Krakatoa's Child

Every once in a while, I come back to a previous post with an update.  I posted about the famous eruption of the volcano Krakatoa on August 27, 1883 a few years ago (see "Krakatoa").  Krakatoa was actually an archipelago located in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra in the modern day country of Indonesia.  Krakatoa became increasingly active with a series of small eruptions occurring from May 20-October 21, 1883.  However, the volcano more or less "blew its top off" on August 27, 1883, destroying nearly 70% of the island and surrounding archipelago, which collapsed into a caldera.  The eruption was one of the deadliest and most destructive eruptions in recorded history.

Krakatoa's eruption was heard almost 3,000 miles away by scientists on the island nation of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean.  The accompanying pressure (blast) wave circled the world at least 7 times.  Massive tsunamis that occurred in the aftermath caused most of the 36,000 reported deaths.  There were multiple reports of human skeletons floating across the Indian Ocean on rafts of pumice stone hundreds of miles away from the eruption, some of which washed up on the shores of the east coast of Africa up to a year after the eruption.  

The eruption itself caused a volcanic winter as temperatures dropped by an average of 0.4 °C in the northern hemisphere.  Global weather patterns changed, with some areas reporting record rainfalls and widespread flooding, while other areas experienced severe drought.  The ash darkened the skies and changed the character of the setting sun as far away as the United States.  Krakatoa's eruption served as inspiration, albeit indirectly, for the famous painting The Scream by the artist Edvard Munch and the classic novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

Here is the update to this story!  The smaller island (also a volcano) of Anak Krakatoa (which is Indonesian for "Child of Krakatoa") formed after the 1883 eruption.  I mention Anak Krakatoa now, because the volcano began to erupt just this past Friday (September 4, 2026).  More than a quarter million airline passengers have been stranded over the weekend, due to the closure of several airports in the region caused by the ash cloud.  So far, there haven't been any tsunamis, and I haven't seen a reported death toll either.  Regardless, Anak Krakatoa continues Krakatoa's legacy and provides us with yet another reminder of nature's power!