Krakatau spews ashes

by Giedre Sarkunaite | July 30, 2009 at 06:00 am

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Krakatau (or Krakatoa), located in Sunda Strait between Sumatra and Java, comes to life.

Volcano is active again spewing ashes in the sky. Lava can also bee seen trickling down the side of the new slopes that have quickly grown to a massive 360 meters.

If volcano will reach the size of 1883 it will become really dangerous for the locals. More than 100 years ago volcano was twice the current size. Eruption caused 36.000 deaths – the highest number of human deaths ever. Now volcano is gaining it’s previous size after it blew itself apart during eruption. Explosion was so devastating and 13.000 times the power of Little Boy – the American A-bomb dropped on Hiroshima (Japan) during World War II. Eruption also sparked a tsunami.

Some are sceptical about another massive eruption happening soon. 'There is just not enough magma,' Professor Jon Davidson says. 'Rather than make predictions like this, it is the responsibility of scientists to do what they can to minimise risk for those living nearby. That is something we are getting better at.'

The noise of the explosion was said to be heard in London UK

Your right but I read a story in a UK newspaper (40+ years ago) that showed some old newspaper reports from that time that said people had heard it in London. There where also reports of people lying that they heard it else where I believe in New york and Russia etc. But of course they did not. But the shockwave from the explosion went round the earth many times.its thought that dogs may of heard the sound.

But of course London is 6000 + miles away I however found this interesting article

At the time of Krakatoa, however, although the cable-connected world was fairly well informed about the event, it was also lacking any explanation and was terribly bewildered by what had taken place. For most people, something inexplicably strange had occurred on the other side of the world - something that caused the tides to rise as far away as Biarritz and Devonport, something that made the evening skies all over the world burn with a lurid fire (Edvard Munch's vividly coloured painting, The Scream, recently stolen, was painted at the time of those Krakatoa-affected skies), something that caused an explosion so loud it could be heard 3,000 miles away. But as to why it had happened, no one - no scientist at least - could be found to offer any comforting nostrums. For all the world knew, the end of life itself could be at hand.

There was evidently loads of people scared by the event, i did realize the scream was painted so long ago.

I can't confirm the article I had read sorry to say, but there was much more interest reports within the article about claims made at that time by clairvoyants and furniture moving etc, ect.

I don't think the volcano will give us a repeat, but their are some that could not so far from where I live. Plus a few very near big cities such as Seattle and Rome that may shock the world in the near future.

This subject reminds me I live in the same Volcano hot bed not too far away from Krakatoa. As a citizen journalist I really do not want to write about a volcano erupting to near my door step as I have seen the large rocks and really not too excited, that a few or more large rocks thrown from miles away land on my house. yep there's a damn vocano on this Island I live on within rock spewing distance from where I live. What 15 or 20 miles mean to these earth boils. I certainly do not wish the chance to paint a sky such seen within the scream or have my garden full of vocanic ash. lol

I am not sure about the Photos Copy right here.?

Photos by Marco Fulle

This volcano is quite powerful. I saw a documentary once, which said that a huge explosion of this volcano sent so many particles into the air that it cooled down the earth's temperature for a few years.

Krakatau is an impressive volcano. In 1995, I had the opportunity to walk down right into the monster's crater with my friend Guy de Saint Cyr. I must admit it was a bit crazy. Indeed, the volcano erupted an hour or so after we got back to our tents!

I heard somewhere (totally unverified) that the explosion of Krakatoa was so large it threw some rocks into space (breaching escape velocity- 40200 km/h barring air resistance). But an actual article I read said that people in London at the time could read their newspapers outside up to 9pm at night such was the scattering of light from the explosion's dust.