Home » Science & Nature » Everyday Geology » Book Review of Krakatoa, The Day the World Exploded August 27, 1883

Book Review of Krakatoa, The Day the World Exploded August 27, 1883

© Geoff Habiger

August 1883. Events happening on a tiny island in the Sunda Strait between the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Java were about to dramatically change the world. On the morning of August 27 the volcanic island of Krakatoa erupted in an earth-shattering explosion. Krakatoa's eruption was dramatic on many scales. Tsunami and volcanic ash devastated many of the villages that sat on the coastline of the Sunda Strait on both Java and Sumatra. In the capital of the Dutch colony Batavia (present day Jakarta) day turned into night from ash. The sound of Krakatoa's explosion was heard in Bangkok, Manila, Perth, and Rodriguez Island - nearly 3000 miles from its source! The pressure wave caused by the eruption displaced barometers in dozens of fashionable gentlemen's clubs across Europe and was later found to have traveled around the globe at least seven times! Once it was over nothing but two small islands remained of the once mighty volcanic island. Krakatoa was the largest volcanic eruption in recorded human history and the recent connection of many countries by telegraph cable made it one of the first truly global events.

The dramatic events that shaped the eruption of Krakatoa are recounted in a newly published book; Krakatoa, The Day the World Exploded August 27, 1883 written by Simon Winchester. Winchester is the author of The Professor and the Madman and The Map that Changed the World.

Winchester takes the reader on a wonderful journey, looking not only at the eruption of the volcano but also at the events that shaped the world at the time of the eruption. Winchester's story focuses on the geology of Krakatoa and on the history of Indonesia and the lasting effects of Dutch colonization. The book begins with a look at the history of Indonesia. The islands of Indonesia, that today make up the most populous Islamic country in the world, were key to the ambitions of European countries during the height of the Colonial Era due to the riches brought by its spices - pepper, clove, and nutmeg, what Winchester calls the "holy trinity of the Asian spice trade."

Winchester's back-story and history of colonization set the stage for the dramatic events of 1883. Through this set-up the reader learns a great deal of geology. Indonesia sits at one of the crucial sites found on our Earth, located at a junction between two tectonic plates. To the south sits the Australian plate that is traveling north and subducting under the Eurasian plate. The results create one of the most tectonic and volcanically active regions on Earth. Winchester takes the reader through the thought processes that led to the unifying theory of geology, plate tectonics, and is the key to understanding how and why Krakatoa erupted.

The copyright of the article Book Review of Krakatoa, The Day the World Exploded August 27, 1883 in Everyday Geology is owned by . Permission to republish Book Review of Krakatoa, The Day the World Exploded August 27, 1883 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.