The eruption of 1883 is believed to be only the fifth most explosive eruption in the entire geologic history of the Earth, but the four larger eruptions all occurred at times before recorded human history, making the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa the largest eruption known to humans. You might notice that I keep referring to the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa. There is evidence that about 60,000 years ago a large volcanic island known as Ancient Krakatoa erupted in a giant explosion that left behind four much smaller islands. The much smaller volcano may have then erupted again in 416 C.E. and 535 C.E.; although there is evidence for the 535 C.E. eruption in tree rings, ice-cores, and world-wide anecdotal evidence, there is not any scientific evidence for a 416 C.E. eruption, only anecdotal evidence. Another eruption may have also occurred in 1680 C.E., but the evidence for this eruption is also limited. There are tales of seven other eruptions, but these all seem to be fictional.
Krakatoa lies over a network of geologic faults in one of the most volcanically unstable collections of islands. Volcanoes are found over subduction zones, areas of the Earth's crust where the tectonics plates are colliding and the edge of one plate is slowly creeping under the other plate and back into the Earth's core. Krakatoa is located where the Indo-Australian Plate and Eurasian Plate collide. "...where the two plates meet...is in consequence a serried line of the world's greatest, most dangerous, and most predictably unpredictable volcanoes-including...the most demonstrably dangerous of them all, the once great island of Krakatoa."
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