Posted on 07/11/2004 6:11:43 PM PDT by blam
Threatening volcanic child of Krakatoa keeps its powder dry
By Sebastien Berger at Anak Krakatau
(Filed: 12/07/2004)
At 74, the offspring of the world's most famous volcano is newborn in geological terms. But, rising darkly from the sea, Anak Krakatau - "the child of Krakatoa" - is already 1,000ft high and smoking.
Wisps of steam and toxic fumes drift gently from several vents at its summit, where its otherwise black walls are stained with white mineral deposits.
Its setting is idyllic, nestling between three other outcrops in the middle of the Sunda Strait between the major Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra.
But it sits on top of a fissure in the Earth's crust responsible for the most devastating volcanic eruption in recorded history.
However, Kusni is more interested in the contents of the waters around it. He is "about 60" years old - he says he is not sure - and has been fishing around Anak Krakatau for decades.
"It is just normal," he says. "There is nothing really special about it."
Kusni, his son-in-law, son and nephew spend four days at a time line-fishing on their boat Sumber, an open, rickety wooden craft about 20ft long. They hope to catch about 40 fish per trip, averaging about 9lb each.
When their catch is auctioned in their home port of Carita, 30 miles away on the Javan coast, they can hope to make as much as £300 if it is made up of red and white snapper.
Less sought after fish would earn only about £40 to share among them.
Kusni has seen boulders the width of his boat hurled from the volcano, the summit on fire and the sea covered in pieces of porous pumice. "I am not afraid of anything," he says. "I have a family to feed."
His son-in-law, Sadi, 36, indicates the boat's position about 200 yards off the volcano's northern shore.
"Sometimes when the flames are coming out, the stones will come all the way to here," he says. "But as long as there are fish we are not worried."
Anak Krakatau last erupted three years ago and the resulting lava flow, a bare, black moonscape, has increased the size of the island by about 200 yards to the east.
Isya, an engineer who leads the national monitoring programme of the Volcanological Survey of Indonesia, says that two or three more eruptions will join Anak Krakatau to the neighbouring island of Panjang, when its geology will change unpredictably.
The Krakatoa that destroyed itself in 1883 had joined up with Rakata, another of the surrounding islands and had been calm for centuries.
In just over 20 hours the 2,600ft mountain ceased to exist, six cubic miles of rock and ash were sent as high as 30 miles into the atmosphere and 36,417 people were killed, mostly by four enormous tsunami caused by the volcano.
The sound of the explosions was heard on the island of Rodriguez on the other side of the Indian Ocean 2,968 miles away, where it was described as "heavy guns to eastward".
The shock wave passed around the world seven times.
For now, barring a major tectonic earthquake, Anak Krakatau will remain active at a low level, Dr Isya says. But he has a warning for the people who make their living there: "The longer a volcano remains dormant the bigger the possibility of having a major eruption."
you know, posting about Krakatoa with your screen name is rather ironic - no offense, just thought it was amusing - 8)
of course were Krakatoa to blow up again would not be humorous ... aye carumba
Noctilucent clouds are a relatively new phenomenon," says Gary Thomas, a professor at the University of Colorado who studies NLCs. "They were first seen in 1885" about two years after the powerful eruption of Krakatoa hurled plumes of volcanic ash as much as 80 km high in Earth's atmosphere.
Anak Krakatau
For fun, compare the Russian 60 megaton test which shockwave went around the earth three times, maybe four I think, as measured by a highly sensitive instrument at Lamont.
I heard that. It was October 30, 1961. We were getting ready for Halloween.
BTW, Nepal just got a 6.0 earthquake. We are entering the maximum tidal phase of the new moon next three days.
Is the absence of fish a sign of an upcoming disaster?
I'm presently watching a one hour documentary on the Three Mile Island incident. I hadn't realized how close it came to melt-down, The China Syndrome. Scary.
Yeah, I guess it was serious. But the safety systems worked and there was only a small release of radioactivity.
I don't think so. I think he was saying that as long as the fishing was good, he'd take his chances.
If the water gets too acidic it could be.
I had the memorable experience of passing through here back in the early '70s - Geodedic exploration for Pertamina (Indonesias Oil Co.) - Water depth plunged from about 60' to over 1200'. There were a few small coconut palms growing on it's shore. The rest was as black as night. And the island was much smaller then (than in the posted pictures) it seemed to me.
For lurker/posters, here's a link to the site for the episode of PBS' "Secrets of The Dead"
that nailed Krakatoa for the "Catastrophe" of approx. 535 AD.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/html/e1-about.html
The animation of the eruption in the show showing the plume going 30 miles straight up
was awesome...and scary.
I recommend Simon Winchester's "Krakatoa" for those interested in the 1883 eruption, its after-effects and the rise of Anak Krakatau.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/006093736X/qid=1089600725/sr=8-2/ref=pd_ka_2/002-5548754-5331217?v=glance&s=books&n=507846/
The fish would be floating, wouldn't they?
There's a place on the Caspain Sea, The Kara Boghaz-Gol, that the water flows from The Caspain Sea into that body of water and it is so salty that the fish die when they cascade down into the Kara Boghaz-Gol. Lots of people and animals collect the fish, they're okay to eat.
Yeah they would and I gather that by the time they notice a significant amount of fish floating it may be too late. I wonder how they would measure that though. A few fish dead here and there may go unnoticed unless scientists do routine testing.
The Krakatoa explosion shockwaves was recorded with 1800s barometers too.....
Roughly estimated as a 150-200 megaton blast.
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