9/27/28
TrI-O's:Oddities, observations & opinions
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Another major series of disasters occurred 125 ago. In the 2003 book "KRAKATOA The Day the World Exploded: Aug. 23.1883" By Simon Winchester the author goes into a minute by minute account of the events. Winchester is a geologist and he goes deeply into the cause and consequences of the event. Many of the following facts and quotes are from his account.
When Mount St. Helens in Washington state blew its top in 1980 it was left intact. Even in 79 A.D. After Mt. Vesuvius buried the city of Pompeii, it too remained and people still live there. But when Krakatoa erupted it destroyed the entire mountain and two thirds of the island on which it sat.
Krakatoa was a volcanic island between Java and Sumatra in Indonesia. In May of 1883 a number of small eruptions sent high clouds of ash and dust. In August the "big bang" happened, that according to Wikipedia, "was the equivalent to 200 megatons of TNT about 13,000 times the size of the [atom] bomb that devastated Hiroshima, Japan". It is also said to have generated the loudest sound ever reported — heard distinctly and described in Perth, Australia (1930 miles away) and Mauritius (2968 miles). Picture, or rather imagine hearing, a sound made in New York and it being heard in Los Angeles without any electronic or other aid!
When the earth split and the cold seawater collided with the glowing molten rock, the resulting steam exploded. Then " six cubic miles of rock and ash were hurled more than 20 miles into the stratosphere". Shortly after, a thick muddy rain (water combined with the ash) together with broiling-hot fragments, some 3 feet in diameter, plummeted over hundreds of square miles.
Nobody on the island was killed because it was uninhabited. However a gigantic tsunami was birthed and spread its tentacles to Java and Sumatra. It submerged almost 300 towns and killed more than 36,000 people. Waves as high as 72 feet spared no tree, house, animal or person. When the water receded people returned to the shore villages. Hours later they were to experience an even greater inundation. A massive fast-traveling wave had been building. The ebbing tide was fueling it. Millions of gallons began piling up behind it raising it to 135 feet. The 10-story mountainous wave smashed down and whatever the first wave had missed was obliterated by this second. In a small village of 2,700 only two survived.
Nearly 100 miles away from the epicenter thousands of ships were destroyed and beached. Nine hours after the eruption and 2,000 miles away in Calcutta, riverboats were swamped. In South Africa, 5,000 miles away, mighty water swells threatened to dislodge steamship anchors.
Where Krakatoa "once stood, 2,600 feet tall, was now a hole in the ocean floor that was 1,000 feet deep. Krakatoa's explosion ³generated a climate-altering ash cloud that produced lurid red, blue, green and copper-colored sunsets, and lowered temperatures around the world."
Winchester also suggests a surprising influence that the volcano's eruption had: The Javanese were willing to believe that the gods were responsible for all the destruction of their islands and the death of innocents, which opened the door to Islamic militants and made modern Indonesia the largest Muslim country in the world.
Eruptions at the volcano since 1927 have built a new island in the same location, called Anak Krakatau (child of Krakatoa). This island has a radius of roughly 1 and 1/2 miles and a high point nearly 650 feet above sea level.
Though not yet there, we await to tear the October page from the calendar as we wish our neighbors to the west a quick recovery and return to normalcy. Then we can all let go that held-in sigh of relief in a simultaneous "whoosh" so forceful as to shake a cumulus cloud in the sky.
When Mount St. Helens in Washington state blew its top in 1980 it was left intact. Even in 79 A.D. After Mt. Vesuvius buried the city of Pompeii, it too remained and people still live there. But when Krakatoa erupted it destroyed the entire mountain and two thirds of the island on which it sat.
Krakatoa was a volcanic island between Java and Sumatra in Indonesia. In May of 1883 a number of small eruptions sent high clouds of ash and dust. In August the "big bang" happened, that according to Wikipedia, "was the equivalent to 200 megatons of TNT about 13,000 times the size of the [atom] bomb that devastated Hiroshima, Japan". It is also said to have generated the loudest sound ever reported — heard distinctly and described in Perth, Australia (1930 miles away) and Mauritius (2968 miles). Picture, or rather imagine hearing, a sound made in New York and it being heard in Los Angeles without any electronic or other aid!
When the earth split and the cold seawater collided with the glowing molten rock, the resulting steam exploded. Then " six cubic miles of rock and ash were hurled more than 20 miles into the stratosphere". Shortly after, a thick muddy rain (water combined with the ash) together with broiling-hot fragments, some 3 feet in diameter, plummeted over hundreds of square miles.
Nobody on the island was killed because it was uninhabited. However a gigantic tsunami was birthed and spread its tentacles to Java and Sumatra. It submerged almost 300 towns and killed more than 36,000 people. Waves as high as 72 feet spared no tree, house, animal or person. When the water receded people returned to the shore villages. Hours later they were to experience an even greater inundation. A massive fast-traveling wave had been building. The ebbing tide was fueling it. Millions of gallons began piling up behind it raising it to 135 feet. The 10-story mountainous wave smashed down and whatever the first wave had missed was obliterated by this second. In a small village of 2,700 only two survived.
Nearly 100 miles away from the epicenter thousands of ships were destroyed and beached. Nine hours after the eruption and 2,000 miles away in Calcutta, riverboats were swamped. In South Africa, 5,000 miles away, mighty water swells threatened to dislodge steamship anchors.
Where Krakatoa "once stood, 2,600 feet tall, was now a hole in the ocean floor that was 1,000 feet deep. Krakatoa's explosion ³generated a climate-altering ash cloud that produced lurid red, blue, green and copper-colored sunsets, and lowered temperatures around the world."
Winchester also suggests a surprising influence that the volcano's eruption had: The Javanese were willing to believe that the gods were responsible for all the destruction of their islands and the death of innocents, which opened the door to Islamic militants and made modern Indonesia the largest Muslim country in the world.
Eruptions at the volcano since 1927 have built a new island in the same location, called Anak Krakatau (child of Krakatoa). This island has a radius of roughly 1 and 1/2 miles and a high point nearly 650 feet above sea level.
Though not yet there, we await to tear the October page from the calendar as we wish our neighbors to the west a quick recovery and return to normalcy. Then we can all let go that held-in sigh of relief in a simultaneous "whoosh" so forceful as to shake a cumulus cloud in the sky.
END
Personal Note: This column marks the start of the fourth year of Tri-O¹s. Many thanks to those who have contacted me with kind words of comment, encouragement, and suggestions, you know who you are.
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