Horrible scenes reminded me of some photos I researched for my boss regarding hurricanes and tropical cyclones. Those pictures didn’t look as bad as these..
It’s not as funny as it looks; I’m sure by now many have heard of the steep increase in costs per barrel of crude due to pipeline interruptions. Well, the above is one of the reasons.
The devastation is complete. I just caught a two-part special on the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883 during which some 36,000 people died due to the tsunamis resulting from detonation deep in the earth’s core. About 14 days before the first eruption, a tremor was felt and observed from a lighthouse. For a moment, the sea became as flat as glass, reflecting the moon and clouds. Then the enormity of that struck me: the amount of energy expended to release a shockwave that would lay waves flat would have to be simply enormous.
The strange thing about that intial tremor was, the actual eruptions didn’t take place till 14 weeks later, with cataclysmic eruptions begining on the 26th of August, 1883.
The tsunamis that eventually devastated coastal regions of Ketimbang and others measured up to 40 metres high. And tsunamis don’t consist of waves that rise up high and fall; these waves a driven walls of water moving millions of litres at a time. The subsequent onslaught of water on anything standing ends with predictable results, as we are all aware after the Boxing Day tsunami that hit our region recently.
That eruption blew apart 11 cubic kilometers (or miles, my memory fails) of rock, sand and island; krakatoa was no more after that horrendous spurt of magma and ash. The final explosion, apparently, was heard over 1/12th of the earth’s surface… and the ash emitted by the eruption caused a general reduction of 0.5 oC in temperature around the world.
What’s horrible, however, is that Krakatoa seems to be making a comeback of sorts. Anak Krakatoa has been steadily erupting and growing, at a rate of 15 feet a year. As at the date of that documentary, it now stands at 2,600 feet tall, about the same height as the original Krakatoa. It’ll be a matter of time before we face yet another angry Krakatoa…
Satellite view of Anak Krakatoa and environs, larger image can be downloaded here.
