Krakatau, 1883--the volcanic eruption and its effects
From the Blurb: On August 26 and 27, 1883, the island volcano Krakatau erupted, ejecting more than four cubic miles of debris and creating a huge plume of gas and ashes that rose to an altitude of thirty miles. Spectacular, fiery sunsets resulted, lighting the skies of North America and Europe in the following months. This was one of history's most terrifying and destructive volcanic eruptions. Great sea waves crested to heights of 118 feet, crashing on the coasts of Java and Sumatra and killing more than 30,000 people. The eruption's loudest blasts were heard nearly 3,000 miles away. Simkin and Fiske have gathered eighty-eight eyewitness accounts, describing the events in the words of people who were there, and have selected twenty-eight scientific interpretations of the various phenomena written over the last one-hundred years. They have illustrated the book with more than 250 photographs, engravings, drawings, and maps, and have traced an extensive chronology of events. The result is a comprehensive volume on this benchmark event-history's most famous eruption. In addition to geologists, oceanographers will be interested in the devastating sea waves, meteorologists in the worldwide atmospheric effects, biologists in the return of life to barren island remnants, but any general reader will be fascinated by the eyewitness accounts of this spectacular eruption and its truly global effects
Print Book, English, 1983
Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., 1983
Government publications United States
464 pages : illustrations (some color), portraits, maps ; 29 cm
9780874748420, 9780874748413, 0874748429, 0874748410
10017933
Preface: Reason(s) for book; procedures; acknowledgments
1: Introduction
Eruption and its importance
Editorial conventions
Krakatau in 1883: historical and volcanological context
Maps
Chronology
Notes and references
2: Narrative Descriptions: The Eyewitness Accounts
May-toAugust, 1883
August 26-27: the paroxysm
Java coast
Sumatra coast
Straits of Sunda (ships' accounts)
Batavia and inland Java
Aftermath; accounts of early visitors to devastated areas
Java coast
Sumatra coast
Straits of Sunda (ships and expeditions)
Distant descriptions
Sounds
Waves
Volcanic ashfall and floating pumice
Sunsets and other atmospheric effects
Media coverage
Notes and references
3: Verbeek's Monograph Of 1885 (First Translation To English)
Chromolithograph tour seven weeks after the eruption
Foreword to monograph
Chronologic narrative
Krakatau before May, 1883
Eruption of May to August 26
Paroxysm of August 26-28, and later eruptions
Discussion
Causes and theoretical basis of eruptions
Earthquakes of 1883
Ejecta of 1883: volumes and atmospheric effects
Geology of Krakatau
Regional geology
Macroscopic and microscopic petrography of Krakatau
Chemical compositions of Krakatau rocks
Meteorological and magnetic phenomena
Movements of the air
Collapse volumes
Movements of the sea
Volcanic and seismic activity beyond Krakatau in 1883-4
Notes and references
Biography of R D M Verbeek / Ir C Blotwyk
4: Scientific Accounts: The Phenomena Interpreted
Geology
AD 1680 eruption of Krakatau (Van den Berg, 1884)
Pumice from Krakatau (Iddings, 1884)
Volcanic ash from Krakatau (Joly, 1885)
Volcanic phenomena of the eruption (Judd, 1888)
Legend of AD 416 eruption chronicle (Judd, 1889)
Explanation of the 1883 eruption-engulfment hypothesis (Dana, 1890)
Rockfalls on Krakatu's cliff: the pseudo-eruptions (Cool, 1908)
Geology and volcanism of the Krakatu group (Stehn, 1929)
1883 eruption
Birth of Anak Krakatu
1939 eruption of Anak Krakatu (Neumann van Padang, 1963)
Calderas of the Krakatau type (Williams, 1941)
1883 eruption of Krakatu (self and Rampino, 1981)
Most recent activity (SEAN bulletin, 1981)
Development of Anak Krakatau (Sudradjat, 1982)
Waves: air and sea
Explosive air waves and sounds (Strachey, 1888)
Sea waves; the devastating tsunami (Wharton, 1888)
Air waves producing distant sea waves (Press and Harkrider, 1966)
Nearby sea wave travel patterns (Yokoyama, 1981)
Sea wave reinterpretation based on explosive air wave record (Latter, 1981)
Atmospheric effects: sunsets, blue/green suns; Bishop's Rings
Extraordinary sunsets: a conversion to the volcanic hypothesis (Ranyard, 1883-1884)
Equatorial smoke stream and blue/green sunsets (Bishop, 1884)
Royal Society report on unusual optical phenomena (Russell and Archibald, 1888)
Volcanic dust in the atmosphere, a modern view (Lamb, 1970)
Additional comments on optical phenomena (Deirmendjian, 1973)
Climatic effects: cooling under filter of airborne ejecta
Volcanic influences on climate: an early view (Franklin, 1784)
Krakatau's effects on climate (Abbot and Fowle, 1913)
Krakatau compared with more recent eruptions (Mitchell, 1982)
Biology: the return of life to biologically "new" islands
Plants (Docters van Leeuwen, 1929)
Animals (Dammerman, 1929)
5: Bibliography
6: Index