In 1883, Krakatoa was a green island with thick forests in the Sunda Strait, between the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra. Ships sailed past it every day, and thousands of people lived in fishing towns along the nearby coasts. The volcano was quiet for about 200 years, so few people worried about it.
In May 1883, Krakatoa woke up. The quiet island suddenly came alive with steam, ash, and small explosions. A group of curious visitors even took a boat to the island to see the eruption up close. Nobody could guess what would happen three months later.
On August 26, the eruption grew much stronger. Then, on the morning of August 27, the volcano blew up in a series of enormous explosions. The biggest one, just after 10 a.m., made the loudest sound in recorded history. People heard it in Perth, Australia, more than 3,000 kilometers away, and on Rodrigues Island, near Mauritius, about 4,800 kilometers away. Some of them thought it was the sound of distant cannons. Now imagine yourself on a ship about 64 kilometers from Krakatoa. On one British ship that day, the noise broke the eardrums of many sailors.
The explosions threw rock and ash high into the sky, and most of the island fell into the sea. More than 70 percent of Krakatoa disappeared. In just one day, the volcano almost destroyed itself. Then giant waves, or tsunamis, crashed into the coasts of Java and Sumatra. In some places, the water rose more than 30 meters, higher than a ten-story building. The waves wiped out entire towns. About 36,000 people lost their lives, and most of them died in the tsunamis.
The world found out about the disaster very quickly. Thanks to new telegraph cables under the ocean, the news reached Europe and America in hours, not weeks. People everywhere wanted to know how one volcano could do so much damage.
Krakatoa also changed the sky. Its ash spread around the planet and stayed in the air for months. For a long time, sunsets looked bright red and orange, even on the other side of the world. In New York and Connecticut, the evening sky looked so red that firefighters rushed out to fight fires that weren't there. In England, an artist named William Ascroft made thousands of colorful sketches of the strange sunsets. In some places, the moon even looked blue or green. The next summer, the ash blocked some sunlight, and temperatures in the northern half of the world went down a little.
For more than 40 years, the sea was quiet where Krakatoa used to be. Then, in late 1927, smoke and steam began to come up from the water. A new volcano was growing on the ocean floor! By 1930, it rose above the waves for good. Indonesians gave it a name: Anak Krakatau, which means "Child of Krakatoa."
The child grew up fast. Year after year, it built itself higher, and by 2018 it was 338 meters tall. Then, on December 22, 2018, a big part of the volcano broke off and slid into the sea. It started a tsunami that killed more than 400 people. The volcano lost about two-thirds of its size and was only about 110 meters tall.
Today, Anak Krakatau is still active, and it isn't safe to get close. Indonesian scientists watch it every day. If the volcano becomes more dangerous, they will warn the people on the coasts. If you ever visit the area, you'll need a boat and a guide, and you'll have to follow the scientists' rules.
If you lived on the coast near Anak Krakatau, would you stay or move away?