![]() ![]() "The volcano of Krakatoa vomited forth an ink-black cloud which spread over the clear tropical sky with inconceivable blackness, involving the land in complete darkness," according to a breathless account in the Los Angeles Herald two weeks afterward. Royal Society Report/Krakatoa Eruption/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Krakatoa, which scored a 6 on the Volcano Explosivity Index, was one of the biggest documented volcanic eruptions in the last 760,000 years of natural history. The explosion also triggered immense tsunamis that inundated hundreds of coastal towns and villages, causing the deaths of an estimated 36,000 people, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 27, 1883, all hell broke loose, as a colossal volcanic eruption demolished Krakatoa, causing two-thirds of it to collapse and fall into the sea, and generated massive lava, pumice and ash flows. Over the next few months, according to the report, other ships noticed ominous rumblings from the island, whose Indonesian name was Krakatau, though it would later become famous - possibly due to a typographical error by someone transmitting a news dispatch - as Krakatoa.įinally, on Aug. "Ash fell so thickly as to obscure the sun," according to a report later compiled by Great Britain's Royal Society. In May 1883, the captain of the German warship Elisabeth observed a column of smoke and ash that he estimated be 6.8 miles (1.97 kilometers) tall, rising into the sky over an uninhabited mountainous island in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra in Indonesia. ![]() Universal History Archive/UIG/Getty images ![]() A still from the film "Krakatoa, East of Java," (1969) a disaster epic depicting the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa in Indonesia.
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