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<-- Biggest Tsunami Countdown #3
Note: For information
on the Awa tsunami, please read this.
As bad as the other tsunamis were, this one was worse...
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Biggest Tsunami Countdown #2:
The 1883 Krakatau, Indonesia Tsunami |
On August 27, 1883, one of the largest volcano eruptions in history, set off a devastating
series of tsunamis, making this event number two on the Biggest Tsunami Countdown.
The sound of the volcanic explosions were felt over two and a half thousand miles
away (approx. four thousand kilometers), and is the loudest documented sound in recorded
history.
The Krakatau event registered a 6 on the VEI (Volcanic Explosivity Index), which is a scale
devised to measure the relative size of an explosive eruption. A VEI 6 is described
as "colossal," having a plume height less than approx. fifteen miles (twenty-five
kilometers), and ejecting a volume less than two hundred and thirty-eight miles (ten
kilometers to the third power) of tephra, i.e., airborne volcanic debris. Source:
NGDC, USGS, Wikipedia, & Volcano World
When a caldera on Krakatau Island measuring 4.3 miles (seven kilometers), collapsed
during the 1883 eruption, it created tsunamis that crashed into the Sumatra and Java
coastlines of Indonesia. Some waves reached as high as one hundred and forty feet
(forty meters), and were felt over four thousand miles away (seven thousand kilometers).
One hundred and sixty-five villages were wiped out, killing over thirty-six thousand
people. Source: Global Volcanism Program, & Cascades Volcano Observatory, Vancouver, Washington, USGS
As bad as it was, the Krakatau tsunamis paled in lives lost to #1 in the Biggest
Tsunami Countdown...
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