The
height to which the dust was projected has been calculated from various
data, with the result that 121,500 feet, or nearly 25 miles, is thought
to be a probable maximum estimate, though it may be that occasional
fragments of larger size were shot up to a still greater height.
A GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF THE ERUPTION
Another effect, of a distressing character, followed the eruption. A
succession of enormous waves, emanating from Krakatoa, traversed the
sea, and swept the coast bordering the Straits of Sunda with such force
as to destroy many villages on the low-lying shores in Java, Sumatra and
other islands. Some buildings at a height of fifty feet above sea-level
were washed away, and in some places the water rose higher, in one place
reaching the height of 115 feet. At Telok Betong, in Sumatra, a ship was
carried inland a distance of nearly two miles, and left stranded at a
height of thirty feet above the sea.
The eruption of Krakatoa seems to have been due to some deep-lying
causes of extraordinary violence, this appearing not only in the
terrible explosion which tore the island to fragments and sent its
remnants as floating dust many miles high into the air, but also from an
internal convulsion that affected many of the volcanoes of Java, which
almost simultaneously broke into violent eruption. We extract from
Dr. Robert Bonney's "Our Earth and its Story" a description of these
closely-related events.
"The disturbances originated on the island of Krakatoa, with eruptions
of red hot stones and ashes, and by noon next day Semeru, the largest of
the Javanese volcanoes, was reported to be belching forth flames at
an alarming rate.
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