Krakatoa
Krakatoa | |
---|---|
Highest point | |
Elevation | 813 m (2,667 ft) |
Prominence | 813 m (2,667 ft) |
Isolation | 21.71 km (13.49 mi) |
Listing | Spesial Ribu |
Coordinates | 6°06′07″S 105°25′23″E / 6.102°S 105.423°E |
Naming | |
Native name | Krakatau (Indonesian) |
Geography | |
Location | Indonesia |
Geology | |
Mountain type | Caldera |
Last eruption | 1883[1] |
Krakatoa (
In 1927, a fourth island, Anak Krakatoa, 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
The 1883 eruption ejected approximately 25 km3 (6 cubic miles) of rock.[3] The cataclysmic explosion was heard 3,600 km (2,200 mi) away in Alice Springs, Australia, and on the island of Rodrigues near Mauritius, 4,780 km (2,970 mi) to the west.[4]
According to the official records of the Dutch East Indies 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 tsunamis 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
Etymology
One of the earliest mentions of the name Krakatoa is in the Old Sundanese text Bujangga Manik, 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).[8] 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 was on a 1611 map by Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer, who labelled the island "Pulo Carcata" (pulo is the Sundanese 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.[9]
The origin of the Indonesian name Krakatau is uncertain. The main theories are:
- From Old Javanese 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.[9]
- Lesser Sundas, east of Java, on the other side of the Wallace Line).[citation needed]
- The closest Malay 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.[citation needed]
- 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 Jakartan/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 and the name of the Yucatán Peninsula.
The Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program cites the Indonesian name, Krakatau, as the correct name, but says that Krakatoa is often employed.[1][10][11]
Geographical setting
Indonesia has over 130 active volcanoes,
Pre-1883 history
At some point in
There were three volcanic cones on Krakatoa island: Rakata, (820 m or 2,690 ft) to the south; Danan, (450 m or 1,480 ft) near the center; and Perboewatan, (120 m or 390 ft) 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 (416 AD):
A thundering sound was heard from the mountain Batuwara [now called
Bantam, the nearest to the Sunda Strait] which was answered by a similar noise from Kapi, lying westward of the modern Bantam [(Banten) is the westernmost province in Java, so this seems to indicate that Krakatoa is meant]. A great glowing fire, which reached the sky, came out of the last-named mountain; the whole world was greatly shaken and violent thundering, accompanied by heavy rain and storms took place, but not only did not this heavy rain extinguish the eruption of the fire of the mountain Kapi, but augmented the fire; the noise was fearful, at last the mountain Kapi with a tremendous roar burst into pieces and sank into the deepest of the earth. The water of the sea rose and inundated the land, the country to the east of the mountain Batuwara, to the mountain Rajabasa [the most southerly volcano in Sumatra], was inundated by the sea; the inhabitants of the northern part of the Sunda country to the mountain Rajabasa were drowned and swept away with all property[16]... The water subsided but the land on which Kapi stood became sea, and Java and Sumatra were divided into two parts.
The Pustaka Raja does not draw on primary sources for its description of this event, and its historical reliability is highly dubious.
Middle Ages
Thornton mentions that Krakatoa was known as "The Fire Mountain" during Java's
1680
In February 1681, Johann Wilhelm Vogel, a Dutch mining engineer at Salida, Sumatra (near Padang), on his way to Batavia (now Jakarta) passed through the Sunda Strait. In his diary he wrote:
...I saw with amazement that the island of Krakatoa, on my first trip to Sumatra [June 1679] completely green and healthy with trees, lay completely burnt and barren in front of our eyes and that at four locations was throwing up large chunks of fire. And when I asked the ship's Captain when the aforementioned island had erupted, he told me that this had happened in May 1680 ... He showed me a piece of pumice as big as his fist.
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:
...on the 19th [of November 1681] we again lifted anchor and proceeded first to the north of us to the island of Sleepzie (Sebesi), uninhabited, ... and then still north of the island of Krakatou, which erupted about a year ago and also is uninhabited. The rising smoke column of this island can be seen from miles away; we were with our ship very close to shore and we could see the trees sticking out high on the mountain, and which looked completely burned, but we could not see the fire itself.[24]
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.[25] 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.)[26]
Simon Winchester 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."[23]
In 1880, Verbeek investigated a fresh unweathered lava flow at the northern coast of Perboewatan, which he claimed could not have been more than two centuries old.[27]
Visit by HMS Discovery
In February 1780, the crews of HMS Resolution (1771) and HMS Discovery (1774), on the way home after Captain James Cook's death in Hawaiʻi, 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 calls the island "Cocoterra").
-
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)
-
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, 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, 150 feet (46 m) 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 1 to 36 inches (3 to 91 cm) 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.[28]
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 plantation on Krakatoa, but the islands were generally ignored by the Dutch East India Company. In 1809, a penal colony 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 (about 12 km or 7.5 mi 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 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.[29]: 9
1883 eruption
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.[30]
On 27 August, a series of four huge explosions almost destroyed the island. The explosions were so violent that they were heard 3,110 km (1,930 mi) away in Perth, Western Australia, and the island of Rodrigues near Mauritius, 4,800 km (3,000 mi) away.[4] The pressure wave from the third and most violent explosion was recorded on barographs around the world.[31] 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, and three times travelling back to the volcano;[29]: 63 the wave rounded the globe three and a half times. Ash was propelled to a height of 80 km (260,000 ft). It was reported that the sound of the eruption was so loud that anyone within 16 kilometres (10 mi) would have gone deaf.[citation needed]
The combined effects of pyroclastic flows, 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 0.4 °C (0.72 °F) in the year following the eruption.[32]
Aftermath
Anak Krakatau
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 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. 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 leaders (such as Abdul Karim Amrullah) to foment the Banten Peasant's Revolt in 1888, and to prey upon the Dutch conscience made uneasy by Max Havelaar and subsequent revelations of abuses.[33][23][34]
The explosion was the first natural disaster in history whose effects were definitively felt worldwide and whose cause was known, following the development of transoceanic communication cables. Winchester suggests the disaster marks the birth of an era of global awareness.[35]
Biological research
The islands have become a major case study of
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
Botanical studies
From a biological perspective, the Krakatau problem[37] 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 "
Conservation
Krakatoa was declared as a nature reserve in 1921, corresponding to IUCN management category Ia (strict nature reserve). Along with several other nature reserves, it was proposed as a national park in 1980. In 1991, "Ujung Kulon National Park and Krakatau Nature Reserve" was inscribed as an UNESCO World Heritage Site, matching Natural criteria (vii) and (x). Ujung Kulon National Park was officially established in 1992, including Krakatoa.[39][40][41]
In popular culture
This section needs additional citations for verification. (January 2023) |
A large part of the 1947 children's novel
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, an American sea captain and a pirate leader race one another to recover a fortune in diamonds hidden on Krakatoa, which begins its final eruption as they search the island for the treasure.[43]
In 1961, the anthology series
The island was a prominent part of the plot of '"Crack of Doom," episode six of the Irwin Allen television series The Time Tunnel in 1966.[44]
It was also featured as the main part of the story line in the 1969 film, Krakatoa, East of Java (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 pearls located perilously close to the erupting volcano.[citation needed]
Krakatoa is referenced in
An Indonesian martial arts action film, Krakatau (1977), starring Dicky Zulkarnaen and Advent Bangun, set the story on the mountain.[citation needed]
It has been the subject of a 2006 television drama, Krakatoa: Volcano of Destruction and again in 2008 as Krakatoa.[citation needed]
In Klaus Teuber's board game
In 1973, the American progressive rock band Styx released a spoken-word track called "Krakatoa" on its album The Serpent Is Rising. Written by then-guitarist John Curulewski along with Paul Beaver and Bernie Krause, the song tells the story of Krakatoa's eruption and the subsequent return of life to the island.[citation needed]
The British heavy metal band Saxon 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.[citation needed]
See also
- Krakatoa documentary and historical materials
- List of volcanic eruptions by death toll
- List of volcanoes in Indonesia
References
Citations
- ^ a b c d "Krakatau". Global Volcanism Program. Smithsonian Institution.
- ISBN 978-0-7603-2925-2.
- ^ Hopkinson, Deborah (January 2004). "The Volcano That Shook the World: Krakatoa 1883". 11 (4). New York: Storyworks: 8. Archived from the original on 4 May 2018. Retrieved 1 March 2008.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - ^ a b "How Krakatoa made the biggest bang". The Independent. London. 3 May 2006. Archived from the original on 29 July 2018. Retrieved 22 August 2018.
- ^ a b "Anak Krakatau". Archived from the original on 26 August 2011. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
- ^ Donahue, Terry (5 December 2017). "The Resurrection Of Krakatau". The Indonesia Expat. Indonesiaexpat.biz. Archived from the original on 30 December 2018. Retrieved 29 December 2018.
- ^ Amos, Jonathan (29 December 2018). "Indonesian volcano's lost stature". BBC News. Archived from the original on 2 February 2020. Retrieved 29 December 2018.
- ^ Noorduyn, J.; Teeuw, A. (2006). Three Old Sundanese Poems. Leiden: KITLV Press.
- ^ a b Winchester 2003, p. 27.
- telegraphicreporting on the massive eruption of 1883.
- ^ Winchester 2003, p. 183.
- ^ "Volcanoes of Indonesia". Global Volcanism Program. Smithsonian Institution. Archived from the original on 19 August 2011. Retrieved 25 March 2007.
- ^ Sullivan, Ryan; Jonasdottir, Hrafnihildur; Santiago, Jessica; Nelson, Emily. "Oceanic Mapping". ASU. Archived from the original on 5 February 2021. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
- ^ Note: apparently because it looked like a hat from the sea
- ^ Note: The dating of these events is currently unknown. The Sunda Strait was first mentioned by Arab sailors circa 1100.
- ^ "Krakatau version 1.0, Part 2". The Anthropogene. 11 November 2003. Archived from the original on 28 May 2010. Retrieved 23 January 2010.
- S2CID 165348828.
- S2CID 233789963.
- ^ Wohletz, K. H. (2000). "Were the dark ages triggered by volcano-related climate changes in the 6th century". Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union. 48 (81): F1305. Archived from the original on 1 June 2020. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
- S2CID 54647517.
- ^ "Abstract: NO EVIDENCE FOR EXPLOSIVITY OF A CIRCA 535AD ERUPTION OF KRAKATAU VOLCANO (2004 Denver Annual Meeting (November 7–10, 2004))". gsa.confex.com. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
- ^ ISBN 978-0674505728.
- ^ a b c Winchester 2003, p. 136.
- ^ Note: Vogel returned to Amsterdam in 1688 and published the first edition of his journal in 1690.
- ^ Winchester 2003, pp. 132–133.
- ^ Note: Historians Van den Berg and Verbeek both conclude that Vogel must have exaggerated the extent of the eruption he saw. Even so, there must have been an eruption around this time.
- ^ Verbeek, R.D.M. (1884). Krakatau (in Dutch). Batavia, Dutch East Indies (Jakarta, Indonesia): Landsdrukkerij (Government Press). p. 164. From p. 164: "Over de gesteenten, waaruit de kegels Danan en Perboewatan bestonden, […] dat zij van de eruptie van 1680 afkomstig is."
- French translation: Verbeek, R.D.M. (1886). Krakatau (in French). Batavia, Dutch East Indies (Jakarta, Indonesia): Imprimerie de l'état (Government Press). p. 171. From p. 171: "Au suject des roches qui composaient les cônes Danan et Perboewatan, […] et permet de supposer qu'elle date de l'eruption de 1680." (On the subject of the rocks which composed the cones of Danan and Perboewatan, we possess only very little data. In the month of July 1880, I collected only samples of the flow of lava which, at the northern extremity of Perboewatan, were thrown into the sea. This flow still did not present any trace of degradation by atmopheric agents and was therefore entirely bare, thus contrasting with all of the rest of the island of Krakatau, which was covered by a thin layer of vegetation; this fact denotes the relatively young age of the lava in question and permits one to suppose that it dates from the eruption of 1680.)
- ISBN 9780608404066. Archivedfrom the original on 23 January 2023. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
- ^ a b Symons, G. J., ed. (1888). The Eruption of Krakatoa and Subsequent Phenomena (Report). London: Krakatoa Committee of the Royal Society. Retrieved 5 May 2015.
- ^ Winchester 2003, pp. 154–166.
- ^ Monique R. Morgan (January 2013). "The Eruption of Krakatoa (also known as Krakatau) in 1883". BRANCH: Britain, Representation and Nineteenth-Century History. Archived from the original on 7 February 2019. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
- (PDF) from the original on 3 November 2020. Retrieved 29 November 2019 – via Springer.
- ^ Kartodirjo, Sartono (1966). The peasants' revolt of Banten in 1888 : its conditions, course and sequel. A case study of social movements in Indonesia. 's-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff.
- from the original on 6 July 2022. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
- ^ Winchester, 2003. Chap 6.
- ISBN 978-0-393-31940-8.
- ^ Backer, Cornell's Andries (1929). The Problem of Krakatau, as Seen by a Botanist. author, at Weltevreden, Java.
- ^ a b Winchester 2003.
- ^ "Krakatau Nature Reserve and Ujung Kulon National Park". Environment & Society Portal. Archived from the original on 28 April 2021. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
- ^ "Ujung Kulon National Park & Krakatau Nature Reserve" (PDF). United Nations Environment Programme/World Conservation Monitoring Centre. December 1991. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 January 2009. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
- ^ "Ujung Kulon National Park". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 27 April 2021. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
- ^ "Krakatoa provided backdrop to Munch's scream". The Age. Melbourne. Reuters. 11 December 2003. Archived from the original on 23 June 2011. Retrieved 15 November 2010.; "Why the sky was red in Munch's 'The Scream'". CNN. Reuters. 10 December 2003. Archived from the original on 16 November 2010. Retrieved 15 November 2010.; Panek, Richard (8 February 2004). "'The Scream,' East of Krakatoa". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 1 June 2020. Retrieved 15 November 2010.
- ^ "Fair Wind to Java (1953)". Turner Classic Movies. Archived from the original on 15 January 2015. Retrieved 7 February 2023.
- ^ ""Time Tunnel" Crack of Doom". IMDb. Retrieved 29 April 2023.
- ^ "SpongeBob SquarePants - Krakatoa!". YouTube. Archived from the original on 1 November 2022. Retrieved 4 November 2022.
- ^ "Krakatoa Bay". Catan Maps. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
Bibliography
See Krakatoa documentary and historical materials
- ISBN 978-0-06-083859-1.
External links
- 1883 Eruption of Krakatau from the United States Geological Survey's Cascades Volcano Observatory
- Krakatau, Indonesia (1883) Archived 16 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine – information from San Diego State University about the 1883 eruption
- Krakatoa – The Great Volcanic Eruption on YouTube – "Naked Science"
- Bani, Philipson; Normier, Adrien; Bacri, Clémentine; Allard, Patrick; Gunawan, Hendra; Hendrasto, Muhammad; Surono; Tsanev, Vitchko (2015), "First measurement of the volcanic gas output from Anak Krakatau, Indonesia", Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, 302: 237–241, S2CID 128596743