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Krakatoa

 

            
             On August 28, 1883, the volcano by the name of Krakatua ("Krakatoa") erupted furiously, literally affecting the whole world. One of the four explosions started at 17"07 Greenwich Time. The Krakatoa volcano, located in the Sunda Strait (40km off the west coast of Indonesia), was formed by the subduction of the Indian-Australian plate under the Eurasian Plate. .
             A black cloud of ash rose 12 miles above Krakatoa. This was the beginning of the first of the four of Krakatoa's eruption. The fourth raging eruption was the worst of them all. The violent explosion released gases that blasted ash, cinders, pumice, and larger objects upward. The total energy released by the four explosions was equal to 200 megatons of TNT. To help understand the intensity of the explosions, it is best to know that the Hiroshima atomic bomb was only twenty kilotons. About 11 cubic miles of ejected material from the eruption was forced into the atmosphere. Walls were cracked and windows broke up to 160 km away. Pumice three meters thick formed a layer over the sea. 160 miles away, decks were covered with volcanic ash and dust for as long as three days after the eruption. A dark dust cloud covered the area as far as 257 miles away from the volcano for as long as 3 days. Volcanic ash and pumice rained while burying everything under a thick layer. Plants and animal life didn't reestablish itself for nearly five years. The explosion was heard more than 2000 miles away. Over one third of the earth surface heard the explosion. The eruption reached a height of 50 miles in the upper atmosphere and blocked the sun for two and a half days. This was a dark time and there was more after math to come. .
             Ashes from the explosion were carried as far as New York City. The incoming solar radiation and earth's weather were affected for several years. A series of large tsunami waves as high as 120 feet, were generated by the main explosion, thus causing more than 36000 deaths.


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