Indonesia Tsunamis 1883
Tag:
tsunami, tsunami history, tsunami photos, tsunami pictures, tsunami videos, tusunami
The
volcanic explosion of Krakatoa is one of the most impressive natural
disasters ever recorded in history. On August 26th 1883, the island
volcano of Krakatoa exploded with devastating fury, blowing its
underground magma chamber partly empty so that much overlying land and
seabed collapsed into it. The great majority of the island simply was
destroyed as it sank to the ocean floor. The volcanic disturbance
triggered a series of large tsunami waves, some reaching a height of
over 40 meters above sea level. Although no one is known to have been
killed as a result of the initial explosion, the tsunamis it generated
had disastrous results, killing over 36,000 people, and wiping out a
number of settlements, including Telok Batong in Sumatra, and Sirik and
Semarang in Java.
Tsunami waves were observed throughout the Indian Ocean, the Pacific
Ocean, the American West Coast, South America, and even as far away as
the English Channel. On the facing coasts of Java and Sumatra the sea
flood went many miles inland and caused such vast loss of life that one
area was never resettled but went back to the jungle and is now the
Ujung Kulon nature reserve. Ships as far away as South Africa rocked
as tsunamis hit them, and the bodies of victims were found floating in
the ocean for weeks after the event. There are even 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.
