Krakatoa : eruption that changed the world
By D Cristian
@cristiand969 (20)
Bucharest, Romania
September 16, 2013 4:09am CST
I thought to write a few lines about one of the biggest NATURAL disasters in the past hundred years .
Krakatoa Island , located in the Indonesian archipelago , was discovered in 1611 by Lucas Janszoo Waghenaer , an explorer and cartographer Dutch officer .
Great eruption of the end of the nineteenth century was to be preceded by a series of intense earthquakes were felt to Australia . Earthquakes were triggered on May 20 , 1883, about three months before the big bang .
But misfortune was to be unleashed on August 27, 1883.
At dawn , a series of four explosions almost entirely destroyed Krakatoa island .
Pyroclastic column rose to over 27 kilometers high, and ships anchored about 20 miles from the volcano have been "bombarded " with glowing pieces of rock. Much of the neighboring islands were " swept " to own tsunami that exceeded 30 meters .
The noise of explosions was so strong that killed the inhabitants of the island and was heard even by the natives of Perth and Mauritius , territories situated at a distance of approximately 4800 kilometers of Krakatoa .
Currently researchers have calculated that the shock wave resulting from the eruption traveled at a speed of 1086 km / hour. It was so strong acoustic perforated eardrums ears that sailors on ships in the Strait of probes . Shock wave radiated across the globe for 5 days, including barografele registered in Romania .
The column of ash resulting from the 4 separate explosions reached a height of 80 km .
According to data recorded by Dutch colonial authorities who administered the then Indonesian archipelago , casualties recorded immediately after the eruption was 36.417 . But the number of victims resulting in the following days reached a total of over 120,000 deaths. There are many gloomy reports about thousands of human corpses floating in the waters of the Indian Ocean right after eruptions . Some of the lava flows have permeated distance of about 40 km , in the island of Sumatra , destroying everything in its path .
Huge amount of volcanic ash thrown into the atmosphere blocking sunlight from reaching the Earth for several weeks , throwing in the dark much of the Indonesian archipelago . Eruptions thrown into the stratosphere a large amount of sulfur dioxide in gaseous form , this substance is subsequently transported by the currents of air over the entire planet. This phenomenon has led to an unprecedented increase in the concentration of sulfuric acid in cirrus type clouds at high altitude . Obviously, acid precipitation followed many all over the world .
Eruptions dark sky all over the world , and the sunsets over the coming months have produced spectacular optical effects .
I ask a question: humanity can defend itself more effectively in the present, in case of a disaster of proportions of Krakatoa?
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