Krakatoa is a volcanic island in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra in Indonesia. It has erupted repeatedly, massively, and with disastrous consequences throughout recorded history. The best known eruption culminated in a series of massive explosions on August 26-27, 1883, which was among the most violent volcanic events in modern times.
The eruption was the equivalent to 200 megatons of TNT – about 13,000 times the yield of the Little Boy bomb (13 to 16 KT) that devastated Hiroshima, Japan. The 1883 eruption ejected more than 25 cubic kilometers of rock, ash, and pumice, and generated the loudest sound in historically reported. The cataclysmic explosion was distinctly heard as far away as Perth in Australia approximately 1,930 miles, and the island of Rodrigues near Mauritius approximately 3,000 miles. Near Krakatoa, 165 villages and towns were destroyed and 132 seriously damaged, at least 36, 417 people died, and many thousands were injured by the explosion.
The eruption destroyed two-thirds of the island of Krakatoa. Eruptions at the volcano since 1927 have built a new island in the same location, called Anak Krakatoa. Small eruptions continued throughout October and were reported through February 1884. In the aftermath of the eruption, it was found that the island of Krakatoa had almost entirely disappeared, except for the southern half of Rakata cone.
