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Krakatoa: The First Disaster of the Modern Era
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- Published on Feb 12, 2026
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Source/Further reading:
History, overview: www.history.co...
Britannica: www.britannica...
Independent, How Krakatoa Made the Biggest Bang: www.independen...
ABC Podcast: www.abc.net.au...
NYT, detailed review of book on eruption: www.nytimes.co...
Nautilus, the Sound so Loud It Circled the World Four Times: nautil.us/blog...
NOAA overview: www.ncei.noaa....
LA Times, the Crack of Doom: www.latimes.co...
Sunsets, and effect on art: www.nytimes.co...
2018 eruption: www.nationalge...
Brief history of undersea cables: www.britannica...
First mention in NYT, 27 August, 1883: timesmachine.n...
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Not to schmooze, but I used this code to get my website for my consulting business.. hope it helps :) (oh and great video)
lah ngebug
You missed the global cooling effect it had fact boy 👍
Dude! thanks for the Winnipeg shoutout! Manitoba #1
There is NO VOLCANO NAMED ANAK KRAKATOA!
The correct name is ANAK KRAKATAO.
The O & A are reversed to be A & O at the end of its name.
the connection of krakatoa to the infamous the scream painting is mind blowing lol.
Fr I didn’t know that until now 😂😂
I knew that since I was 13 (2005) watching documentaries about Krakatoa.
Yeah dude totally. So deep. I ate my dinner too fast and I got the hiccups. Exactly like krakatoa
@Winterfur1 well aren't you the special boy? 😂
Why "lol"?
"The deadliest Volcano to erupt in the 21st Century"
*Knocks on wood. H A R D.*
And keeps KNOCKING
Yellowstone: "Did someone say something?"
@Norrsky *N o O o O o O o*
Nah. I'd like to see it. I love in AZ which is siprisingky one of the safest places you can live when it comes to natural disasters.
@MeachPango erm… you know you’re like on Yellowstone’s metaphorical doorstep, right?
The fact the shock wave circled the earth 4 times is what I find most insane.
At least no one heard it on the Moon. This time.
@bradhobbs6196 or did they
@gamingwith din its a joke i know that
And it made the loudest sound ever heard on earth
@tofu.x8428 *vsauce ost playing in the background
Living in indonesia personally, i've always thought to myself that we're living on a timebomb without knowing the timer.
Yeah, there an earthquake this morning
Time-bombs...plural.
We have CHAINS of it too ..with very nasty tempers too. Recently, even Toba starting active again. Damn.
Ring of Fire, Brother
Ring of Fire
We're living in the fuse line of the many chains of bombs around the world 🙃
I'm currently waiting for Yellowstone to blow.
I've heard stats like "it was audible in Australia" or "they were able to measure the sound in London" before, but the "imagine a blast in Bogota making people in Winnipeg go 'that was loud, eh?'" line really put those stats into perspective.
As a Winnipeger, I’m just happy we got mentioned. It’s very rare unless in other Canadian cities in the sports section of papers in November 2019.
Hey Bogotá :DDDDD
idk where either of those places are
@billclinton984 Colombia and Cananda
@Inktownicon oh thanks
When he said the sound wave traveled around the world FOUR TIMES before it stopped, and an entire ship of sailors lost their hearing because of it, is heinous. Mother Nature just wasn't having it that day.
"And entire ship"
I imagine a FUCK TON more than just that boat went deaf lol
Makes me wonder, what would happen if everything on earth is deafened in an instance like this? How many animals would just drop dead on the spot, how many would overpopulate(not being hunted by predators that utilize sound) and what else would happen?
I'm actually surprised that if the sound wave wrapped the world 4 times(a fact I've heard elsewhere, so I'm not doubting you) it didn't just instantly deafen everyone out in the open(sound waves are probably different than i imagine, but DAMN is that a crazy sound to imagine)
Bonus note: When I was in high school, I liked shouting awkward and stupid questions at teachers, and just seeing if they try and answer, or say "your being silly"(stupid kid shit, I know)
One year, I asked one of my favorite teachers, on the first day(literally the first words she heard me say) "WHAT'S THE LOUDEST NOISE YOU'VE HEARD!?"
She was baffled but it makes me laugh in hindsight. I think she even mentioned Krakatoa, as a contender for "all time loudest noise" lol
"EHH?"
@mutt9779 alllll lol ll)
What?
@mutt9779 Sound waves weaken with distance. There were levels of danger based on how close you were. It would be lethal sound pressure close to it, deafening a little farther out, painful a little more out, then loud, and so on until you couldn't hear it anymore.
Krakatoa is the real world mountain of "Its always the quiet one"
Put jelly in your pockets because we're toast.
him and Pompeii are so sus
I bet you more than anything while your busy watching a quiet one a loud one will f*cking kill you!
-George Carlin
Yes. What can I say about it? I'm from the Philippines. We were hit by the erruption.
It’s the loud one 99.9% of the time.
That moment when my great-grandma survived this and lived long enough to tell the story to my mom. She hails from a tiny village in a more remote area of Banten (the province where Tangerang and Merak is located today), which may contribute to her survival.
Your great-grandma sounds like an absolute legend with an incredible life story to tell :D
Is your mom still alive? It would be awesome if you recorded her telling the story and posted a video on RUclips.
@gmbrusselsprout I think so. She passed away back in the 80s, being a centenarian. Her tombstone states that she was born on 1883, but my mom quickly told me that she was born earlier than that (around 1878) due to her memory of the disaster.
@juddyyoutube Mom's alive and well, but she barely remembered any details of this because it's that distant
@TwentyNinerR if your grandma tells people he is a prophet and was saved by the Archangel michael everybody would probably believes her😂😂
I'm surprised that none of the major movie studios has ever made a big-budget film about this event. I've read some of the stories of witnesses and survivors, and they are absolutely epic.
They did. 'Krakatoa: East of Java' was a big hit in its day (and yes, Krakatoa is west of Java, but Hollywood doesn't really worry about details like that).
i was thinking this stared john wayne, but i was wrong. 'course, i was like 10 when i saw it.
In addition to “Krakatoa, East of Java” (which i saw in a theater when it was new) there was at least one TV production about it.
Krakatoa The Last Days is one of them, i believe it is the most recent one, although it came out in 2006
Every time I hear Krakatoa I always think of spongebob.
KRAKATOAAAAAAA
Volcano man
Hahaha sqiudward
I think of seinfeld
I think of Meet the Faukers!🤣
This volcano will forever be stuck in my mind as Squidward yelling it. " *KRAKATOA!!!!* Tss."
NO MERMAID MAN! IM CAPTAIN MAGMA!!
😂😂😂
Turn off the television
Thank god I’m not the only one
Indonesian here, and I couldn't agree with you more 😂
1:35 - Chapter 1 - The mighty mountain
5:25 - Mid roll ads
7:00 - Chapter 2 - The day the earth exploded
10:45 - Chapter 3 - The killer waves
14:15 - Chapter 4 - The loudest noise
17:50 - Chapter 5 - A very modern disaster
Your effort is greatly appreciated
Awwwww, the ramblings of a simonite 👌 wheres the memologist
17:43 Zack Pinsent cameo appearance
A hero among men 👏
We salute you, sir.
My grandmother told of this happening when she was a child, they heard it in eastern Oklahoma and wondered where the thunder was coming from. A week later it was in the news
YO HOW OLD IS YOUR GRANDMA?
@khairakhalila0110 she died in 1979, was 109 years old
@slomorico8711 DAMN your grandma is older than the queen
@slomorico8711 wow, your late grandma beats both my late great grandmother and my late grandmother. My great grandmother was 100 when she died in 2006, while my grandma (her daughter in law) was 84 when she died recently in January 2023.
@aaronlimeuchin7352 mine was 109 when she passed in 79
"Most of the people thought krakatoa was extinct"
*krakatoa didn't like that*
The eruption of Krakatoa can't hold a candle to the eruption of Mt Tambora on April 10, 1815! Tambora's blast was hear past Beijing to the NE and into the area of the Bering strait to the north. It created famine worldwide from 1815-1821; the equivalent death toll of these famines is approximately the number of total deaths from all countries that fought in world war 1... It also created the year without a summer - 1816, in which snows persisted as far south as Kansas during the month of July.
Back in 8th grade, I wrote a 20 page paper about Krakatoa's eruption. It wasn't for my social studies/history class but rather for English, to prepare us, I guess, for the amount fo writing we would be doing in high school and college. I got a 95 on the paper and I never wrote another paper longer than 18 pages after that. I guess college decided to go easy on me.
Wow! You had a tough middle school! But after you had been required to do 20, the rest is gravy. 18 pages? No problem! I was righting 20 pagers when I still had bald armpits!
@lbh002 yeah, the minimum for that paper was at least 15 pages. It could be about anything but the requirements were ridiculous for a middle school assignment. It was so long and complex compared to what else we had done that we had nearly an entire semester to work on it.
High school always does that. "It wont be like this in college!!" Yeah. It was much easier. You government agents are so full of yourselves 🙄🙄
What about the 1816 year without a summer ?
That's ridiculous. I almost can't believe that lol. The longest i wrote in high school also for Indonesian language, but the teacher only asked us to write 10 pages. But again, it was high school.
How is it that neither the director, producer, nor screenwriter of the 1968 disaster film "Krakatoa, East of Java" was aware that Krakatoa is actually west of Java?
Wait, they made a movie? Oh nvm, I just searched for it. An american movie, can't expect accuracy from them. It'd be crazy to have two deadly volcanoes that erupted in the same century on the east side of java.
They did it on purpose, because they thought "east" sounded more exotic, because Americans
@rachelciel3330 for the record, Tambora lies east of bali and of course, java
It is if you go the wrong way.
@Dfathurr ah? Tambora is on Sumba island, east of Lombok, and Lombok is east of Bali
Well, I'll never look at Edvard Munch's painting the same way again.
"EEHH?"
I had no idea the painting was related to something he heard and saw as a child, nor did I realize it was about Krakatoa. The things you learn from Simon...
Every chance I get, I'm gonna tell people that the painting is of the aftereffects of krakatoa. It's too cool not to share.
Yes, that was so interesting, I'm glad it was included in this video!
Back in 1983, we had a 100 year old memory stamp of Krakatao made by our Malaysian post office department. The event must had been recorded by the British colony at Malay Peninsular at that time too. I still have that stamp in my collection (including the latest cool Marvel's Avengers stamps collection).
So late November of 2018, I was at Anyer (the beach that faces Krakatoa). We had a school retreat there as our last one before we graduated high-school. When we came back from winter break, the teachers told us that the villas we stayed at are gone, staff that we probably interacted with have passed away. It was a bone-chilling experience to think that if we were there no less then a month later, that would have been us too. We saw pictures and I remember a small-time band was preforming for some of the people there and the people recording the performance captured the sudden waves that battered the stage. One of the band member's body still hasn't been recovered. Living here is genuinely scary sometimes. We face a noticeable earthquake at least once a year. We had a period of time where three earthquakes happened in one week. So yea, it's kinda scary.
It's not a small band.
The band "Seventeen" was one of the mainstream band at the time.
That new year's eve concert (the footage you saw), the wave swept the whole band into the sea.
Only the vocalist survived, the rest of his bandmates and his wife are lost to this day.
You could say they switched genre to new wave wkwkwkwkwk
@michaelskoomamacher5652"new wave" 💀
@michaelskoomamacher5652I'm going to hell for laughing at this
Yeah
“A cubic heck-ton”
I really appreciate your way of measuring things, Simon 😂
I still remember learning about this large volcanic eruption from a documentary movie stored on VHS Tape I borrowed from my local middle class suburban public school library in the early 1990s
It's crazy how free and open information is now, compared to then. I would be a completely different person if the internet hadn't come into existence.
3:12 "Leaving a vast depression where there had once been a peak". You're talking about my mental health aren't you?
I thought I was the only one.
Very apt description of ptsd 👌😔
Hopefully you’re okay now
If you mean a peak in anxiety levels then yeah same here lmao
I always found it crazy that it was an explosion so big that an island was blown up and the shockwave circled the earth 4 times.
First time for man to record it.
What is even more insane is that the Russian Tsar Bomba, tested on 10/30/1961, the most powerful nuclr weapon tested to date had a blast wave that circled the earth 3 times and was 1/3 as powerful as Krakatoa and made up 1/10th of the total energy yield of all nuclr weapons exploded to date and was 10 times the energy of all explosves used in WWII... and they left out a component so as to reduce radiation fallout from the test which would've double the yield.
😜
Simon Winchester's book "Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded" is essential reading. It's a great read and one of my favorite non-fiction works.
Hell, yes! I just recommended it, too. I found it at a thrift store and devoured this unexpected bounty. Winchester elevates the event far beyond the superficial "incredible boom/spectacular sunsets" overviews I'd read before.
There was a movie made in the 1960's called 'Krakatoa, East of Java' when it is actually west of Java between Java and Sumatra. So I guess the film's producers didn't know much about their Geography back then.
I love this book. I second your opinion.
I found a copy while sorting through my daddy's massive book collection. I think I read it in 2021. I decided to keep it in case I want to roll it back into my reading rotation again.
@michaelverbakel7632 they supposedly changed it because it sounds more exotic. Though I suppose if you go far enough east you’ll just get there eventually.
For another comparison, the Tsar bomb, the largest weapon humanity has created, is four times smaller than Krakatoa in terms of explosive power.
Does it enough to blow america
Largest weapon humanity has ever detonated. It was meant to be twice as powerful, and we can create far larger bombs today, it simply isn't practical.
It is a pretty big bang if you say the Tsar Bomba as being "smaller" of an explosion
YESSSSS!!! I was just thinking the other day “he’s done one on Tambora, how come he hasn’t gotten to Krakatoa?”
I guess too many channels (i mean half of youtube) needs to be covered. That is why it took some time to make this video lol...
He should of done the 535AD eruption of Krakatoa it was way more powerful than this wet fart the whole world was pitch black for a year and a half and fogged for 10 years after this was called the dark ages and caused a mini ice age ,google it
@johnharrop5530 535 ad eruption is not known completely. Some also say it was a volcano of Iceland.
Alice Springs represent! I learned about this in Indonesian classes at school in Alice. It’s just devastating to think that if the eruption blast itself didn’t kill people, the sound wave probably would have. 😢
Facts basically it’s like breaking the sound barrier but wayyyyy worse
Indonesian here. Historical records from that eruption time (both from Dutch and Indonesians) are saying that the ones who kill most of the victims are the giant tsunami wave that were emerged seconds after the biggest blast happened. The shockwave from the blast itself did not posses juge problem since crews from Dutch ships that were sailing around the volcano during that time (which also record about the eruption) survive the blast only with hearing problems. The the aftermath of the disaster itself also claims more victims since its the colonial govt at that time only gave help to the Dutch survivors and largely ignoring the locals.
right!?! i mean if a whales song can collapse your lungs and/or rupture blood vessels in your brain then it seems likely that people died from Krakatoa's soundwave.
I imagine it would be fairly a instantaneous death
I've read the boom was even heard in Perth which is even further away than Alice (I think).
Indonesian, more importantly, a person living in Tangerang represent! Guess what? I would've died during the event of Krakatoa (spelled Krakatau here) 😌😂
“Giant horseshoe of explodey death” - Simon
LOL....Loved that
Not to mention 'cubic heck-ton'
Lots of quotables on this one. Good stuff.
@adamloverin231 Like using the term "gigantic-er".
I was fascinated with Krakatoa as a kid - with the numbers behind it - and in 2008 I was lucky enough to visit the site of the caldera and walk onto Anak Krakatau. It was a childhood dream fulfilled...
Out of this entire episode the thing that most impressed me is Simons use of the Canadian ‘eh?’ In the proper context
I still remember reading about this volcanic eruption in a book I read in like the third grade and I thought to myself: damn, must’ve been a big mountain
58 years before this volcano , theres tambora isnt far away from krakatoa 10x more destructive, have u read bout this?
@vanderpraast4938 it was in the video, I was just reminiscing about when I was little
When I was a kid they played disaster and survival movies on Christmas Eve for some reason. I first learned of Krakatoa that way, but without this level of detail. Very good video, Simon!
Old mayan calendar milking programming
The film is East of Java.
@girlgamergear3260 Which is navigationally incorrect. As one can find on the Wikipedia entry (or see on a map), "Famously, the movie's title is inaccurate: Krakatoa actually is west of Java, but the movie's producers thought that "East" was a more atmospheric word, as Krakatoa is located in the Far East."
@RevBoose Yup... badly titled, but still fun.
@Steve Boose: You can see Anak Krakatao when on a ferry crossing between Merak Jawa Berat & Lampung Sumatera Selatan.
2 of my friends died in the Tsunami on 24th December 2018, Christmas Eve. The most publicised video of the event.
In fairness, that level of loudness was probably what dude was thinking when he wrote that stuff about Gabriel and his horn.
👍
Maybe he was inspired by legends of the eruption of Santorini in Greece, the volcano which wiped out the Minoan civilization and may have also inspired the legends of Atlantis. That was also a huge blast (between VEI 6 and 7), and may have been heard in present-day Israel.
I don't believe he was mentioned in this episode but one hero of the Krakatoa disaster was the lighthouse keeper. A huge chunk of coral demolished the lighthouse. The keeper lost his wife and son who had evacuated from the lighthouse earlier. Despite all that he used a stick and a lit lantern to continue to warn ships away from the rock. All that's left of that lighthouse today is the brick base. A new one was built a bit further away.
Poor man refuses to let grief keep him from saving other lives. RIP a king
Lighthouse keepers are dfferent breed
This man singlehandedly elevated my hopes in humanity
Legend.
God i can't imagine being the lone two survivors. I really want to know their story.
I blame Chris Broad for this being in my feed.
Same
The abroad in Japan guy?
Same
I remember when Mt. St. Helens erupted. It sounded like the horizon roared.
I lived in Vancouver, about 300 KM away, and I heard 2 loud booms.
I just recently moved to Seattle. That's something to think about (especially with Mt. Rainier right on the horizon).
“Debris was thrown 24 km into the sky”
Jeeeeeeesus Christ
it's almost the edge of space, maybe some small rocks are thrown 100 KM up to the sky and ended orbiting the earth.
@ErnestJay88 i wouldn't be surprised if some peices of the island ended up in orbit for a short time before falling back to earth
@ErnestJay88 very much agree, not far out of the realms of reality to be believable.
How long they would orbit for is debatable, or if they left the gravitational pull completely 🤔
Just think, there could be peices on the moon, or even Mars? Unlikely but not impossible.
Not quite to do with distance, but there's a great old picture of a man standing next to a massive chunk of coral that the eruption had broken off the sea floor. It's just insane how much force the earth unleashed over those few days
'Twas truly an earth-shattering kaboom!
"A giant horseshoe of explodey death" 😆
I got here from a guy saying it before destroying a toilet.
I searched up Krakatoa because Chris Broad wouldn’t stop saying it on Trash Taste
Which episode ?
Which one-
@dendi9883 2nd episode of 2nd season
@r3r3ch4n 2nd episode of 2nd season
A man of culture
I did a presentation for a college geology class on Krakatoa, and I think my favorite part was coming up with analogies for how loud the final crack was. Clearly you guys were having fun doing the same thing
Shut up and push the button
For a few weeks after Mounts Unzen and Pinatubo erupted in 1991, we had some unbelievable sunrises down here in Australia. I used to walk eastwards before dawn towards the railway station to catch the train to Melbourne, where I worked.
There was a period of a few days where Venus was low in the east, ahead of the rising Sun.
Not a cloud in the sky, and it blazed like a ruby. Redder than Mars could ever be.
I grew up in San Diego, and I remember Pinatubo sunsets.
Dave, sounds unreal!
Didn't know the Krakatoa eruption inspired Munch to paint The Scream lmao
Took me about 4+ years to finally notice that Krakatoa is english for Krakatau for some reason
I always thought it was an active volcano from somewhere in Hawaii or in the Southern parts of America
Still won’t stop Chris Broad from climbing it
A video on Iceland's newest volcano, Geldingadalur, would be really cool. No, it's not causing devastation, but it's certainly one volcano that people can get up close and personal with.
Yes, one moron has been filmed climbing up the cone with lava pouring down the slope towards them recently. They wanted to get their selfie 🙄. Darwin Awards special mention...
13:00 "No records exist if wether or not this totally not made up story ever successfully got him laid."
This is the reason i keep coming back to all of Simon's channels. He keeps history fresh!:-) 😹 🖖
This makes me realize that throughout history, people have mostly been the same as they are today!! I just know theres a guy in a bar somewhere right now telling a story just as ridiculous!
This is the volcano that get hella interested in volcanoes in general. And to think Anak is one of the fast growing volcanoes in the world and almost in a constant state of eruption. It's almost like people were thinking 'we're safe now' and Krakatoa's like 'Hold my lava!'
It killed again just a few years ago.
@redbarchetta8782 yet like The Terminator, it'll be back.
@redbarchetta8782 it mourned over the death of it's mother Krakatoa who collapsed after the eruption.
@wildlifeisthewealthofnatur5457 let alone it's ancestor ("Ancient Krakatoa") from c. 416; Lang and Verlaten Islands north of both Anak Krakatoa and Rakata Island (the remnant of the 1883 eruption) being the remnants of the ancient island whose eruption was about as powerful as Tambora's 1815 eruption.
@rwboa22 the eruption is said to had happened in 536ad that caused mysterious weather events in Europe and Asia
I was watching trash taste podcast and Chris wouldn't shut up about this volcano and now it's in my reccomended lmaoo
Abroad in japan enjoyer ay
1883 Telegraph about Krakatoa:
"10,000 times Hiroshima"
Reply:
"What the hell is Hiroshima?"
I’ve always been obsessed with the sound from this volcano blast. Your video describing the sounds and listing the comparisons WAS AWESOME! Best video I’ve seen on the subject. Thank you!
There's actually some traditional poems or songs at some few district on Indonesia that function as an "early warning signs" about natural disasters. In Sumatera for example, there's an old and traditional poem called "Teteu Amusiat Loga" who commonly sang when children playing hide and seek, this poem/song actually talk about earth quake and tsunami. Other district also have their old manuscript or old story about natural disasters that mostly tell as a poem, song and lullabies. The most famous one was "Serat Jayabaya" or Jayabaya's Prophecy that predicted future natural disasters along with their "early sign".
This just show how love and caring our ancestors for their future generations, that sadly many of us starting to forget in this modern era.
Imagine 45 (1980) Mount Saint Helens eruptions. And you’ve got (1883) Krakatoa. Even more impressive is that this volcano is a top candidate for an even larger eruption in 535 which caused “the worst year on the planet to be alive” via extreme weather events. It takes a lot of energy to form a 7 km wide caldera
Imagine indonesian who experienced Tambora eruption in 1815 and Krakatoa in 1883. It's less than 100 years..
Imagine 25 Krakatoa eruptions and you get the Mt Tambora eruption of April 10, 1815. The resulting related worldwide famines from my Tambora between 1815 and 1821 total about the same number of deaths from all countries that participated in world war 1.
@RichardHandcock-w2o yep, it caused the 1816 Year Without a Summer, and sent everything into the tailspin you described.
Thank you for giving the comparisons as to just how loud the eruption of Krakatoa was. I knew it was loud and huge, but I had no idea how loud it was until this video! Great upload, as always!
Claude Monet has paintings that captured those sunsets. The volcanic activity of the last several years has produced some spectacular in our time as well. Degas also has paintings that reflect the volcanic activity of that period.
The fact that this event was so loud is simply amazing
At my uni in the UK, outside the physics department's main lecture theatre there's a trace reading of air pressure from just after the eruption, showing the spikes as the sound of the explosion rang around the globe & caused measurable spikes on the graph
The fact that i got suggested this video after watching "Guy says Krakatoa before destroying toilet" makes me all the more interested.
This Krakatoa also happened in the bathroom...
ahh the volcano Chris is going to climb
Pyroclastic flows for 65km is unfathomable. Like I’ve drove for that long and imagining a burning hot cloud of ash and death behind there the whole time is simply mind boggling
Yeah Pyroclastic flows are incredibly dangerous and in fact Krakatoa's eruption was the first time we learned they could even cross the ocean. Apparently it does causing the water underneath the pyroclastic current to evaporate into steam which the surge cloud can then carry across the ocean. It's terrifying.
One of the best videos on RUclips. I revisit it often.
It's crazy to think that people who were around for WW1, may have experienced this worldwide event.
Now I have to go in to rabbit hole about underwater telegraph lines smh
I remember reading about Krakatoa in a book on volcanoes as a kid. They mentioned many of the facts in this video there, but now, about thirty years later, I am finally able to put them into perspective. Damn! 😳
Imagine living through a catastrophe so huge that your entire community changes religions
...wow chris talking about krakatoa actually lead me to here
Please dont tell me im the only one who got this recommended after seeing a short with a guy saying krakatoa and taking a massive doodoo
Great video. I read an excellent book many years ago about Krakatoa, by another Simon (Winchester), which recounts the history, geography, geology and worldwide social impact, both preceding and following the eruption, and I highly recommend it to those who find this fascinating (and still read).
“I felt a great unending scream piercing through nature.” God damn, how chillingly poignant.
That level of power in the sound waves defies logic 😳
This timed way to well with Trash Taste ep100, where the guest just kept talking about Krakatoa
Chris is the only reason I decided to click on this video tbh
might as well invite Ollie for insight prespective
Excellent recounting of the after affects of the blast. ... One of the things geologist later figured out was how the pyroclastic flow from Krakatoa literally crossed the ocean on a layer steam to leave massive ash deposits several meters thick on nearby islands.
[grunts]
Krakatoa
[aggressively shits]
krakatoa (DESTROYS THE TOILET)
Simon's beard has grown at an EXPLOSIVE rate.
He uses it as a Tax Write off, classifying it as a "Wildlife Sanctuary"
This video was just epic. I loved all the knowledge that went into it. Especially the painting near the end. I had seen it before but never actually knew the story behind it. Now I have fun facts to share with my friends. I thank you sir.
"firey death mountain"
lmao
I first learned about Krakatoa from an episode of the TV show The Time Tunnel in the mid sixties, then the movie Krakatoa East of Java in 1968.
At 8 years old (1963) I received the Boys Wonder Book of Nature as a Christmas present. In that was a dramatic account of the Krakatoa explosion & tsunamis. Vivid, stylised pictures of a towering wall of water sweeping all before it fired my interest in these events which continues to this day.
I had read that Krakatoa's explosion was the loudest sound ever heard but you brought to my notice something else, that barometers recorded the pressure pulse of the event. You live and learn...
150MT explosion just from a big pipe bomb made of rock. That's pretty impressive.
The scary thing? Supposedly some newspaper journalist had a dream that inspired him to write a short fiction piece for his paper.
Not too long after he was informed that he had almost perfectly described the eruption of Krakatoa, from a dream he had, the day of the event....from *clear across the planet.*
ooo links to more info? curious about this
Sounds like the disaster novel “Futility, or Wreck of the Titan,” a fictional story about a large British ocean liner named S.S. Titan marketed as “unsinkable” and not carrying enough lifeboats sinking on her maiden voyage after colliding with an iceberg. It was published in 1898, 14 years before the sinking of R.M.S. Titanic.
@Ultimaton100 Remarkable too that the maiden voyage of the fictional S.S. Titan also took place in the month of April, and the fictional ship also side swiped an iceberg on it's starboard side, just like the real ship 14 years later.
Planet?
@simpleman5688 yes planet meaning Earth, the guy was on the other side of the world from where the eruption happened, nowhere near it and yet had a dream about it
Krakatoa is when the most patience teacher in the school get angry.
I've heard tidbits about Krakatoa before, but this left me mouth agape just trying to comprehend the extent of it. Death toll aside, the fact that the soundwave was baromethically measurable around the globe - four times, nonetheless! How far away it was audible is staggering, and that its gasses gave visual effects in Oslo, inspiring my countryman Munch to paint Scream. It's incomprehensible, unimaginable.
This and the largest rogue wave ever recorded are probably the two things in my life that have made me laugh purely because I was so uncomfortable with the thought that I couldn’t do anything else. Like you said, it’s genuinely incomprehensible.
If you haven’t heard the story of the biggest rogue wave ever recorded (happened in Alaska), I’d highly suggest looking into it. Just pure nightmare fuel
Too Much Volcano
Man I can't believe Chris' Krakatoa shenanigans got so popular that they actually made it into a real thing
Thanks, Simon! Krakatoa has been a hobby of mine for a few years. Nice to see this!
Anyone else think of The Mighty Boosh when they hear Krakatoa? From the Charlie episode
Sound does travel way better over water than over ground.
His beard gets anymore longer and luscious hell have to put his vids in portrait 🤣🤣
I swear this mans beard is getting bushier in every upload
I only discovered his channels recently. I watched one early video pre-beard and it didn't even LOOK like the same person, LOL! I can't believe it took me so long to discover these. Such amazing fascinating vids and his presenting style is fantastic ("spontaneous pants-crapping" for the win, LOL)
@Mochrie99 try Thoughty2 as well. His early videos he looked like Malcom in the Middle before growing out the Moustache.
I like beards.
Looks soft.
@crystalunlocked(allegedly) his beard is so soft because he uses "beard blaze", his own brand of beard oil.
@crystalunlocked
I've seen Anak Krakatoa twice. Nearly 10 years ago or so. A Scots guy we were on a cruise ship with got up early for a smoke and phoned our cabin for me to come up on deck about 5 am. The ship was dead silent, just the sea rippling past as we crept slowly by the smoking mountain. An eerie and awe inspiring sight I shall never forget. Thank you for that Pat. The second time was mid-day and the Captain of another ship brought it to every one's attention so not quite so dramatic.
i am watching this video exactly 139 years and 46minutes after krakatoa erupted
Why this recommended after I watched the latest Trash Taste
I feel like the algorithm send me here because of the Trash Taste Podcast
Very well done video. You almost feel like you are a witness to the devastation. Your presentation skills have reached a whole new level.
Also appreciate your ditching of Imperial to communicate with a global audience. Bravo on all fronts, Simon! 🙂👍
This is one of the best channels on RUclips. Captivating with just himself and his voice. That’s talent.
I’ve also studied this eruption in some depth and still learned a few things from this video. Awesome job!
I’m old, and I always think of reruns of Time Tunnel and their visit to Krakatoa. The ending mentioned 200 foot tsunamis.
As an adult, I’ve heard about an earlier eruption in the 500s or 600s.
Doug and Tony 👍🏿
The Time Tunnel episode made a huge impression on me!
I love it when a historic event is put into larger context