Learn All About Krakatoa

The earliest mention of the island in the Western world was on a map by Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer, who labelled the island "Pulo Carcata." ("Pulo" is a form of pulau, the Indonesian word for "island".) There are two generally accepted spellings, Krakatoa and Krakatau. While Krakatoa is more common in the English-speaking world, Krakatau (or Krakatao in an older Portugese based spelling) tends to be favored by Indonesians. The origin of the spelling Krakatoa is unclear, but may have been the result of a typographical error made in a British source reporting on the massive eruption of 1883.

Theories as to the origin of the Indonesian name Krakatau include:

* Onomatopoeia, imitating the noise made by white parrots that used to inhabit the island.

* From Sanskrit karka or karkata or karkataka, meaning "lobster" or "crab".

* From Malayan kelakatu, meaning "white-winged ant".

There is a popular story that Krakatau was the result of a linguistic error. According to legend, "Krakatau" was adopted when a visiting ship's captain asked a local inhabitant the island's name, and the latter replied "Kaga tau" - a Jakartan/Betawinese slang phrase meaning "I don't know". This story is largely discounted; it closely resembles famous linguistic myths about the origin of the word kangaroo and the name of the Yucatán Peninsula.

The name is spelled Karata on a map drawn before 1708.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Before the 1883 eruption, Krakatoa consisted of three main islands: Lang ('Long', now called Rakata Kecil or Panjang) and Verlaten ('Forsaken' or 'Deserted', now Sertung), which were edge remnants of a previous very large caldera-forming eruption; and Krakatoa itself, an island 9 km long by 5 km wide. Also there was a tree-covered islet near Lang named Poolsche Hoed ('Polish Hat', apparently because it looked like one from the sea), and several small rocks or banks between Krakatoa and Verlaten. There were three volcanic cones on Krakatoa: running South to North they were: Rakata (823m), Danan (445m), and Perboewatan (also spelled Perbuatan) (122m). (Danan may have been a twin volcano). Krakatoa is directly above the subduction zone of the Eurasian Plate and Indo-Australian Plate, where the plate boundaries undertake a sharp change of direction, possibly resulting in an unusually weak crust in the region.

The Javanese Book of Kings (Pustaka Raja) records that in the year 338 Saka (416 CE) "A thundering sound was heard from the mountain Batuwara ... a similar noise from Kapi ... The whole world was greatly shaken and violent thundering, accompanied by heavy rain and storms took place, but not only did not this heavy rain extinguish the eruption of the fire of the mountain Kapi, but augmented the fire; the noise was fearful, at last the mountain Kapi with a tremendous roar burst into pieces and sank into the deepest of the earth. The water of the sea rose and inundated the land, the country to the east of the mountain Batuwara, to the mountain Raja Basa, was inundated by the sea; the inhabitants of the northern part of the Sunda country to the mountain Raja Basa were drowned and swept away with all property[2] ... The water subsided but the land on which Kapi stood became sea, and Java and Sumatra were divided into two parts." There is no geological evidence of a Krakatoa eruption of this size around that time; it may describe loss of land that previously joined Java to Sumatra across what is now the narrow east end of the Sunda Strait; or it may be a mistaken date, referring to an eruption in 535 AD, also referred to in the Javanese Book of Kings, and for which there is geological and some corroborating historical evidence.

David Keys and others have postulated that the violent eruption of Krakatoa in 535 may have been responsible for the global climate changes of 535-536. Keys explores what he believes to be the radical and far ranging global effects of just such a putative 6th century eruption in his book Catastrophe: An Investigation into the Origins of Modern Civilization. Additionally, in recent times, it has been argued that it was this eruption which created the islands of Verlaten and Lang (remnants of the original) and the beginnings of Rakata - all indicators of early Krakatoa's caldera's size. However, there seems to be little, if any, datable charcoal from that eruption, even if there is plenty of circumstantial evidence.

At least two Dutch travelers reported that Danan and Perboewatan were seen erupting in May 1680 and February 1681.

In February 1780, the crew of HMS Discovery on the way home after Captain James Cook's death in Hawaii, stopped for a few days on Krakatoa. They found two springs on the island, one fresh water and the other hot. They described the natives who then lived on the island as "friendly" and made several sketches.

In 1809, the Dutch established a penal colony on the islands. (No information on exactly where or how long it lasted.)

R. D. M. Verbeek made an official survey of the islands in 1880 and published a report. This was of great help constructing what happened in 1883.

The volcano has inspired several books.

* The novel Krakatit (1924, ISBN 0685513386) by Czech writer Karel %u010Capek, dealing with lethal menace of a fictional explosive, was inspired by the name of the volcano.

* In the novel Songs of Distant Earth, by science fiction giant Arthur C. Clarke, communications with a new human colony on far away planet Thalassa are interrupted when a giant Volcano named "Krakan" erupts. "Child of Krakan", a smaller volcano, also features in the novel. The two are obvious links to Krakatoa.

* Simon Winchester explores the eruption of Krakatoa in his book Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded, 27 August 1883. (2003, ISBN 0066212855). 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 Chapter 3 of Don Rosa's Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, Scrooge McDuck rides out the tsunami from the eruption of Krakatoa.

* Krakoa, the living island from Giant-Sized X-Men #1, was most likely named for Krakatoa. The issue is less famous for Krakoa than for its introduction of the "all-new, all-different X-Men" including Nightcrawler, Storm and the immensely popular Wolverine.

* Fantasy author Graham Edwards' Stone trilogy (made up of Stone and Sky [1999], Stone and Sea [2000] and Stone and Sun [2001]) begins with the eruption of Krakatoa, which becomes the catalyst for the events that befall the main character Jonah Lightfoot and his companion Annie West. The force of the eruption blasts the two into a mysterious world called Amara. Volcanic eruption in general becomes a device later used when the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980 sends another person from our world into Amara.

(Source: Wikipedia)

The volcano has inspired the following films and other media:

* Krakatoa, 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 10 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.

* In the TV series Time Tunnel, the episode "The
Crack of Doom" aired on 14 October 1966.

* The eruption is the subject of a 1969 Hollywood film starring Maximilian Schell, which was titled Krakatoa, East of Java - even though Krakatoa is in fact west of Java. This blatant error is perhaps the most remembered thing about the film. (Tambora, on Sumbawa, is the violent volcano east of Java).

* In the television series Doctor Who, the Third Doctor implied that he had heard the sound of the eruption - or possibly that of the creatures known as the Primords - sometime prior to the serial Inferno. In the episode Rose, a sketch dated 1883 was said to have washed ashore following the eruption; it showed the Ninth Doctor in front of the volcano.

* Ultimate Blast: Eruption at Krakatau [sic] has been aired on Discovery Channel, as part of the Moments in Time series.

* In the SpongeBob Squarepants episode "Mermaidman and Barnacleboy 5," Squidward is "Captain Magma". He says "Krakatoa" before lava spews out of the volcano shaped helmet.

* In the 1996 SNES game Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!, the lost world of that game is a volcanic island by the name of "Krematoa," an obvious nod to the real-life Krakatoa. In addition, the Brothers Bear that lives in Krematoa, Boomer, specializes in bombs, spoofing the original Krakatoa's explosive nature.

* The 1883 eruption is reconstructed in the BBC drama 'Krakatoa - The Last Days', first broadcast in May 2006

(Source: Wikipedia)

n the years before the 1883 eruption, seismic activity around the volcano was intense, with some earthquakes felt as far distant as Australia. Beginning 20 May 1883, three months before the final explosion, steam venting began to occur regularly from Perboewatan, the northern of the island's three cones. Eruptions of ash reached an altitude of 6 km and explosions could be heard in Batavia (Jakarta) 160 km away. Activity died down by the end of May.

The volcano began erupting again around 19 June. The seat of the eruption is believed to have been a new vent or vents which formed between Perboewatan and Danan, more or less where the current volcanic cone of Anak Krakatau is. The violence of the eruption caused tides in the vicinity to be unusually high, and ships at anchor had to be moored with chains as a result. On 11 August larger eruptions began, with ashy plumes being emitted from at least eleven vents. On 24 August, eruptions further intensified. At about 1pm (local time) on 26 August, the volcano went into its paroxysmal phase, and by 2pm observers could see a black cloud of ash 27 km (17 miles) high. At this point, the eruption was virtually continuous and explosions could be heard every ten minutes or so. Ships within 20 km (14 miles) of the volcano reported heavy ash fall, with pieces of hot pumice up to 10cm in diameter landing on their decks. A small tsunami hit the shores of Java and Sumatra some 40 km (28 miles) away between 6pm and 7pm.

(Source: Wikipedia)

On 27 August, the volcano entered the final cataclysmic stage of its eruption. Four enormous explosions took place at 5:30 a.m., 6:42 a.m., 8:20 a.m., and 10:02 a.m. Each was accompanied by very large tsunamis believed to have been over 100ft high in places. A large area of the Sunda Strait and a number of places on the Sumatran coast were affected by pyroclastic flows from the volcano. The explosions were so violent that they were heard 2,200 miles (3,500 km) away in Australia and the island of Rodrigues near Mauritius, 4,800 km away; the sound of Krakatoa's destruction is believed to be the loudest sound in recorded history, reaching levels of 180 dBSPL 100 miles (160 km) away. Ash was propelled to a height of 50 miles (80 km). The eruptions diminished rapidly after that point, and by the morning of August 28 Krakatoa was quiet. Small eruptions continued through October, and continued to be reported through February 1884 (although any after mid-October were discounted by Verbeek). In the aftermath of the eruption, it was found that the island of Krakatoa had almost entirely disappeared, except for the southern half of Rakata cone cut off along a vertical cliff, leaving behind a 250m-deep caldera.

The combined effects of pyroclastic flows, volcanic ashes and tsunamis had disastrous results in the region. There were no survivors from 3,000 people located at the island of Sebesi, about 13 km from Krakatoa. Pyroclastic flows killed around 1,000 people at Ketimbang on the coast of Sumatra some 40 km north from Krakatoa. The official death toll recorded by the Dutch authorities was 36,417 and many settlements were destroyed, including Teluk Betung and Ketimbang in Sumatra, and Sirik and Semarang in Java. The areas of Banten on Java and the Lampongs on Sumatra were devastated. 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 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. Some land on Java was never repopulated; it reverted to jungle and is now the Ujung Kulon National Park.

(Source: Wikipedia)

The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa is among the most violent volcanic events in modern times (a VEI of 6, equivalent to 200 megatons of TNT - about 13000 times the yield of the Little Boy bomb which devastated Hiroshima, Japan). Concussive air waves from the explosions travelled seven times around the world, and the sky was darkened for days afterwards. Waves from the tsunamis were recorded as far away as the English Channel.

The tsunamis that accompanied the eruption are believed to have been caused by gigantic pyroclastic flows entering the sea; each of the five great explosions was accompanied by a massive pyroclastic flow resulting from the gravitational collapse of the eruption column. This caused several km³ of material to enter the sea, displacing an equally huge volume of seawater. Some of the pyroclastic flows reached the Sumatran coast as much as 25 miles (40 km) away, having apparently moved across the water on a "cushion" of superheated steam. There are also indications of submarine pyroclastic flows reaching 10 miles (15km) from the volcano.

As a result of the huge amount of material deposited by the volcano, the surrounding ocean floor was drastically altered. It is estimated that as much as 18-21 cubic km of ignimbrite was deposited over an area of 1.1 million square km, largely filling the 30-40m deep basin around Krakatoa. The land masses of Verlaten and Lang were increased, and volcanic ash continues to be a significant part of the geological composition of these islands. Polish Hat disappeared. A new rock islet called Bootsmansrots ('Bosun's Rock', a fragment of Danan) was left.

Two nearby sandbanks (called Steers and Calmeyer) were built up into islands by ashfall, but the sea later washed them away. Seawater on hot volcanic deposits on Steers and Calmeyer caused steam which some people mistook for continued eruption.

The fate of Krakatoa itself has been the subject of some dispute among geologists. It was originally proposed that the island had been blown apart by the force of the eruption. However, most of the material deposited by the volcano is clearly magmatic in origin and the caldera formed by the eruption is not extensively filled with deposits from the 1883 eruption. This indicates that the island subsided into an empty magma chamber at the end of the eruption sequence, rather than having been destroyed during the eruptions.

(Source: Wikipedia)

The violence of the final explosions has also attracted debate. Theories are:-

* Contemporary investigators believed that the volcano's vents had sunk below sea level on the morning of 27 August, letting seawater flood into it and causing a massive series of phreatic (interaction of ground water and magma) explosions.
* The seawater could have chilled the magma, causing it to crust over and producing a "pressure cooker" effect relieved only when explosive pressures were reached.
o Both these ideas assumed that the island subsided before the explosions; however, the evidence does not support that conclusion and the pumice and ignimbrite deposits are not of a kind consistent with a magma-seawater interaction.
* A massive underwater land slump or partial subsidence suddenly left the highly pressurized magma chamber wide open.
* The final explosions may have been caused by magma mixing caused by a sudden infusion of hot basaltic magma into the cooler and lighter magma in the chamber below the volcano. This would have resulted in a rapid and unsustainable increase in pressure, leading to a cataclysmic explosion. Evidence for this theory is the existence of pumice consisting of light and dark material, the dark material being of much hotter origin. However, such material reportedly is less than 5% of the content of the Krakatoa ignimbrite and some investigators have rejected this as a prime cause of the 27 August explosions.

(Source: Wikipedia)