Today in History: Krakatoa volcano erupts, killing 40,000

It wouldn't be fair for me to do a writeup about Vesuvius and ignore this rather morbid day in history when it resulted in a far greater loss of life. I don't think this eruption is talked about very much and to be honest, until last year I didn't know about it either.

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The year was 1883 and the day was today, the 27th of August. For those of you that don't know, Krakatoa is an island in West Java in Indonesia near Sumatra. Although the terrain of the island resulted in it being largely unpopulated throughout history, the immense nature of this eruption resulted in the loss of life far from the source.

According to historians, increased seismic activity had been recorded for years preceding this actual eruption but the eventual explosion is one of the largest in recorded history. The force of the eruption on the 27th is estimated at 1,300 Megatons. To put that into perspective, the Hiroshima detonation of the nuclear bomb "Little Boy" was a mere 15 megatons.

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Here is some interesting statistics about the eruption (well, i found it interesting in a morbid sense.)

• The initial explosion was so loud that people as far away as 40 miles had their eardrums ruptured. This sound was so loud it was still frighteningly loud (like a crack of thunder striking near your house) as far away as Perth, Australia - which is over 3000 miles away. I don't know how they determine this but apparently the sound wave managed to go all the way around the world 3.5 times. Anyone who was within 10 miles or so of the center would have been rendered deaf immediately.

• Pyroclastic flows (a cloud of hot ash and volcanic matter) traveled away from the source at over 100km / hour and as high as 80 km above sea level. This resulted in not just an immediate loss of life as temperatures inside this cloud can reach temperatures of 1000 degrees C, but it was so devastating to the atmosphere that the temperature of THE ENTIRE WORLD changed by more than a degree (more than 2 degrees F). It would be over a year before nature ran its course and returned to normal.

• While the official death count by the Dutch authorities at the time put the death toll at just under 40,000; there are other estimates that have that number as high as 120,000 due to tsunamis and other related disasters that occurred all over that portion of the world.

• This is the 2nd most devastating volcanic eruption the world has ever experienced according to certain lists (and I didn't read into how they determine this.) It moves up to number 1 if the adjusted death toll of 120k is taken into consideration.

• bodies from the disaster were washing up on the shores of Africa more than a year later.

• The eruption was so powerful that by the time it was all over, most of the island was gone.

• A new island began forming (well, it was noticed by humans) in 1927 and is an active volcanic site today. Called Anak Krakatau (Child of Krakatau) this location is considered by many to be a "ticking time bomb."