Krakatoa (), also transcribed (), is a
caldera
A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is ...
in the
Sunda Strait
The Sunda Strait ( id, Selat Sunda) is the strait between the Indonesian islands of Java island, Java and Sumatra. It connects the Java Sea with the Indian Ocean.
Etymology
The strait takes its name from the Sunda Kingdom, which ruled the weste ...
between the islands of
Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...
and
Sumatra
Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...
in the
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
n province of
Lampung
Lampung (Lampung: ), officially the Province of Lampung ( id, Provinsi Lampung) is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the southern tip of the island of Sumatra. It has a short border with the province of Bengkulu to the northwest, and a ...
. The caldera is part of a
volcanic island
Geologically, a high island or volcanic island is an island of volcanic origin. The term can be used to distinguish such islands from low islands, which are formed from sedimentation or the uplifting of coral reefs (which have often formed ...
group (
Krakatoa archipelago
The Krakatoa Archipelago is a small uninhabited archipelago of volcanic islands formed by the Krakatoa stratovolcano located in the Sunda Strait, nestled between the much larger islands of Java and Sumatra. As of 2018, the archipelago consists ...
) comprising four islands. Two,
Lang
Lang may refer to:
*Lang (surname), a surname of independent Germanic or Chinese origin
Places
* Lang Island (Antarctica), East Antarctica
* Lang Nunatak, Antarctica
* Lang Sound, Antarctica
* Lang Park, a stadium in Brisbane, Australia
* Lang, ...
and
Verlaten
Verlaten Island (Dutch: "Abandoned", "Deserted" or "Forsaken"; modern Indonesian: Sertung) is an island that was likely created in the 535 Eruption of Krakatoa. It is located in the Sunda Strait in Indonesia, between Java and Sumatra. It is part ...
, are remnants of a previous volcanic edifice destroyed in eruptions long before the famous
1883 eruption; another,
Rakata
Rakata ( ), also called Greater Krakatau, is a partially collapsed stratovolcano on the Indonesian island of Krakatoa ( id, Krakatau) in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Sumatra and Java. Standing tall, it was the largest and southernmo ...
, is the remnant of a much larger island destroyed in the 1883 eruption.
In 1927, a fourth island,
Anak Krakatoa
Anak Krakatoa ( id, Anak Krakatau)English translation and common name: ''Child of Krakatoa'' is a volcanic island in Indonesia. On 29 December 1927, Anak Krakatoa first emerged from the caldera formed in 1883 by the explosive volcanic eruptio ...
, or "Child of Krakatoa", emerged from the caldera formed in 1883. There has been new eruptive activity since the late 20th century, with a large collapse causing
a deadly tsunami in December 2018.
Historical significance
The most notable eruptions of Krakatoa culminated in a series of massive explosions over 26–27 August 1883, which were among the most violent volcanic events in recorded history.
With an estimated
Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) of 6, the eruption was equivalent to —about 13,000 times the
nuclear yield
The explosive yield of a nuclear weapon is the amount of energy released when that particular nuclear weapon is detonated, usually expressed as a TNT equivalent (the standardized equivalent mass of trinitrotoluene which, if detonated, would produ ...
of the
Little Boy
"Little Boy" was the type of atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 during World War II, making it the first nuclear weapon used in warfare. The bomb was dropped by the Boeing B-29 Superfortress ''Enola Gay'' p ...
bomb (13 to 16 kt) that
devastated Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II, and four times the yield of
Tsar Bomba
The Tsar Bomba () ( code name: ''Ivan'' or ''Vanya''), also known by the alphanumerical designation "AN602", was a thermonuclear aerial bomb, and the most powerful nuclear weapon ever created and tested. Overall, the Soviet physicist Andrei Sa ...
, the most powerful
nuclear device
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...
ever detonated at 50 Mt.
The 1883 eruption ejected approximately of rock.
The cataclysmic explosion was heard away in
Alice Springs
Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' Al ...
, Australia, and on the island of
Rodrigues near
Mauritius
Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...
, to the west.
According to the official records of the
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...
colony, 165 villages and towns were destroyed near Krakatoa, and 132 were seriously damaged. At least 36,417 people died, and many more thousands were injured, mostly from the
tsunami
A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explo ...
s that followed the explosion. The eruption destroyed two-thirds of the island of Krakatoa.
Eruptions in the area since 1927 have built a new island at the same location, named ''
Anak Krakatau
Anak Krakatoa ( id, Anak Krakatau)English translation and common name: ''Child of Krakatoa'' is a volcanic island in Indonesia. On 29 December 1927, Anak Krakatoa first emerged from the caldera formed in 1883 by the explosive volcanic eruption ...
'' (which is Indonesian for "Child of Krakatoa"). Periodic eruptions have continued since, with recent eruptions in 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012, and a major collapse in 2018. In late 2011, this island had a radius of roughly , and a highest point of about above sea level,
growing each year.
In 2017, the height of Anak Krakatau was reported as over above sea level; following a collapse in December 2018, the height was reduced to 110 meters (361 ft).
Etymology
One of the earliest mentions of the name Krakatoa is in the Old Sundanese text
Bujangga Manik
Bujangga Manik is one of the precious remnants of Old Sundanese literature. It is told in octosyllabic lines — the metrical form of Old Sundanese narrative poetry — in palm-leaf manuscript kept in the Bodleian Library of Oxford University in ...
, which was probably written in western Java in the late 15th century. Here Krakatoa is referred to as "the island of Rakata, a mountain in the middle of the sea" (''pulo Rakata gunung ti tengah sagara'', f. 27v). Although there are earlier descriptions in European sources of an island in the Sunda Strait with a "pointed mountain," the earliest mention of Krakatoa by name in the
western world
The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and state (polity), states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania. was on a 1611 map by
Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer
Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer (–) was a Dutch cartographer and a notable figure of the Golden Age of Netherlandish cartography, known for his pioneering contributions on the subject of nautical cartography.
Career
Seafaring
Waghenaer is one ...
, who labelled the island "Pulo Carcata" (''pulo'' is the
Sundanese
Sundanese may refer to:
* Sundanese people
* Sundanese language
* Sundanese script
Standard Sundanese script (''Aksara Sunda Baku'', ) is a writing system which is used by the Sundanese people. It is built based on Old Sundanese script (' ...
word for "island"). About two dozen variants have been found, including ''Crackatouw,'' ''Cracatoa,'' and ''Krakatao'' (in an older Portuguese-based spelling). The first known appearance of the spelling ''Krakatau'' was by Wouter Schouten, who passed by "the high tree-covered island of Krakatau" in October 1658.
The origin of the Indonesian name ''Krakatau'' is uncertain. The main theories are:
* From
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
''karka'' or ''karkaṭa'' or ''karkaṭaka,'' meaning "lobster" or "crab". The abbreviated form ''rakaṭa'' also means "crab" in the
Old Javanese
Old Javanese or Kawi is the oldest attested phase of the Javanese language. It was spoken in the eastern part of what is now Central Java and the whole of East Java, Indonesia. As a literary language, Kawi was used across Java and on the island ...
language. The fact that the earliest recorded mentions of the word closely resemble the pronunciation of these words for crab (''rakata'' in ''Bujangga Manik'' and ''carcata'' in Waghenaer's map) makes this Sanskrit etymology the most likely origin of the word.
*
Onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Such a word itself is also called an onomatopoeia. Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as ''oink'', ''m ...
, imitating the noise made by
cockatoo
A cockatoo is any of the 21 parrot species belonging to the family Cacatuidae, the only family in the superfamily Cacatuoidea. Along with the Psittacoidea (true parrots) and the Strigopoidea (large New Zealand parrots), they make up the orde ...
s (''Kakatoes'') which used to inhabit the island. However, Van den Berg points out that these birds are found only in the "eastern part of the archipelago" (meaning the
Lesser Sundas
The Lesser Sunda Islands or nowadays known as Nusa Tenggara Islands ( id, Kepulauan Nusa Tenggara, formerly ) are an archipelago in Maritime Southeast Asia, north of Australia. Together with the Greater Sunda Islands to the west they make up ...
, east of Java, on the other side of the
Wallace Line
The Wallace Line or Wallace's Line is a faunal boundary line drawn in 1859 by the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace and named by English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley that separates the biogeographical realms of Asia and Wallacea, a tran ...
).
* The closest
Malay
Malay may refer to:
Languages
* Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore
** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century
** Indonesi ...
word is ''kelakatu,'' meaning "white-winged ant". Furneaux points out that in pre-1883 maps, Krakatoa does somewhat resemble an ant seen from above, with Lang and Verlaten lying to the sides like wings.
* Van den Berg (1884) recites a story that ''Krakatau'' was the result of a linguistic error. According to the legend, a visiting ship's captain asked a local inhabitant the island's name, and the latter replied, "''Kaga tau''" (''Aku enggak tahu'')—a
Jakarta
Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...
n/Betawinese slang phrase meaning "I don't know". This story is largely discounted; it closely resembles other linguistic myths about the origin of the word
kangaroo
Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...
and the name of the
Yucatán Peninsula
The Yucatán Peninsula (, also , ; es, Península de Yucatán ) is a large peninsula in southeastern Mexico and adjacent portions of Belize and Guatemala. The peninsula extends towards the northeast, separating the Gulf of Mexico to the north ...
.
The
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
's
Global Volcanism Program
The Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program (GVP) documents Earth's volcanoes and their eruptive history over the past 10,000 years. The mission of the GVP is to document, understand, and disseminate information about global volcanic a ...
cites the Indonesian name, ''Krakatau,'' as the correct name, but says that ''Krakatoa'' is often employed.
Geographical setting
![Sunda strait map v3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Sunda_strait_map_v3.png)
Indonesia has over 130 active volcanoes, the most of any nation. They make up the axis of the Indonesian
island arc
Island arcs are long chains of active volcanoes with intense seismic activity found along convergent tectonic plate boundaries. Most island arcs originate on oceanic crust and have resulted from the descent of the lithosphere into the mantle alon ...
system produced by northeastward subduction of the
Indo-Australian Plate
The Indo-Australian Plate is a major tectonic plate that includes the continent of Australia and the surrounding ocean and extends northwest to include the Indian subcontinent and the adjacent waters. It was formed by the fusion of the Indian an ...
. A majority of these volcanoes lie along Indonesia's two largest islands, Java and Sumatra. These two islands are separated by the Sunda Strait located at a bend in the axis of the island arc. Krakatau is directly above the
subduction zone of the
Eurasian Plate
The Eurasian Plate is a tectonic plate that includes most of the continent of Eurasia (a landmass consisting of the traditional continents of Europe and Asia), with the notable exceptions of the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian subcontinent and ...
and the Indo-Australian Plate where the plate boundaries make a sharp change of direction, possibly resulting in an unusually weak crust in the region.
Pre-1883 history
At some point in
prehistory
Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of ...
, an earlier caldera-forming eruption had occurred, leaving as remnants
Verlaten
Verlaten Island (Dutch: "Abandoned", "Deserted" or "Forsaken"; modern Indonesian: Sertung) is an island that was likely created in the 535 Eruption of Krakatoa. It is located in the Sunda Strait in Indonesia, between Java and Sumatra. It is part ...
(or ''Sertung'');
Lang
Lang may refer to:
*Lang (surname), a surname of independent Germanic or Chinese origin
Places
* Lang Island (Antarctica), East Antarctica
* Lang Nunatak, Antarctica
* Lang Sound, Antarctica
* Lang Park, a stadium in Brisbane, Australia
* Lang, ...
(also known as Rakata Kecil, or Panjang);
Poolsche Hoed
The Krakatoa Archipelago is a small uninhabited archipelago of volcanic islands formed by the Krakatoa stratovolcano located in the Sunda Strait, nestled between the much larger islands of Java and Sumatra. As of 2018, the archipelago consists ...
("Polish Hat"); and the base of
Rakata
Rakata ( ), also called Greater Krakatau, is a partially collapsed stratovolcano on the Indonesian island of Krakatoa ( id, Krakatau) in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Sumatra and Java. Standing tall, it was the largest and southernmo ...
. Later, at least two more cones (
Perboewatan Perboewatan (also spelled Perbuatan; apparently a Malay word of uncertain derivation) was one of the three main volcanic cones (the others being Danan and Rakata) on the island of Krakatoa (or Krakatau), in the Sunda Strait, in Indonesia. It was ...
and
Danan) formed and eventually joined with Rakata, forming the main island of Krakatoa. At the time of the 1883 eruption, the Krakatoa group comprised Lang, Verlaten, and Krakatoa itself, an island long by wide. There were also the tree-covered islet near Lang (Poolsche Hoed) and several small rocky islets or banks between Krakatoa and Verlaten.
There were three volcanic cones on Krakatoa island:
Rakata
Rakata ( ), also called Greater Krakatau, is a partially collapsed stratovolcano on the Indonesian island of Krakatoa ( id, Krakatau) in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Sumatra and Java. Standing tall, it was the largest and southernmo ...
, () to the south;
Danan, () near the center; and
Perboewatan Perboewatan (also spelled Perbuatan; apparently a Malay word of uncertain derivation) was one of the three main volcanic cones (the others being Danan and Rakata) on the island of Krakatoa (or Krakatau), in the Sunda Strait, in Indonesia. It was ...
, () to the north.
AD 416 event
The
Javanese ''
Book of Kings'' (''Pustaka Raja''), a 19th-century compilation of historical traditions from Central Java, records that in the year 338
Śaka
The Saka ( Old Persian: ; Kharoṣṭhī: ; Ancient Egyptian: , ; , old , mod. , ), Shaka (Sanskrit ( Brāhmī): , , ; Sanskrit (Devanāgarī): , ), or Sacae (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples who histo ...
(416 AD):
The ''Pustaka Raja'' does not draw on primary sources for its description of this event, and its historical reliability is highly dubious.
It is therefore impossible to verify its description of this eruption. There is no geological evidence of a Krakatoa eruption of this size around that time; it may describe the loss of land which 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 a later eruption in 535 AD, for which there is some corroborating historical evidence.
AD 535 event
David Keys, Ken Wohletz, and others have postulated that a violent volcanic eruption, possibly of Krakatoa, in 535 was responsible for the
global climate changes of 535–536.
Keys explores what he believes to be the radical and far-ranging global effects of such a putative 6th-century eruption in his book ''Catastrophe: An Investigation into the Origins of the Modern World''. This eruption was believed to have been even more violent than Krakatoa's 1883 eruption, and also the one that created Krakatoa's original caldera, which resulted in the creation of
Verlaten Island
Verlaten Island (Dutch: "Abandoned", "Deserted" or "Forsaken"; modern Indonesian: Sertung) is an island that was likely created in the 535 Eruption of Krakatoa. It is located in the Sunda Strait in Indonesia, between Java and Sumatra. It is part o ...
and
Lang Island
Lang Island (Dutch: "Long"; modern Indonesian: Krakatau Kecil or Panjang) lies in the Sunda Strait, between Java and Sumatra, in Indonesia. It is one of the Krakatoa Archipelago, above the famous Krakatoa volcano. Lang suffered only slightly in t ...
. However, there are
other explanations for the climate change, including an eruption of
Ilopango
Ilopango is a town in the San Salvador department of El Salvador. It is a few miles east of the nation's capital, San Salvador. It is located near Lake Ilopango, the country's largest lake at 72 square kilometers.
Overview
El Salvador's se ...
in El Salvador, in Central America.
Middle Ages
Thornton mentions that Krakatoa was known as "The Fire Mountain" during Java's
Sailendra
The Shailendra dynasty (, derived from Sanskrit combined words ''Śaila'' and ''Indra'', meaning "King of the Mountain", also spelled Sailendra, Syailendra or Selendra) was the name of a notable Indianised dynasty that emerged in 8th-century ...
dynasty, with records of seven eruptive events between the 9th and 16th centuries.
These have been tentatively dated as having occurred in 850, 950, 1050, 1150, 1320, and 1530.
1680
![AMH-8034-KB View of Gunung Api](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/AMH-8034-KB_View_of_Gunung_Api.jpg)
In February 1681,
Johann Wilhelm Vogel
Johann, typically a male given name, is the German form of ''Iohannes'', which is the Latin form of the Greek name ''Iōánnēs'' (), itself derived from Hebrew name ''Yochanan'' () in turn from its extended form (), meaning "Yahweh is Gracious" ...
, a Dutch mining engineer at Salida, Sumatra (near
Padang
Padang () is the capital and largest city of the Indonesian province of West Sumatra. With a Census population of 1,015,000 as of 2022, it is the 16th most populous city in Indonesia and the most populous city on the west coast of Sumatra. Th ...
), on his way to Batavia (now
Jakarta
Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...
) passed through the Sunda Strait. In his diary he wrote:
Vogel spent several months in Batavia, returning to Sumatra in November 1681. On the same ship were several other Dutch travellers, including
Elias Hesse, a writer. Hesse's journal reports:
The eruption was also reported by a Bengali sea captain, who wrote of the event later, but had not recorded it at the time in the ship's log. Neither Vogel nor Hesse mention Krakatoa in any real detail in their other passages, and no other travellers at the time mention an eruption or evidence of one. (In November 1681, a pepper crop was being offered for sale by inhabitants.)
Simon Winchester
Simon Winchester (born 28 September 1944) is a British-American author and journalist. In his career at ''The Guardian'' newspaper, Winchester covered numerous significant events, including Bloody Sunday and the Watergate Scandal. Winchester has ...
maintains, in his 2003 book ''
Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883'', that the 1680 eruption was depicted in an eighteenth-century etching by Dutch cartographer
Jan van Schley called ''Het Brandende Eiland'', "The Burning Island," writing that "it was a depiction, without a doubt, of the otherwise little-chronicled eruption that supposedly took place in 1680."
In 1880, Verbeek investigated a fresh unweathered lava flow at the northern coast of Perboewatan, which could not have been more than two centuries old.
Visit by HMS ''Discovery''
In February 1780, the crews of and , on the way home after Captain
James Cook
James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean an ...
's death in
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
, stopped for a few days on Krakatoa. They found a freshwater and a hot spring on the island. They described the natives who then lived on the island as "friendly" and made several sketches (In his journal,
John Ledyard
John Ledyard (November 1751 – 10 January 1789) was an American explorer and adventurer.
Early life
Ledyard was born in Groton, Connecticut, in November 1751. He was the first child of Abigail Youngs Ledyard and Capt. John Ledyard Jr, son o ...
calls the island "Cocoterra").
File:John Webber Plate XV View in the Island of Cracatoa.jpg, In 1780, crew members of HMS ''Discovery'' found the island as a friendly place whose vegetation was dense and lush; illustration by John Webber (1751–1793)
File:John Webber Plate XVI The Fan Palm in the Island of Cracatoa.jpg, Large fan palm in the island; illustration by John Webber (1751–1793)
Visit by USS ''Peacock''
Edmund Roberts calls the island ''Crokatoa'' in his journal. A paraphrased account follows: On 8 September 1832,
US sloop-of-war ''Peacock'' anchored off the north end, also visiting
Lang Island
Lang Island (Dutch: "Long"; modern Indonesian: Krakatau Kecil or Panjang) lies in the Sunda Strait, between Java and Sumatra, in Indonesia. It is one of the Krakatoa Archipelago, above the famous Krakatoa volcano. Lang suffered only slightly in t ...
, in search of inhabitants, fresh water, and yams. It was found difficult to land anywhere, due to a heavy surf and to the coral having extended itself to a considerable distance from the shore. Hot springs boiling furiously up, through many fathoms of water, were found on the eastern side of Krakatoa, from the shore. Roberts, Captain
Geisinger, and marine lieutenant Fowler visited Forsaken island, having mistaken the singing of locusts for the sound of running water. The boat glided over crystal clear water, over an extensive and highly beautiful submarine garden. Corals of every shape and hue were there, some resembling sunflowers and mushrooms, others cabbages from in diameter, while a third type bore a striking likeness to the rose. The hillsides were typical of tropical climate; large flocks of parrots, monkeys in great variety, wild-mango and orange groves—a superb scene of plants and flowers of every description, glowing in vivid tints of purple, red, blue, brown, and green—but not water or provisions.
Dutch activity
In 1620, the Dutch set up a naval station on the islands and somewhat later a shipyard was built. Sometime in the late 17th century, an attempt was made to establish a
pepper
Pepper or peppers may refer to:
Food and spice
* Piperaceae or the pepper family, a large family of flowering plant
** Black pepper
* ''Capsicum'' or pepper, a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae
** Bell pepper
** Chili ...
plantation
A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...
on Krakatoa, but the islands were generally ignored by the
Dutch East India Company
The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...
. In 1809, a
penal colony
A penal colony or exile colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general population by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory. Although the term can be used to refer to ...
was established at an unspecified location, which was in operation for about a decade. By the 1880s, the islands were without permanent inhabitants; the nearest settlement was the nearby island of
Sebesi
Sebesi (also Sebeezee, or 'Bleezie') is an Indonesian island in the Sunda Strait, between Java and Sumatra, and part of the province of Lampung. It rises to a height of and lies about north of the Krakatoa Archipelago; it is the closest large ...
(about away) with a population of 3,000.
Several
surveys and
mariners' charts were made, and the islands were little explored or studied. An 1854 map of the islands was used in an English chart, which shows some difference from a Dutch chart made in 1874. In July 1880,
Rogier Verbeek
Rogier Diederik Marius Verbeek (7 April 1845, Doorn – 9 April 1926, The Hague) was a Dutch geologist and natural scientist.
His journal ''Krakatau'', which was edited in 1884 and 1885 by order of the Governor-General of the Dutch East Ind ...
made an official survey of the islands, but was allowed to spend only a few hours there. He was able to collect samples from several places, and his investigation later proved important in judging the geological impact of the 1883 eruption.
1883 eruption
![Krakatoa map](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Krakatoa_map.svg)
While seismic activity around the volcano was intense in the years preceding the cataclysmic 1883 eruption, a series of lesser eruptions began on 20 May 1883. The volcano released huge plumes of steam and ash lasting until late August.
On 27 August, a series of four huge explosions almost destroyed the island. The explosions were so violent that they were heard away in
Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
, Western Australia, and the island of
Rodrigues near
Mauritius
Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...
, away.
The pressure wave from the third and most violent explosion was recorded on
barograph
A barograph is a barometer that records the barometric pressure over time in graphical form. This instrument is also used to make a continuous recording of atmospheric pressure. The pressure-sensitive element, a partially evacuated metal cylinde ...
s around the world. Several barographs recorded the wave seven times over the course of five days: four times with the wave travelling away from the volcano to its
antipodal point
In mathematics, antipodal points of a sphere are those diametrically opposite to each other (the specific qualities of such a definition are that a line drawn from the one to the other passes through the center of the sphere so forms a true d ...
, and three times travelling back to the volcano;
the wave rounded the globe three and a half times. Ash was propelled to a height of . The sound of the eruption was so loud it was reported that if anyone was within , they would have gone deaf.
The combined effects of
pyroclastic flow
A pyroclastic flow (also known as a pyroclastic density current or a pyroclastic cloud) is a fast-moving current of hot gas and volcanic matter (collectively known as tephra) that flows along the ground away from a volcano at average speeds of bu ...
s, volcanic ashes, and tsunamis had disastrous results in the region and worldwide. The death toll recorded by the Dutch authorities was 36,417, although some sources put the estimate at more than 120,000. 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. Summer temperatures in the northern hemisphere fell by an average of in the year following the eruption.
Aftermath
Anak Krakatau
![Krakatoa evolution map-en](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Krakatoa_evolution_map-en.gif)
Verbeek, in his report on the eruption, predicted that any new activity would manifest itself in the region which had been between Perboewatan and Danan. This prediction came true on 29 December 1927, when a submarine
lava dome
In volcanology, a lava dome is a circular mound-shaped protrusion resulting from the slow extrusion of viscous lava from a volcano. Dome-building eruptions are common, particularly in convergent plate boundary settings. Around 6% of eruptions on ...
in the area of Perboewatan showed evidence of eruptions (an earlier event in the same area had been reported in June 1927). A new island volcano rose above the waterline a few days later. The eruptions were initially of pumice and ash, and that island and the two islands that followed were quickly eroded away by the sea. Eventually, a fourth island, named Anak Krakatau (meaning "child of Krakatoa" in Indonesian), broke water in August 1930 and produced lava flows more quickly than the waves could erode them.
Political
On October 2, 1883, five weeks after the eruption, a Dutch soldier was repeatedly stabbed by a bearded, white-robed man while paying for tobacco in the small town of
Serang
Serang ( id, Kota Serang, , Sundanese: ) is a city and the capital of Banten province and was formerly also the administrative center of Serang Regency in Indonesia (the Regency's capital is now at Baros). The city is located towards the north ...
. The would-be assassin was never captured, but a similarly-dressed man attacked a sentry at the garrison six weeks later, blaming the Dutch for bringing divine vengeance upon the area. The "extreme religious zeal" noted by the man's interrogators seen as widespread, and historians suggest it was exploited by rising Muslim conservatives and
anticolonial
Decolonization or decolonisation is the undoing of colonialism, the latter being the process whereby imperial nations establish and dominate foreign territories, often overseas. Some scholars of decolonization focus especially on separatism, in ...
leaders (such as
Abdul Karim Amrullah
Abdul Karim Amrullah (born as Muhammad Rasul; 10 February 1879 – 2 June 1945), known as Haji Rasul, was a Muslim reformer who led reformation of Islam in Sumatra, Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia).
Personal life
Haji Rasul was born in Sungai ...
) to foment the
Banten Peasant's Revolt
Banten ( id, Banten; Sundanese: , romanized ''Banten'') is the westernmost province on the island of Java, Indonesia. Its capital city is Serang. The province borders West Java and the Special Capital Region of Jakarta on the east, the Java S ...
in 1888, and to prey upon the Dutch conscience made uneasy by ''
Max Havelaar
''Max Havelaar; or, The Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company'' ( nl, Max Havelaar; of, De koffi-veilingen der Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappy) is an 1860 novel by Multatuli (the pen name of Eduard Douwes Dekker), which played a key rol ...
'' and subsequent revelations of abuses.
The explosion was the first natural disaster whose effects were felt worldwide and whose cause was also known, following the development of
transoceanic communication cables. Winchester suggests the disaster marks the birth of an era of global awareness.
Biological research
The islands have become a major case study of
island biogeography Insular biogeography or island biogeography is a field within biogeography that examines the factors that affect the species richness and diversification of isolated natural communities. The theory was originally developed to explain the pattern of ...
and
founder populations in an ecosystem being built from the ground up in an environment virtually cleaned.
The islands had been little studied or biologically surveyed before the 1883 catastrophe—only two pre-1883 biological collections are known: one of plant specimens and the other part of a shell collection. From descriptions and drawings made by , the
flora
Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''.
E ...
appears to have been representative of a typical Javan tropical
climax forest
In scientific ecology, climax community or climatic climax community is a historic term for a community of plants, animals, and fungi which, through the process of ecological succession in the development of vegetation in an area over time, hav ...
. The pre-1883
fauna
Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. Zoo ...
is virtually unknown but was probably typical of the smaller islands in the area.
Botanical studies
From a biological perspective, the ''Krakatau problem''
refers to the question of whether the islands were completely sterilized by the 1883 eruption or whether some indigenous life survived. When the first researchers reached the islands in May 1884, the only living thing they found was a spider in a crevice on the south side of Rakata. Life quickly recolonized the islands, however; Verbeek's visit in October 1884 found grass shoots already growing. The eastern side of the island has been extensively vegetated by trees and shrubs, presumably brought there as seeds washed up by ocean currents or carried in birds' droppings (or brought by natives and scientific investigators). However, the floral ecosystem on Rakata is considerably vulnerable to environmental factors, and has been damaged by recent eruptions at Anak Krakatau.
Handl's occupancy
In 1914, plans were to set aside Rakata as a nature preserve. In 1916, Johann Handl, a German "
pumice
Pumice (), called pumicite in its powdered or dust form, is a volcanic rock that consists of highly vesicular rough-textured volcanic glass, which may or may not contain crystals. It is typically light-colored. Scoria is another vesicular vol ...
collector", obtained a permit to mine pumice, against "strong community objections",
apparently to get away from World War I. His lease of (basically the eastern half of the island) was to be for 30 years. Handl took up residence on the south coast of Rakata, where he built a house and planted a garden along with "four European families and about 30
coolies
A coolie (also spelled koelie, kuli, khuli, khulie, cooli, cooly, or quli) is a term for a low-wage labourer, typically of South Asian or East Asian descent.
The word ''coolie'' was first popularized in the 16th century by European traders acros ...
". Handl found un-burned wood below the 1883 ash deposits while digging, and fresh water was found below . He and his entourage stayed there for four years, but left due to "violation of the terms of the lease."
It is his party that is believed to have inadvertently introduced the
black rat
The black rat (''Rattus rattus''), also known as the roof rat, ship rat, or house rat, is a common long-tailed rodent of the stereotypical rat genus ''Rattus'', in the subfamily Murinae. It likely originated in the Indian subcontinent, but is n ...
to the island, which quickly proliferated.
Conservation
Krakatoa was declared as a
nature reserve
A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...
in 1921, corresponding to
IUCN management category
IUCN protected area categories, or IUCN protected area management categories, are categories used to classify protected areas in a system developed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The enlisting of such areas is par ...
Ia (
strict nature reserve). Along with several other nature reserves, it was proposed as a
national park
A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...
in 1980. In 1991, "Ujung Kulon National Park and Krakatau Nature Reserve" was inscribed as an
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
, matching Natural criteria (vii) and (x).
Ujung Kulon National Park
Ujung Kulon National Park is at the westernmost tip of Java, in Banten province of Indonesia. It includes the volcanic island group of Krakatoa in Lampung province, and other islands including Panaitan, as well as smaller offshore islets such as ...
was officially established in 1992, including Krakatoa.
In popular culture
![The Scream](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/The_Scream.jpg)
A large part of the 1947 children's novel ''
The Twenty-One Balloons
''The Twenty-One Balloons'' is a novel by William Pène du Bois, published in 1947 by the Viking Press and awarded the Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature in 1948. The story is about a retired schoolteacher whose ill-fa ...
'' by
William Pene du Bois
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...
takes place on Krakatoa, just before and then during the 1883 eruption. In Pene du Bois's tale, 25 families have established a fanciful colony drawing vast wealth from fictional diamond mines on the island until the eruption scatters the inhabitants and destroys the mines.
Krakatoa has been featured as a subject and a part of the story in various television and film dramas. In the 1953 film ''
Fair Wind to Java
''Fair Wind to Java'' is a 1953 American adventure film in Trucolor from Republic Pictures, produced and directed by Joseph Kane, that stars Fred MacMurray and Vera Ralston. With special effects by the Lydecker brothers, the film was based on the ...
'', an American sea captain and a pirate leader race one another to recover a fortune in
diamond
Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...
s hidden on Krakatoa, which begins its final eruption as they search the island for the treasure. The island was a prominent part of the plot of '"Crack of Doom," episode six of the
Irwin Allen
Irwin Allen (born Irwin O. Cohen, June 12, 1916 – November 2, 1991) was an American film and television producer and director, known for his work in science fiction, then later as the "Master of Disaster" for his work in the disaster film gen ...
television series ''
The Time Tunnel
''The Time Tunnel'' is an American color science fiction TV series written around a theme of time travel adventure starring James Darren and Robert Colbert. The show was creator-producer Irwin Allen's third science-fiction television series and ...
'' in 1966. It was also featured as the main part of the story line in the 1969 film, ''
Krakatoa, East of Java
''Krakatoa, East of Java'' is a 1968 American disaster film starring Maximilian Schell and Brian Keith. During the 1970s, the film was re-released under the title ''Volcano''. The story is loosely based on events surrounding the 1883 eruption ...
'' (retitled ''Volcano'' in a re-release in the 1970s; the title contains a rather large geographical error, as Krakatoa is ''west'' of Java), which depicts an effort to salvage a priceless cargo of
pearl
A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carb ...
s located perilously close to the erupting volcano.
Krakatoa is referenced in
SpongeBob SquarePants
''SpongeBob SquarePants'' (or simply ''SpongeBob'') is an American animated comedy television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It chronicles the adventures of the title character a ...
by the character
Squidward Tentacles
Squidward Q. Tentacles is a fictional character voiced by actor Rodger Bumpass in the Nickelodeon animated television series ''SpongeBob SquarePants''. Squidward was created and designed by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg. He f ...
. In the episode
Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy V, Squidward adopts the persona of a superhero named Captain Magma whose catchphrase is "Krakatoa".
An Indonesian martial arts action film, ''Krakatau'' (1977), starring
Dicky Zulkarnaen and
Advent Bangun
Advent Bangun (born Advani Rangua; October 12, 1952 – February 10, 2018) was a 12-time Indonesian karateka champion. He gave up his career in karate pursue a career in cinema. He died on February 10, 2018, due to diabetes.Seafarers of Catan
''Catan: Seafarers'', or ''Seafarers of Catan'' in older editions, (german: Die Seefahrer von Catan) is an expansion of the board game ''Catan'' for three to four players (five-to-six-player play is also possible with both of the respective five-t ...
'', the "Krakatoa Variant" is a scenario involving an island composed of three volcano tiles.
In 1973, the American progressive rock band
Styx released a spoken-word track called "Krakatoa" on its album ''
The Serpent Is Rising
''The Serpent Is Rising'' is the third album by American band Styx, released in October 1973, a mere three months after their previous album '' Styx II'' in July 1973.
The album was reissued in 1980 with new artwork and a new title, ''Serpent'' ...
.'' Written by then-guitarist
John Curulewski
John Curulewski (October 3, 1950 – February 13, 1988) was an American musician who was one of the original members of Styx.
Career
In 1969 Curulewski joined the Chicago-based band TW4, featuring college friends Dennis DeYoung, Chuck Panozz ...
along with
Paul Beaver
Paul may refer to:
*Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name)
* Paul (surname), a list of people
People
Christianity
*Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...
and
Bernie Krause
Bernard L. Krause (born December 8, 1938) is an American musician and soundscape ecologist. In 1968, he founded Wild Sanctuary, an organization dedicated to the recording and archiving of natural soundscapes. Krause is an author, a bio-acoustici ...
, the song tells the story of Krakatoa's eruption and the subsequent return of life to the island.
The British heavy metal band
Saxon
The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic
*
*
*
*
peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
also released a song about the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, called "Krakatoa", on the 2010 re-release of its 1985 album ''
Innocence Is No Excuse''.
See also
*
Krakatoa documentary and historical materials Krakatoa, in the Sunda Strait in Indonesia, has attracted a significant literature and media response to the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, 1883 eruption and subsequent events in the vicinity.
Nonfiction
Books
* Alfred, E. & Seward, A.C., ''The New Fl ...
*
List of volcanic eruptions by death toll
Volcanic eruptions can be highly explosive. Some volcanoes have undergone catastrophic eruptions, killing large numbers of humans or other life forms. This list documents volcanic eruptions by human death toll.
Volcanic eruptions
See also
* ...
*
List of volcanoes in Indonesia
The geography of Indonesia is dominated by volcanoes that are formed due to subduction zones between the Eurasian plate and the Indo-Australian plate. Some of the volcanoes are notable for their eruptions, for instance, Krakatoa for its globa ...
References
Citations
Bibliography
''See
Krakatoa documentary and historical materials Krakatoa, in the Sunda Strait in Indonesia, has attracted a significant literature and media response to the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, 1883 eruption and subsequent events in the vicinity.
Nonfiction
Books
* Alfred, E. & Seward, A.C., ''The New Fl ...
''
*
External links
1883 ''Eruption of Krakatau''from the
United States Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...
's Cascades Volcano Observatory
''Krakatau, Indonesia (1883)'' – information from
San Diego State University
San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...
about the 1883 eruption
* – "
Naked Science
''Naked Science'' is an American documentary television series that premiered in 2004 on the National Geographic Channel and ran through November 2011. The program featured various subjects related to science and technology. Some of the views e ...
"
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Krakatoa
Active volcanoes of Indonesia
Mountains of Indonesia
Subduction volcanoes
Submarine calderas
Islands of the Sunda Strait
Uninhabited islands of Indonesia
VEI-6 volcanoes
Calderas of Indonesia
1883 natural disasters
19th-century volcanic events
Holocene calderas