during the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora, also in the Indonesian archipelago).

Although no one is known to have been killed as a result of the initial explosion, the tsunamis it generated had disastrous results, killing some 36,000 people (some sources say 36,417), and wiping out a number of settlements, including Telok Batong in Sumatra, and Sirik and Semarang in Java.

An additional 1,000 or so people died from superheated volcanic ash which literally rushed across the surface of the ocean. Ships as far away as South Africa rocked as tsunamis hit them, and the bodies of victims were found floating in the ocean for weeks after the event.There are even numerous documented reports of groups of human skeletons floating across the Indian Ocean on rafts of volcanic pumice and washing up on the east coast of Africa up to a year after the eruption.

The 1883 eruption was amongst the most severe volcanic explosions in modern times (VEI of 6, equivalent to 200 megatons of TNT - by way of comparison, the biggest bomb ever made by man, Tsar Bomba, is around 50 megatons).
Concussive air waves from the explosions travelled seven times around the world, and the sky was darkened for days afterwards.

Spectacular sunsets
The island of Rakata itself largely ceased to exist as over two thirds of its exposed land area was blown to dust, and its surrounding ocean floor was drastically altered. Two nearby islands, Verlaten and Lang, had their land masses increased. Volcanic ash continues to be a significant part of the geological composition of these islands.

The eruption produced spectacular sunsets throughout the world for many months afterwards, as a result of sunlight being reflected from suspended dust particles ejected by the volcano high into Earth's atmosphere. Interestingly, researchers in 2004 proposed the idea that the blood-red sky shown in Edvard Munch's famous 1893 painting The Scream is an accurate depiction of the sky over Norway after the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa. Since the 1883 eruption, a new island volcano, called Anak Krakatau ("Child of Krakatoa"), has formed in the caldera.

The volcano has inspired several books and films. Krakatoa is the name of a short 1933 movie about the volcano that won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject, Novelty for its producer Joe Rock. This movie was notable for overwhelming the sound systems of the cinemas of the time. In Australia, the distributors insisted on a power output of ten watts RMS as a minimum for cinemas wishing to show the movie. This was then considered a large system, and forced many cinemas to upgrade. The eruption is the subject of a 1969 Hollywood film entitled Krakatoa, East of Java starring Maximilian Schell. The title, however, was inaccurate; Krakatoa is actually located west of Java.

Fourteen waves
Author Simon Winchester explored the eruption of Krakatoa in his book Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded, August 27, 1883. The book examines the history of the region, the early spice trade, the growth of colonial governments, explains the geology of volcanos and describes in detail the series of eruptions and tsunamis and their effects around the globe.

In his book, Winchester details Krakatoa's effects on faraway Galle, now reeling from the December 26 tsunami. Writes Winchester, "The old Dutch port of Galle, close to the southern tip of Ceylon is where the arrival of these short waves_ or more precisely - a sequence of fourteen waves, each separated by just a few minutes - was first noticed. The Ceylon Observer correspondent filed on 27 August that...an extraordinary occurrence was witnessed at the wharf at about 1.30 p.m. today. The sea receded as far as the landing stage on the jetty. The boats and canoes moored along the shore were left high and dry for about three minutes. A great number of prawns and fishes were taken up by the coolies and stragglers about the place before the water returned.

“A woman was killed at the port of Panama- still in Ceylon, not on the isthmus- when she was swept away from the harbour bay by an immense influx of water. Both the Panama harbour master and the local ruler, the splendidly titled Ratamahatmaya, said later that ships had suddenly sunk downwards and were then drawn backwards to be left stuck in the drying mud, their anchors exposed- and just as suddenly were borne up by an inrushing surge of water.

“The local streams with hitherto sweet water, all promptly turned salty for at least a mile and a half upriver. The woman who died from the injuries she sustained in falling while she was carrying a sheaf of paddy from the fields is thought to have been the most distant casualty of the eruption that took place nearly 2,000 miles away.

“At Hambantota, further south still, Ceylon government officials estimated the height of the wave to be twelve feet and said that like at Panama, its currents were irresistible, taking small craft back out to sea, and then sweeping them back and dashing them to pieces on shore."

(Extracts courtesy Wikipedia)

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