On August 27, 1883, an island volcano called Krakatoa, sitting between the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra, exploded. It had been rumbling for months, but on this morning four enormous blasts ripped the island apart. The biggest blast was the loudest sound ever recorded in human history. People heard it nearly 3,000 miles away, all the way over in Australia and on tiny islands in the Indian Ocean. That's like hearing a noise in New York from California, with thousands of miles to spare.
The eruption was unbelievably powerful, roughly equal to 200 megatons of energy, more than 10,000 times stronger than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Two-thirds of the island simply disappeared into the sea. The blast threw ash 50 miles into the sky, and dust drifted around the world for months. Sunsets everywhere from Britain to Hawaii turned a strange, glowing red. Some scientists think the famous swirling sky in Edvard Munch's painting The Scream was inspired by those Krakatoa sunsets.
Global temperatures dropped by more than a degree for the next five years, and the world's weather went haywire. Today the volcano is slowly rebuilding itself, and a new little island called Anak Krakatau, meaning 'Child of Krakatoa,' has risen from the same spot. It's still active, a reminder that beneath the calm sea, the planet is full of fire. Scientists watch it carefully, listening for any rumble that hints another giant might be waking up.
