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TEKTONIK LEMPENG
PLANET BUMI
The mid-ocean ridge (shown in red) winds its way between the
continents much like the seam on a baseball. Sugeng Widada-Dept. Oseanografi
Computer-generated
detailed topographic
map of a segment of the
Mid-Oceanic Ridge.
"Warm" colors (yellow
to red) indicate the ridge
rising above the
seafloor, and the "cool"
colors (green to blue)
represent lower
elevations. This image
(at latitude 9° north) is
of a small part of the
East Pacific Rise.
Earthquakes of
magnitude 1.5 and
larger recorded in
1980 on the San
Andreas and other
large faults in
California and
Nevada
A fence, near Point Reyes,
California, offset 8.5 feet by
displacement on the fault
during the 1906 earthquake
The eruption of Krakatoa in 1883 was one of the most violent volcanic
eruptions of all time, with massive loss of life and global repercussions.
Krakatoa, located on an island in the Sunda Strait between Java and
Sumatra, became active on 20 May 1883. Clouds of ash rose 9.6 km
into the sky, and explosions could be heard 160 km away in the
Javanese town of Batavia. The disturbances died down by the end of
the month, but then flared up again in mid-June. On 26 August two
days of cataclysmic eruptions began.
At one o'clock in the afternoon the first of the explosions occurred.
These became increasingly violent as the hours passed. By two o'clock
a cloud of ash rose 27 km above the island, and muddy rain began to
fall. At five o'clock a series of underwater earthquakes sent seismic
seawaves - known as tsunami - crashing against the coasts of Java and
Sumatra. These waves reached two metres in height. Explosions
continued throughout the night, and the noise was such that people 40
km away had their eardrums shattered.
These disturbances were nothing compared with what was to follow. For a few minutes,
on the morning of 27 May, the volcano grew silent. People hoped that the ordeal was
over. But soon after ten o'clock the whole island exploded. Rock was thrown 80 km into
the sky. The noise reached Australia, over 3200 km away, and has been described as the
loudest sound ever heard on the planet. It shattered windows over 140 km away. The
atmospheric shock wave went 7 times around the world. Almost all of the mountain,
which had stood 2600 feet high, disappeared.
The eruption threw 5 cubic miles of rock fragments into the air, and volcanic ash fell
over an area of 300 000 square miles. The ash in the atmosphere completely blocked out
the sun for 2 days in the surrounding region. Over the next three years the average solar
radiation for Europe fell by 10 per cent. Average world temperatures also dropped below
their usual levels. The ash cloud travelled twice around the world before dispersing. Six
weeks after the eruption, sunlight began to reflect off the dust particles, causing
spectacular sunrises and sunsets all over the planet. In the United States sunsets were so
vivid that they were mistaken for fires. Sulphur dioxide in the ash reacted with
atmospheric ozone and gave the sun and moon a bluish-green colour. So much pumice
floated on the sea in the Sunda Strait that it hindered the passage of ships.
The eruption emptied the magma chamber below the volcano. The chamber then
collapsed into the space left by the discharged material, creating a caldera, a cauldron-
like depression. As the volcano fell, sea water rushed into the emptied chamber and
was squeezed back out again by the falling rock, creating of huge waves. Tsunamis
reached the English Channel and the west coast of the United States. They took nine
hours to reach the Ganges River, nearly 3200 km away, where 300 boats were sunk.
Ten huge waves crashed into the coasts around the erupting volcano. The largest of
these was 130-feet high and swarmed 3 miles inland. It dropped on to Merak in north-
west Java, and receded to leave no trace of the town. Over 300 coastal towns and
villages were destroyed, and 36 000 people died. Up to 6000 boats were sunk. The
resultant landscape was a grey desert, devoid of vegetation and of ruins. No plant or
animal life existed on the islands around Krakatoa for the next five years. The volcano
stopped its explosions by the morning of 28 August. Smaller eruptions continued over
the next few months.
Krakatoa lay dormant until December 1927, when an undersea eruption began. By
January of the following year a new cone had breached the surface of the sea, and
formed an island known as Anak Krakatoa, meaning Child of Krakatoa. By 1973,
after years of intermittent eruptions, the island had grown to a height of 622 feet.
Activity continued into the 1980s.
Krakatoa before eruption
Telok Betong, destroyed by eruption
The strait of Sunda near Krakatoa