The eruption of Mount Krakatoa is said to be one of the most devastating natural disasters that have ever occurred on earth. Mount Krakatoa has a very long and long track record, it can even be called "hereditary". The mountain, which is located in the Sunda Strait, between the islands of Sumatra and Java, is known to have existed since ancient times.
Krakatoa itself is actually not only a mountain, but also a volcanic archipelago that floats in the middle of the sea. After it erupts, Mount Krakatoa will also be destroyed.
However, tens or hundreds of years later, a new mountain will appear which is then referred to as the "child" of the previous Mount Krakatoa. This child of Mount Krakatoa will eventually grow to be big and then erupt again, and so on.
The eruption of Mount Ancient Krakatoa
According to research by geologists, in ancient times there was a very large mountain in the Sunda Strait. This mountain is known as the Ancient Krakatoa Mountain. Mount Krakatoa Purba, which is the first generation of Mount Krakatoa, once exploded violently and ravaged the vast plains which became known as the Greater Sunda Islands.
Experts have agreed that the Greater Sunda Islands is a vast plain that previously consisted of Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan and Sulawesi. The eruption of Mount Krakatoa is believed to have divided the Greater Sunda Islands and caused the separation of the island of Sumatra from Java. As for the separation of Kalimantan and Sulawesi, it is not known for certain whether the existence of the two islands is also the impact of the eruption of Mount Krakatoa.
The explosion of Ancient Krakatoa, as well as Mount Krakatoa in other early generations, is believed to have influenced the collapse of a number of civilizations in the world, including the ancient Persians, South Arabia, as well as the ancient Indian civilizations of the Maya, Tikal, and Nazca in South America, as well as transmutation of the Roman Empire to the Byzantine Empire.
In addition, the explosion of Mount Krakatoa has also caused a very drastic decrease in temperature and lasted for 10 to 20 years.
As mentioned above, after Mount Krakatoa erupted, the same thing happened in the following periods. From historical records found, the eruption of Mount Krakatoa is known to have occurred "hereditary" from prehistoric times with cycles of several hundred years.
One written source that tells about the eruption of Mount Krakatoa is the book Pustaka Raja Purwa written by a famous Javanese poet from the Surakarta Hadiningrat Sunanate, Ronggowarsito, in 1869. Ronggowarsito in his book tells that the separation of the islands of Java and Sumatra was caused by the eruption of Mount eruption, which was later believed to be Mount Krakatoa by geological scientists.
Apart from local sources, the eruption of Mount Krakatoa and Mount Krakatoa in the early generations that followed, is contained in a number of ancient records originating from Syria and China. Almost all of these historical records tell about the enormity of the explosion of Mount Krakatoa and its consequences. An explosion of Mount Krakatoa that occurred in the 5th or 6th century AD triggered the "Dark Ages" in most parts of the world.
The eruption of Mount Krakatoa in 1883
One of the events that recorded the explosion of Mount Krakatoa quite clearly was the eruption that occurred in 1883, or when Nusantara (Indonesia) was still a Dutch colony. The tragedy occurred on August 26-27, 1883, which was later believed to be one of the most devastating natural disasters that had ever occurred in modern human civilization. This event is called by The Guinness Book of Records as the largest explosion ever recorded in history.
Simon Winchester, a geologist from the University of Oxford, England and a journalist from National Geographic, believes that the sound of the explosion of Mount Krakatoa in 1883 was heard as far as 4,600 km from the center of the eruption. Not only that, the sound of the eruption could even be heard by 1/8 of the earth's population at that time.
When Mount Krakatoa erupted in 1883, pumice stones and volcanic ash with a volume of 18 cubic kilometers were also spewed out. Bursts of volcanic ash from the eruption of Mount Krakatoa are thought to have reached up to 80 km. Not only Sumatra, Java, and the Southeast Asian region experienced rock and ash rain from the vomit of Mount Krakatoa, but also Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, even Australia and New Zealand.
Not only the mountain that erupted with a very loud explosion sound and spewed lava and hot clouds, the eruption of Mount Krakatoa also triggered a tsunami which was the largest tsunami in the Indian Ocean region. Not to mention the various other impacts that are certainly very influential on natural life and living things.
The large tsunami that occurred due to pressure from the eruption of Mount Krakatoa destroyed everything on the coast of the Indian Ocean, including the settlements that were destroyed because they were swept away by a powerful wave as high as 40 meters.
The magnitude of the destructive power of the tsunami was caused not only by the eruption of Mount Krakatoa, but also by landslides from the seabed. The impact of the tsunami waves could be felt up to the coast in Hawaii, the West Coast of Central America, and the Arabian Peninsula or approximately 7,000 kilometers long.
The impact of the eruption of Mount Krakatoa in 1883 was quite severe. At least not less than 36,417 people died, not including those who were not found alias missing and suffered injuries, both light and heavy.
Also the loss is of course very large. The victims of the eruption of Mount Krakatoa in 1883 came from hundreds of villages and villages in the coastal area stretching along Karawang, Banten, Ujung Kulon, to southern Sumatra.
The day after Mount Krakatoa erupted in 1883, the people of Batavia (Jakarta), Lampung, and a number of other areas were engulfed in darkness because the sun did not appear. This happened for several days, causing a tense and tense atmosphere.
Mount Krakatoa Will Erupt Again?
After the eruption of Mount Krakatoa in 1883, as had happened in previous times, a new volcano appeared in the former eruption of Mount Krakatoa. The mountain, which is known to have begun to be seen in 1927 or approximately 40 years after the eruption of Mount Krakatoa in 1883, was later known as son of Krakatoa.
From the observations of experts, it can be seen that the height of Mount Anak Krakatau always increases every year with a growth speed of about 20 inches per month. In other words, Mount Son of Krakatoa is growing by about 20 feet and expanding by about 40 feet every year. Currently, the height of Mount Son of Krakatoa has reached about 230 meters above sea level, while Mount Krakatoa which erupted in 1883 has a height of about 813 meters above sea level.
Will the tragedy of the explosion of Mount Krakatoa happen again as a continuation of the cycle of Mount Krakatoa eruptions that have occurred in previous times? Experts are still debating this possibility. Some believe that Mount Son of Krakatoa must have erupted considering the volcanic activity that is still ongoing today.
However, some other experts say that the possibility of Mount Son of Krakatoa erupting is very small, at least in the near future. If Mount Son of Krakatoa was really about to erupt, it is estimated that this would only happen in the next three centuries at the latest.
What is clear is that until now Son of Krakatoa remains active even though it is not aggressive and has instead become a volcanic tourist attraction which is quite attractive, especially by foreign tourists.