Where is Krakatoa located
Krakatoa is an island and an active volcano of the same name (height 813 m, island area 10.5 km²) located in the Malay archipelago in the Sunda Strait, between the islands of Java and Sumatra. Region - South Lampung District. Geographic coordinates of Krakatoa: 6 ° 06 '07 ″ south latitude; 105 ° 25 '23 ″ east longitude.
What is known
When studying the volcano and the surrounding areas, traces of powerful prehistoric eruptions were found. According to the assumption of volcanologists, one of the most powerful eruptions occurred in 535. This catastrophe led to global climatic consequences on Earth. The most famous volcanic eruptions took place in 1680 and 1883.
After the monstrous eruption of 1883 (before that, the volcano was considered extinct for 200 years, and then 3 adjacent volcano craters exploded at once), only small islands remained from Krakatoa. The volcanic eruptions after 1927 formed a new volcanic island called Anak Krakatoa ("Child of Krakatoa"). After repeated eruptions, the island rose 188 meters above sea level by the mid-1980s.
The eruption in 1883 caused the loudest murmur known to science. The sound was heard at a distance of over 4,800 km from the explosion. The atmospheric shock wave circled the Earth 7 times. The power of the eruption was more than 10 thousand times greater than the force of the explosion of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. More than 36 thousand people died (according to other estimates, this number reaches 80 thousand), about 300 cities and villages were demolished from the face of the Earth, mainly by the tsunami that followed the eruption. Ash clouds covered the sun, and almost complete darkness fell within a radius of more than 100 km.
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History
The part of Mount Krakatoa, towering above the water, was the largest of the islands in the archipelago, the size of this land area was 9 by 5 km. It had three craters, which were connected to each other: the southern one - Rakata, about 800 m, the northern one - Perbuatan, about 120 m, and the central one - Danan, about 450 m. There were several other small islands nearby, among them Lang and Ferleiten. All these islands were parts of a two-thousand-meter volcano, the destruction of which took place in those ancient times when people could not yet record the events that were taking place, that is, in prehistoric times. These islands were not inhabited. However, although not so often, merchant and naval ships passed nearby, from time to time fishermen from Sumatra came to these places. Due to the uninhabitedness of these places, the exact time of the activation of the Krakatau volcano is unknown.
Volcano activity
But the testimonies of the sailors of the German ship “Elizabeth” have survived. On May 20, 1883, sailing along the Sunda Strait, they saw a huge mushroom-shaped cloud rising above the crater of Krakatoa, almost 11 km high. In addition, the ship fell into a strip of ashfall, although it was quite far from the volcano. The same was observed by members of the crews of other ships sailing past Krakatoa over the next few days. From time to time, the volcano exploded, and the vibrations of the soil were felt in Batavia, now renamed Jakarta.
On May 27, residents of Jakarta noted that the volcano was especially bueny - every 5-10 minutes. from the central crater, a menacing rumble was heard, smoke poured in a column, ash and pieces of pumice fell.
The first half of June was relatively calm. However, then the activity of the volcano sharply increased again, and on June 24, the ancient rocks bordering the central crater disappeared, while the crater pit increased significantly. The process was growing. On August 11, all three main craters and a large number of small ones came into action, they all emitted volcanic gases and ash.
1) View of the volcano from the plane; 2) Volcano Krakatoa after the eruption.
August 26 - The morning was lovely, but by lunchtime there was a strange annoying noise. This monotonous, uninterrupted hum did not let the inhabitants of Batavia fall asleep. At 2 o'clock in the afternoon the ship “Medea” was sailing along the Sunda Strait, from which it was seen how ash streams soared into the sky, their height, presumably, reached 33 km. At 5 pm, the first tsunami wave was recorded - as a result of the collapse of the crater wall. That evening, the villages that were located on the island of Sumatra were slightly powdered with ash. And the inhabitants of Angers and other coastal villages of Java found themselves in pitch darkness, it was almost impossible to see something, but an unusually strong sound of waves was heard from the sea - these huge seething water waves crashed onto the shore, erasing villages from the face of the Earth, throwing them onto the devastated coastal strip small ships.
The volcano entered into force: from its vents, along with gas jets and ash, massive boulders flew out rapidly, like small stones. The ashfall was so abundant that by two o'clock in the morning the deck of the ship “Berbis” was covered with a meter layer of volcanic ash. Flashes of lightning, deafening peals of thunder accompanied this grandiose volcanic eruption. According to eyewitness accounts, the air was so highly electrified that touching metal objects could cause a severe electric shock.
In the morning the sky cleared, but not for long. Soon, darkness again engulfed the area, a timeless impenetrable night lasted for 18 hours. A complete set of products of the volcano's activity: pumice, slag, ash, as well as thick mud, began to attack the islands of Java and Sumatra. And at 6 o'clock in the morning the low-lying coastal zones were again attacked by powerful waves.
The most powerful eruption of the Krakatoa volcano - 1883
In the morning at 10 o'clock on August 27, the strongest explosion of Krakatoa took place, it had (without exaggeration) colossal force. Huge masses of debris, ash, as well as powerful jets of gas and steam were thrown out to a height of 70-80 kilometers. All this spread over an area of one million square kilometers. Some of the scientists believe that the smallest ash particles could be scattered around the globe. The consequences of this monstrous explosion were giant waves, these destructive, deadly water walls reached a height of 30 meters in height.
Falling down with all their incredible power on the inhabited islands, they swept away everything that came in their way: roads, forests, villages and cities. Because of the water element, the cities of Angers, Bentham, Merak turned into ruins. The islands of Sebesi and Serami suffered the most from the natural disaster; almost all local residents were washed away by the rushing water. Only a few were returned alive by the sea. However, this was not the end of their misadventures, they had to fight for a long time and stubbornly with the rampant of natural elements for their lives. Again the ground was covered with haze.
10 hours 45 minutes - a new monstrous explosion was heard, fortunately, now the sea did not support it with its terrible excitement. At 4:35 pm, people heard a new rumbling roll, the volcano reminded people that its violent activity was not over yet. Until the morning the ash fell, more and more explosions were heard, a stormy wind howled, agitating the sea surface. As the sun rose, the sky cleared, and the volcanic activity subsided.
But the volcano did not cease to operate until February 20, 1884, when the last explosion occurred, which ended this monstrous catastrophe, which claimed about 36 thousand human lives. Most of the people died in the waves of the giant tsunami. The largest wave, born of this eruption, bypassed almost the entire World Ocean, it was recorded in the Indian Ocean, Pacific and Atlantic. The shock wave that formed during the most powerful explosion, even at a distance of 150 km from the epicenter, had such a force that windows on the island of Java were knocked out, doors were ripped off their hinges, and pieces of plaster even fell off. The roar of the explosion was heard even in Madagascar, that is, at a distance of almost 4800 km from the volcano itself. No other eruption was accompanied by such a powerful sound effect.
Puffs of smoke from the mouth of the volcano.
After the eruption
After this eruption, the shores of the islands of Sumatra and Java were completely transformed: once the most picturesque areas, favorite vacation spots of tourists from all over the world, now presented a deplorable picture - bare ground, covered with gray mud, ash, pieces of pumice, fragments of buildings, trunks of uprooted trees, bodies of drowned animals and people.
The island of Krakatoa itself, with an area of 45 square kilometers, disappeared, now only half of the ancient volcanic cone rose above the sea surface. The eruption of Krakatoa provoked the occurrence of atmospheric cataclysms - terrible hurricanes raged in the vicinity of the volcano. Also, barometric instruments recorded that the air wave generated by the explosion circled the globe three times.
View of the Anak-Krakatau volcano.
Another amazing phenomenon was a consequence of this incredible eruption, it could be observed in Ceylon, Mauritius, the west coast of Africa, Brazil, Central America and some other places. The sun took on a strange greenish tint. This amazing color was given to the Sun by the presence of very small particles of volcanic ash in the upper atmosphere. Other rather curious phenomena were noted: the dust deposits that covered the earth in Europe were of volcanic origin and, in chemical composition, coincided with the dust emissions from Krakatau.
The eruption dramatically changed the topography of the seabed. The products of volcanic activity formed an island with an area of 5 square kilometers on the site of Krakatoa, the island of Ferleiten became larger due to all the same volcanic eruptions by 8 square kilometers. One of the islands simply disappeared, instead of it 2 new ones appeared, which later also disappeared under the water. The surface of the sea was cluttered with floating pumice islands; only very large ships managed to break through the congestions they formed.
Volcano Krakatoa though calmed down, but did not fall asleep. A column of smoke is still rising from its crater. Its new volcanic cone, Anak-Krakatau, which is now weakly erupting, began to grow in late 1927.