The Krakatoa Eruption — The Sound Heard Around the World

On August 27, 1883, the volcanic island of Krakatoa in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra exploded in one of the most violent eruptions in recorded history. The explosion — equivalent to approximately 200 megatons of TNT, or 13,000 Hiroshima bombs — was the loudest sound in recorded history, heard 4,800 kilometers away in Rodrigues Island near Mauritius and Alice Springs, Australia. The shockwave circled the globe 3.5 times. The eruption generated tsunamis up to 30 meters high that destroyed 295 towns along the coasts of Java and Sumatra, killing over 36,000 people. Krakatoa ejected 25 cubic kilometers of rock and ash into the atmosphere, lowering global temperatures by 1.2 degrees Celsius for several years and producing vivid red sunsets worldwide — which some scholars believe inspired Edvard Munch's painting The Scream. Two-thirds of the island collapsed into the sea. A new volcanic island, Anak Krakatau ("Child of Krakatoa"), has been growing in its place since 1927.