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August 27, 2019 5 mins

On this day in 1883, the eruption of Krakatau reached its climax. It was one of the deadliest eruptions in modern history. 

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hi again, Welcome to this Day in History Class,
where history waits for no One. Today is August nineteen.

(00:23):
The day was August three, the eruption of Krakataw, a
called Era and the Sunda Strait in Indonesia peaked. It
was one of the deadliest volcanic eruptions in modern history.
Kracotile is about halfway between Java and Sumatra. It's on

(00:44):
the convergence of the Eurasian and Indo Australian tectonic plates.
More than a thousand years ago in prehistoric times, and
eruption formed a caldera in the area. The remnants of
that caldera eventually turned into the islands of Lung for
Latin and Krakatau. In eighteen eighty three, there were three

(01:05):
volcanic cones on Krakatau, Herba Watan the northernmost and most active,
Dannon near the middle of the island, and Ricotta, the
largest and southernmost one. Before the eighteen eighty three eruption
of Krakatau, there had only been one other confirmed eruption
of the caldera. That eruption occurred in sixteen eighty travelers

(01:29):
documented an earthquake at sea after a long period of
twin quility on the island. But in May eighteen eighty
three there was volcanic activity in Batavia, then the capital
of the Dutch East Indies but now corresponds with Jakarta.
People began hearing explosions and feeling tremors as clouds formed.

(01:51):
By the end of May, the volcanic activity had died down,
but around mid June the activity started back up. On
the afternoon of Sunday, August, the initial blast in a
series of violent explosions occurred. Herbo Watsons sent a cloud
of gas and debris miles into the air. Debris might

(02:14):
have clogged the neck of Herple Watton in an earlier eruption,
and pressure then built up below the blockage. Once the
sea water touched the hot lava, then the resulting hot
steam could have forced lava flows out at high speeds.
The next day the eruption reached its peak. People as

(02:34):
far away as Perth, Australia heard explosions. In fact, there
is evidence that the sound of the explosions traveled around
the world, and the sound is considered to be the
loudest one ever recorded in modern history. It was also
heard in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and on the
island of Rodriguez in the Indian Ocean. Ash was sent

(02:56):
fifty miles or eight kilometers into the sky. Miles of
rock fragments were sent flying into the air. Herba wat
And and Dannon plunged into the caldera, sinking hundreds of
feet below sea level. All the ash in the air
made the region around the eruption dark for a couple
of days, and the effects that the gases had on

(03:18):
the atmosphere caused vivid sunsets around the world. The eruption
killed more than thirty six thousand people. Not many people
died as a direct result of the eruptions, as it
was likely that no one lived on Krakatau. Many people
were killed by tefra or volcanic rock fragments. Others died

(03:39):
by the hot volcanic gases the explosions released, but way
more people died because of the tsunamis that were triggered
when the island collapsed into the caldera. Tsunamis as far
away as Hawaii and South America were documented. Coastal towns
in Java and Sumatra were hit the hardest when in
a hundred and twenty ft wave caused most of the

(04:01):
estimated number of deaths. News about the eruption tsunamis and
all the devastation spread quickly. The Krakatile eruption measured a
six on the Volcanic Explosivity Index, with the largest eruptions
in history given an eight. It took several years after
the eruption for plant and animal life to re establish

(04:22):
itself in the Krakataw Archipelago. The eruption also likely caused
a drop in average global temperatures for several years. After
an eruption began on the sea floor in the same area,
in a new volcanic home reached sea level and soon
became its own small island, and that Krakataw. I'm Eve

(04:45):
Jeff Coo and hopefully you know a little more about
history today than you did yesterday. If you haven't gotten
your fill of history after listening to today's episode, you
can follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at te
e I h C Podcast. We'll see you here in
the same place tomorrow. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio,

(05:10):
visit the iHeart radio, app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.

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