Krakatoa, or KRAKATAU, a volcanic island in the Strait of Sunda, between Java and Sumatra, was in 1883 the scene of one of the most tremendous volcanic disturbances on record. From May the volcano on the island had been ejecting its contents in showers of ashes; during 26th, 27th, and 28th August the crater walls fell in, together with a part of the ocean bed, carrying with it two-thirds of the island (total area before the eruption 13 sq. m.), and creating two small islands, which subsequently disappeared. At the same time a gigantic ocean-wave inundated the adjoining coasts of Java and Sumatra, causing a loss of 36,500 lives, and the destruction of 300 villages, and then careered round the entire globe. The noise of the eruption was heard for a distance of 2000 and even 3000 miles. The occurrence likewise set up a series of concentric atmospheric waves, which travelled at least three times round the earth. The dust and other finely-comminuted debris cast up by the explosion gave rise during three years or more to weird sun-glow of wondrous beauty, those seen in Great Britain in November 1883 being especially grand. See E. Metzger in Petermann's Mitteilungen (1886); Report of the Krakatoa Committee of the
Royal Society (Lond. 1888); and G. J. Symons, The Eruption of Krakatoa (1888).