The Volcanic Eruption That Lowered The Earth's Temperature

January 2005 and Asia struggles to clear up after the 2004 tsunami and come to terms with the appalling destruction that claimed the lives of over 250,000 men women and children tragically this was not a one-off event these catastrophes have happened before and will certainly happen again 122 years ago another natural disaster struck in the same geologically active region of Indonesia This Disaster was not caused by an undersea earthquake of the kind that created December tsunami but by the volcano Kato TOA this film is the story of that eruption but it is also an account of the first tentative steps towards understanding the terrible power of Earth's natural [Music] forces [Music] get on the 27th of August 1883 the uninhabited volcanic island of kakoa blew itself out of existence with an explosion the equivalent power of 150 million tons of TNT the eruption was so loud the sound Was Heard over a 12th of the Earth's surface the shock wave reverberated around the entire planet seven times these vibrations are airborne it's not coming to the ground is not an earthquake this explosion also caused giant tsunami the largest of them twice the height of those of 2004 God turn into the way now [Music] these enormous waves wiped out 165 Indonesian towns and Villages killing over 36,000 people within hours news of the disaster was transmitted around the globe and scientists of the time struggled to comprehend the geological forces that caused the tragedy this film reconstructs the true stories of survivors from their accounts and Diaries to piece together what happened in the months leading up to the most famous eruption of all [Applause] time [Music] the eruption of katoa over 120 years ago has become a landmark in our understanding of how volcanoes affect our planet Mike rampino is Professor of geology at New York University his research has been instrumental in discovering why Katura erupted with such Force he's returning to Indonesia for the first time in 26 years the 1883 eruption of katoa is one of the most important eruptions in history of of science I think probably the most important interruption in terms of history of volcanology For the First Time a large explosive volcanic eruption took place when there were enough observers spread around the world on land on ships at Sea to really get a global synoptic picture of what happens when a large uh volcanic eruption takes place katar's devastation was not wreaked by the eruption itself but like the disaster of 2004 the massive death toll was caused by tsunami volcanologist and writer Bill Maguire from University College London is an expert in tsunami but those generated by kakoa in 1883 are of particular interest to him no tsunami on the scale of cail are known I mean these ways were really quite extraordinary I mean a wall of water 120 130 ft High 40 m high at the time nobody would have understood that a volcano which is the closest 25 to 30 miles to to Java would have posed any problems at all I don't think anybody thought it was going to come and get them because they didn't know about tsunami certainly as a result of a volcanic [Music] eruption Indonesia is a group of thousands of islands in Southeast Asia two of the largest Islands in this archipelago are Java and Sumatra separating them is a busy Waterway known as the Sund [Music] Strait The the volcano Kracker TOA lies in the middle of this stretch of water today only a Remnant can be seen of the 1883 volcano to understand what Kato was like in 1883 Mike rampino has traveled to the Volcanic National Park of t bromo in East [Music] Java Indonesia is the most volcanically active region on the planet the country contains 177% of the world's active volcanoes the view at dawn from Mount penanjakan shows several of these volcanoes within a few miles of each other this is is the jewel of Indonesia but it's a beauty born from Brute Force there's a kind of rule in geology that the more beautiful the landscape the more Dynamic the processes are that create those Landscapes and volcanism is one of the most dynamic processes that exists on the planet and so we see these beautiful volcanoes these craters with steam and Ash coming out and we think how beautiful how dramatic how gorgeous but it's what's underlying this what's going on underneath the ground inside the earth it makes this such a dangerous situation Indonesia has so many volcanoes and earthquakes because of its geographical position the archipelago that starts in Northern Sumatra stretches over 3,000 M South it has been created by the forces where two of the tectonic plates that make up the Earth's surface meet the ocean floor of the Indo Australian plate and the Asian land mass of the Burmese continental plate are in Collision as they push against each other the heavier ocean floor is forced underneath the lighter Continental Rock when these plates or slabs come together one pushes its way down back into the interior of the earth that process is called subduction and as that crust is pushed down into the hot interior of the Earth the rock melts and some of that melted rock Finds Its way back up to the surface through fishes and cracks and erupt at the surface to form volcanic eruptions catoa lies directly above this subduction zone volcanologists have pieced together kakoa's eruptive history in 416 ad an ancient Katura destroyed itself in a massive explosion over the next 1200 years regular minor eruptions rebuilt the volcano these small eruptions helped release the pressure created by the enormous geological forces beneath the island but over time a plug of thick viscous magma formed in Kat's throat preventing the gases and magma from escaping to the surface the eruption ceased and by 1883 katoa was a time bomb waiting to [Music] explode within sight of katoa with the low-lying and densely populated coastlines of West Java and and Southern Sumatra situated at the southern tip of Sumatra was ktim bang just 23 miles north of katoa in 1883 ketimbang was a rural Outpost of the Dutch Colonial Empire for over 250 years colonial rule in Indonesia had effectively reduced the locals to tenants in their own land but an uneasy peace existed and there seemed little that would disturb the daily life of this heavily populated Coastal Village [Music] the controller of kin bang was villam as a Dutch official he was responsible for enforcing Colonial Law and Order each morning he would hold a clinic for the administration of the Affairs of the local people be rink was well versed in a number of skills including Islamic law local languages and rudimentary [Music] geology with the local Indonesian population serving as an extensive Workforce Mrs bearing ran a large Colonial household with numerous staff his name is [Music] Yanni katoa had been dormant for over 200 years but forces deep the Earth's surface were about to wake this sleeping Volcano by March 1883 subtle warning signs of the danger that lurked below the volcano were felt on the surface as faint Tremors undetectable to human senses what's the matter with you eh is it what you so upset about okay now near kenang lived fisherman and Village Elder ajib aib was one of the local spiritual leaders who acted as guardian to traditional Indonesian beliefs passed from generation to [Music] generation although regarded as pure Superstition by the Dutch the local belief was that the volcano Kat TOA was home to the Fearsome fire breathing God Oran alij when katoa had erupted in the past it was because oron alij was angry and a jip was convinced that one day soon the volcano would erupt again across the Sundar straight on the west coast of java a series of lighthouses had been erected to help navigate the waters the closest to katur was fourth Point Lighthouse at Ana as it recently appointed keeper tamang would be one of the first to witness the beginning of the eruption he was married with a son passing even closer to Cur was the Dutch government steamer the governor general Lon that regularly crossed the Sund straight the ship was under the command of Captain th Linderman the captain and crew of the ludan would be the witnesses closest to kaka's [Music] eruption 83 Mi east of Kato TOA on the North Coast of java is the port of Jakarta today Jakarta is a busy hub for shipping in the Far East but in 1883 the city was the capital of the Dutch East Indies Holland had been a dominant force in the Commerce of the spice Roots Oriental spices and raw materials were highly prized and in the name of profit the Dutch ruthlessly L exploited Indonesia exporting everything from gold rubber and sugar to Cinnamon pepper and [Music] Timber large numbers of trading ships would travel back and forth to Europe each one would dock in Jakarta or bavia as it was then known [Music] in 1883 do Vander stock was the director of the magnetic and meteorological observatory in Batavia he was responsible for monitoring seismic activity throughout Indonesia and his observations of the early stages of cator's eruption would help modern volcanologists understand why the volcano exploded with such [Music] Force also stationed in Batavia was Jay Sherman an energetic young geologist with a basic understanding of volcanology Sherman's expedition to katur would provide a firsthand account of the erupting volcano as well as valuable samples of pmis shman director he comes return my books oh I've not quite finished with them yet you know the 11th Commandments i' find 10 hard enough all books borrowed must be returned from pain of heal far is g a librarian well if he was you'd be struck down dead where you stand I was wondering if you had anything on animal behavior you know there's an old Japanese story about catfish they behave oddly just prior to an earthquake really well you've seen for yourself our dogs and domestic animals become disorientated just before a thunderstorm I don't believe I have anything on the subject that only goes to show there's a book to be written out just think animal behavior could be used to predict the weather even earthquakes I've heard that the Chinese who's grasshoppers if we could relate the result of your instruments with observed changes in animal behavior enough this is hardly science of course it is science everything's [Music] science in the 1800s Science and Technology were marching mankind into the modern era and the public curiosity about the natural world was at an all-time high the Victorian age is a great age of Discovery and observation and everyone was keen on recording things natural phenomena so um barometers existed in gentleman's clubs Here There and Everywhere um people were very interested in the weather in particular and so these different measuring devices started to crop up all over the world and that was fortuitous because it meant when when the eruption actually happened not only could the the events be recorded in Indonesia itself but but the distant effects could be recorded right across the [Music] [Music] planet well that all seems in order thank you better G Anna I thought we might take a walk this afternoon I'm rather busy I know but I can hardly wait until you're not busy can I then I would wait forever well perhaps tomorrow H oh no I can't I have a report to write I have to get it off to bavia tomorrow and if your report is one day late will it matter why can't you accept that I have a job to [Music] do as controller of ketimbang one of bearing's responsibilities was to report large Tremors to his superiors in bavia but having no clue where the Tremor had come from or what had caused it he was unaware of the danger that lay only 23 miles out to sea just before midnight on the 9th of May 1883 intense pressure building deep beneath the earth's crust broke through the line of weakness directly below crack TOA magma moving towards the surface split the crust apart creating a large [Music] tremor what the liouse keeper witnessed is now recognized as the first documented warning sign of the beginning of Katura 1883 eruption in May 1883 the the lighthous keeper here at the the fourth Point Lighthouse actually saw the sea sort of go flat calm just for an instant and he would have thought this was rather strange now what he was seeing then was the result of fresh magma actually breaking Rock on its way from deep down within the crust to the surface when that happens when the rock breaks it generates earthquakes and as those earthquake waves travel through the sea they cause it to freeze if you like uh it's the same thing that you see when depth charges explode beneath the surface and so that's what he would have seen he would have seen the normal behavior of the Waves then they would have Frozen for an instant and then they would have carried on again and that would have been obviously rather odd to him to momentarily freeze the Waters of the Sund Strait required incomprehensible geological forces after 200 years of dorcy catur was about to wake from its Slumber in in the early 1800s the volcanic island of katoa had been used by the Dutch as a penal colony the island had also served as an outpost for Naval reconnaissance but by 1883 katur was uninhabited and only frequented by fishermen who used the surrounding Waters as a rich hunting ground and the fertile jungle for Timber to build their boats but all that was about to change 11 days after the Tremor at the ligh house in the early morning of the 20th of May the Tranquil island of katoa burst into life intense pressure building beneath the most northern crater was finally released what's happening they're Captain dear God hold this course as best you can the initial eruption was witnessed by people aboard a dozen ships in the Sund straight including Captain Linderman on the governor general Loudon moments after the eruption shock waves were felt 23 Mi North in ketm bang minutes later the blast was felt 83 M away in Batavia the shock wave was registered in Dr vander's Observatory among his many instruments was a magnetic declinometer fitted with floating needles that were so sensitive they detected the tiniest movements through the ground or through the air using the readout from the declinometer Dr vanderock deduced he was dealing with an Air Blast caused by an explosion nearly 100 miles away did you register a tremble does that correlate with your instruments there's not an earthquake take a look at this needle has been moving in a vertical plane these vibrations are airborne it's not coming through the ground is not an earthquake then volcanic I think so at last I've always wanted a volcano what do we have on the subject but even Vander stock could not have predicted the scale of Devastation Krakatoa would wkak because he witnessed the eruption firsthand Captain Linderman's log now forms a vital part of a body of information about the eruption on the 20th of May at 10:30 in the morning a volcanic eruption was observed on the island of kataa we saw from the island a white cumulus cloud Rising fast it Rose almost vertically until after about half an hour it had reached 11,000 M here it started to spread like an umbrella as it had reached the height of the Westerly winds soon only a small part of blue sky was seen on the horizon this initial eruption however was only the Prelude to a far greater explosion Yet to Come katoa had finally woken from its [Music] slumber volcanologist Mike rampino is crossing the Sea of sand a vast volcanic plane on his way to one of the most active volcanoes in Indonesia Mount bromo has many similarities to katoa it is fueled by magma generated from the friction of the Indonesian subduction zone and its crater is approximately the same size as ca's but bromo continuously releases the pressure beneath it and is known to have erupted 50 times in the last 200 years and so never on the scale of katoa in [Music] 1883 the initial eruption of katoo on May 20th 1883 was typical for the beginning of explosive volcanic eruption uh there was a sudden explosion and a rise of a column of Ash and steam and gas in this case very rapidly up to a height of about 30,000 ft above sea level what had happened is a viscous plug of congealed magma and rock was sitting in the in the throat of that volcano for 200 years and finally the pressure below it built up to the point where The Rock cap broke that released the pressure on the magma chamber inside the volcano and that's like popping the cork on a champagne bottle in fact it's like shaking up the champagne bottle first and then popping the cor this violent eruption was the opening Salvo for a series of eruptions that were to take place over the next few months as eyewitness reports of the eruption flooded into Batavia the authorities ordered villm bearing as the closest official to the volcano to go to katoa and report on the scale of the volcanic explosion the following morning be rink and the local fisherman ajip began their Journey to the island of craa the volcano that normally dominated The Horizon was now invisible shrouded in clouds of acrid sulfurous gas their progress was painfully slow stop stop turn around although bearing had only ventured within sight of kakoa it was clear to him that the volcano was now a serious threat on his return a concerned bearing wired a report of the eruption to Dr vanderock at the magnetic and meteorological observatory in Batavia the governor general was immediately informed by the 27th of May 1883 the large eruptions on katur had abated during this relative lull inactivity an eerie calm now shrouded the mountain driven by scientific curiosity Sherman and vanderock set foot on Katura to investigate as they began their Ascent up the slopes of the active crater they saw that large areas of the once forested Island now lay charred and [Music] smoldering [Music] what could have done this these trees have been completely flattened by some immense Force the entire Forest has been stripped bare what do you make of it well it's as if some super heated Whirlwind has torn down the mountain it's remarkable indeed Sherman's report to the authorities now provides invaluable evidence of the devastation on the [Music] island following in the footsteps of the bravest or perhaps the most full hearty we climbed the bare Hills which did not offer any obstacles other than the loose Ash horrible was the view of that somber and empty landscape which portrayed itself as a picture of total Destruction foul smelling smoke permeated the landscape causing us to gag in addition to the smoke one also recognized amongst the gaseous products sulfuric acid which made itself known by its smell the samples collected by the Expedition are now a vital record of the volcanic material ejected by katoa in the early stages of eruption I expect this is what hell looks like we should be getting back I want to see the quater we don't have the time I'm going up there Sherman no you've become too comfortable stuck in your Observatory come [Music] on [Music] come come on not too far now doctor not too far soon every sign of vegetation disappeared and all we could see was the Roaring column of smoke we climbed the last Hill and we were standing at the Steep edge of the crater [Music] wall [Music] [Music] who thought hell could be so beautiful you really are quite mad Sherman aren't [Music] you Sherman and vanderock believed that the worst of the eruption was over little did they know that in 3 months time the entire island of katur would have blown itself out of existence volcanologist Mike rampino is at the lip of the crater of Mount bromo in East Java bromo's crater is a similar size to the one Sherman would have seen on katoa Sherman in a sense was one of the first volcanologists at that time volcanology was in its infancy and we didn't know much about behavior of volcanoes and in fact the study of katoa was the first real study of a volcano that began to give us information about how volcanoes work and Sherman actually did a very valuable thing by collecting samples of the material that had been erupted by the volcano during its earliest stages of eruption clearly when Sherman walked across C TOA he should have known that it was a dangerous place to be Sherman's party had no real understanding of just how dangerous their expedition had been today volcanologists like M rampino fully understand the deadly forces that had stripped the slopes of Katura forces known as pyroclastic flows they were quite lucky to be there during a time when the volcano was less active because the area had been devastated by pyroclastic flows and surges hot mixtures of Ash and gas cator's first eruption had thrown fine particles of Ash High into the atmosphere but the real danger lay closer to its flanks heavier material had cascaded down the sides of the volcano a superheated debris anything standing in the way of this parastic flow would have been incinerated instantly by the end of May 1883 Kaka TOA the volcano that had violently awoken after 200 years returned to relative calm for 3 months after Sherman's Expedition all that was noticed on the island was a continuous plume of smoke and the occasional Rumble because of the widespread belief that the eruption was over life in the coastal communities of West Java and Southern Sumatra returned to normal it's very common during many explosive eruptions during the early stages that that you get some activity and then things Qui B and down again this is the really dangerous thing about explosive eruptions it's almost impossible to predict when the climax is going to be in the case of some eruptions it can come within a week in the case of Kau it came months after activity started and there's a danger always that once activity has died down people are going to say well that's it let's forget about it everything we're all safe now but that often isn't the case along the coastlines of West Java and Southern Sumatra the morning of Sunday the 26th of August 1883 was as any other at 6 minutes past 1 on the afternoon of Sunday the 26th of August 1883 all three craters on the volcanic island of katoa erupted in a massive volley of explosions the enormous pressure that had been building for hundreds of years was suddenly released what was to become the most devastating volcanic event in recorded history had begun the densely populated communities living within sight of katoa on the coastal areas of West Java and Southern Sumatra now had only hours before the full force of the volcano would devastate the area once the volcano really started getting going at at lunchtime the 26th things were going to go from bad to worse there were big explosions every 10 minutes or so and these merged together to form a column of Ash and Deb which extended up to something like 25 km 18 mil into the atmosphere there was Heavy Ash Fall there was a lot of pmus falling on on ships out in the Straits and by late afternoon everywhere was pitched black and uh you probably could hardly see a hand in front of your face you would have had earthquakes going on accompanying these these explosions at the same time you would have been having these flows of of hot dayrick or parastic flows entering the Sea and the Sea would have been getting increasingly agitated the ship closest to katoa that afternoon just 12 mil away was the governor general Loudon keep her away from the coast we mustn't be drawn Inland hot sticky volcanic ash fell from the dark clouds smothering the ship get that paravit off the deck before it explodes overboard all of this overboard overboard The Heavy Rain of Ash and pomus spre 23 M North to ketimbang in southern Sumatra they would have experienced uh Ash starting to drift down and then maybe sort of pellet size bits of pmus and bigger bits of pmus falling um uh and generally just this increase in the amount of material falling out of the sky when it got really dark when the ash fall was so heavy that um you couldn't really see anywhere then you would have you I think temperatures would probably have risen because beneath very heavy ashall it does get very sticky and muggy and you can it's not hot but it is warm and they would have experienced that at 5:30 the following morning the first of four truly cataclysmic explosions occurred on katoa the volcano erupted literally ripping itself apart in an explosion equivalent to the power of a thousand atomic bombs why this small volcanic island in the Indonesian archipelago exploded with such ferocity has puzzled volcanologists for almost a 100 years in order to answer that question Mike rampino is on his way to katur to the only part of the Volcano That Remains today the island of Rakata [Music] rampino first visited Katura in 1979 to pick over the remains of the eruption in search of vital evidence he's now returning with local guide samsul to confirm his latest Theory the first time I was here with with a group of scientists we were looking at the pyroclastic deposits the pus deposits of the 1883 eruption specifically to try and figure out what the triggering mechanism was for the enormous explosion that took place in August of 1883 the initial Theory to explain the extreme violence of cator's eruptions was that seawater seeped inside the volcano and mixed with the magma to create the huge explosions this Theory did not stand up to scrutiny we were testing the idea that sea waterer got into the volcanic vent and that's what caused the explosion what we found was that usually those kinds of eruptions have very very fine grain puses the puses are fragmented by the reaction with the water and here at kakoa I've seen that the puses are rather large and so the lack of fine grain material suggests that it wasn't seawat getting into the vent that triggered the eruption if seawater didn't trigger these huge explosions what did hidden in reata's dense jungle a thick layers of pmus ejected from the volcano in 1883 this volcanic rock is a permanent record of what happened deep beneath groa and explains why it erupted with such exceptional violence here we could uh find a a huge chuckle and uh also uh fish everywhere yeah here here this one and oh this is really big uh wow the charcoal here trees that were killed by the by the ash so beautiful sequence of puses finer grain another uh pmus layer but small puses and then the parastic flow deposits going all the way to the top of the out yes yes my God yes the whole eruption sequence you can see it here molten rock lying inside katoo magma chamber for 200 years of dorcy was light in color and cool in temperature after the initial eruption in May the magma chamber was part emptied and that void was filled From Below by dark colored magma that was extremely hot in temperature it was a lethal cocktail as the two mixed together the intense heat of the dark magma created huge amounts of gas that expanded eventually creating enough pressure to cause the volcano to erupt with terrifying Force so this is the uh mixed pmus it's got the light material and the dark material two different kinds of magma that triggered the 1883 eruption this light colored magma was sitting there for a long time in the magma chamber and then then this dark colored stuff came in from the bottom heated it up and caused it to overturn and for the gas to begin to come out of the magma and the pressure built up and that's what caused the volcanic eruption yes yes this mixing of two magmas beneath katur was the direct cause of the massive explosions but when combined with a volcano's unique position in the Sundar Strait these explosions generated a series of giant tsunami some would be the largest waves ever witnessed at 6:44 on the morning of the 27th of August 1883 the second massive eruption occurred on katur parastic flows of dense material cascaded down the flanks of the volcano and immense submarine slides generated giant shock waves in the surrounding ocean in the Sunda straight the shock waves were witnessed as huge crests of [Music] water dear God turn her into the wave now as fast as you can [Music] P yourself down [Music] when these first waves reached the coastline of java they slowed and reared up to enormous height revealing the full horror of a tsunami are you are [Music] you today all that's left of the fourth Point Lighthouse are the remains of its foundations a 6ft thick brick buttress despite its obvious strengths the structure was unable to survive the enormous force of the tsunami the lighthouse seemed as if it was going to survive but then it was hit by a block of coral estimated the way something like 00 tons which had been scraped up from the seabed and which had crashed into the base of the lighthouse and it looked as if it separated the lighthouse from its base and the whole thing toppled over and was then broken up and carried off in the Water 2 years after the destruction of the fourth Point Lighthouse a new one was built just yards from the original the new fourth Point Lighthouse it's 40 m High which is just about the height of the largest wave and looking down from here it's almost unbelievable that that you could get a wave that high it would have completely trashed the whole region I mean a wave of 40 m and remember this isn't just like a single wave that crashes onto a beach tsunami have very long wavelength so the waves can be hundreds of meters or several kilometers long so they come in as a wall of water that wall just keeps coming and it would have just wiped out everything entirely a total of 19,600 Javanese died on this stretch of Coastline alone these black and white photographs of the destruction taken over 120 years ago are sadly all too familiar today the 2004 tsunami was more destructive in the sense that it killed more people over a large area and that is because such a big area of seabed was jolted upwards and that sent these waves out the waves generated by the katur eruption were much much bigger but they lost energy very rapidly so they didn't travel any great distances the fourth Point tsunami stripped the sand from the beaches and destroyed everything in its path it seemed like the end of the world but worse was yet to come the morning of of the 27th must have been absolutely appalling particularly after the these gigantic explosions have started and and after the first Great Waves had destroyed many of the communities um along the coast of javr and Southern samarra so people had already many people had already died others were were terrified and I think people by then must have begun to wonder you know is is this the end of the world is this just affecting us here or or is everybody experiencing this at two minutes past 10 on the morning of the 27th of August 1883 kakoa exploded once more this time with such extreme intensity that it was heard over a 12th of the Earth's surface the sound of the detonation was carried 2,000 M South to Perth Australia and 3,000 miles west to Rodriguez island in the Indian Ocean it Remains the longest distance traveled by any Airborne sound in recorded history this was the climax of the whole eruptive sequence one of the loudest noises if not the loudest noise ever heard by uh modern humans when villm bearing the controller of ketimbang witnessed this huge eruption he realized that the explosion would produce a tsunami of enormous [Music] size the tsunami generated by katoa would travel across the sundas straight at approximately 60 MPH taking just 20 minutes to travel the 23 M to K him [Music] Bank we have to get to Higher Ground [Music] fortunately for the bearings Ken bang was situated at the foot of Mount RAB [Music] [Music] Bassa [Music] [Music] the bearings escaped the clutches of the tsunami by climbing the slopes of Mount rajabasa to 400 ft above sea [Music] level by mid morning on the 27th of August 8,038 people had died around kin [Music] bang leaving death and destruction in its wake the tsunami funneled up the lampong bay continuing to slow in speed and gather in height tsunami are all incredibly affected by topography and they will get funneled by um by Bays by esies by Harbors Etc and that happened here in lampong Bay the wave that devastated the entire low-lying region Around The Bay here the fishing communities on samata would have had no chance at all the wave that came up this Bay was 24 M high so you're talking maybe 80 or 90 ft high this would have been a wall of water which just continued to come in land for several minutes there would have been no chance to survive unless you were close to to high ground and could actually make a run for it because the waves would be traveling as fast as a as a sprinter could run and most people wouldn't have a chance of outr running [Music] that at the head of the lampong bay lying directly in the path of the tsunami was telok batong the largest port in Southern sadra the entire town was washed away killing a further 2,263 [Music] people this is the the mouth of the river Coran which is at the head of lamong bay and it's an excellent example of what telk batong would have looked like after the tsunami had funneled up the bay and then gone back out again a scene of complete Devastation really mud covering everything trees sheared off so that all you see are the stump sticking up and no sign at all of human habitation in the harbor at tck batong was the Dutch government steam ship the baru its moing boy Now lies as a forgotten Monument to the dead this is the only memorial for the Indonesian victims of [Music] [Music] katoa with similar power to the 2004 tsunami the wave generated by kakura picked up the steamship Buu and her crew of 28 and carried them Inland their final resting place can be found almost 2 miles up the river coryan the beru was already suffering because the Seas were getting very agitated and then a big tsunami tore the ship from its moing boy and dumped it up this River [Applause] here this is where it all ended for the baru and uh 28 dead crewman um 1.8 mil up the Coran River about 30 F feet above sea level when the boat was found which is about a month after the eruption it was actually in very good condition it was stretched across the river here it was full of Ash and mud but its engines were in working order and if it could have been got back to the Sea it could have actually been uh seaworthy again but its real fate was much more ignominious than that it just sat here rusting away for many decades um virtually disappearing after 50 years or so its huge boiler remained behind until that was washed down and a flash flood in 1979 and finally cut up for [Music] scrap at 10:45 on the morning of the 27th of August 1883 the fourth and final eruption tore kakat TOA apart when the Ash and smoke cleared the shell of the volcano had collapsed beneath the surface of the water into the empty magma chamber all that was left was a remnant of the volcano known as Rakata and the existing islands of vatan and Lang one of the last casualties of katur was the bearing's child burnt choked by Ash and poisonous gas the baby eventually succumbed to the trauma mam so cold [Laughter] [Music] no reports following the eruption reveal that the Lighthouse Keeper miraculously survived the tsunami his wife and child did [Music] [Music] not despite his personal tragedy re records show that tamang stood by his post performing his duty as keeper warning passing ships in the Sund Strait Captain Linderman and the crew of the governor general ludan also survived the [Music] ordeal within hours of the final eruption the dramatic news was being transmitted around the [Music] world the names and obituaries of the 37 Europeans who died were widely published but the names of the thousands of Indonesian victims were never recorded and their personal details have been lost in time [Music] time in total 36,41 people died and 165 towns and villages were destroyed it remains to this day the largest known death toll from any volcanic eruption most of those deaths resulted from water from the the oceans from the tsunami not from the Direct effects of hot rock and that's something that many people don't don't appreciate about volcanic eruptions even today that the the big Killers uh include tsunami and include things like volcanic mud flows and in fact a number of the great desire diss volcanic disaster have been caused by these relatively indirect effects but it wasn't just Indonesia that was changed by katur 11 cubic miles of rock and Ash had been blasted into the atmosphere and for many years after 1883 the effects of the eruption would be felt around the world if you add up all the material that was erupted by katoa and brought it to Manhattan you could cover the island of Manhattan to a depth of about 200 ft that's the volume of material ejected during the the massive phase of the cck to eruption in 1883 no Atomic Bomb Blast can rival the sound that the final eruption made the shock waves from the explosion reverberated around the globe seven times and was still detectable 5 days later very few people appreciate how cataclysmic volcanic eruptions can be and in fact 500 million people live within the danger zones around active volcano today that's more than 1 in 12 of the Earth population but the thing is volcanoes aren't always going to sit there looking pretty every now and again they generate these cataclysmic eruptions that's something that that Kracker TOA taught us and I think people only then began to realize certainly scientists that a single volcanic eruption could be so powerful as to affect everyone on the planet katoa erupted in a Dutch Colony but it was left to British scientists to document and analyze its effect around the world Dr Elena iWood is a meteorologist at Reading university she's visiting the Royal Society in London the society was established in 1660 to promote the study of natural phenomena and in January 1884 it set up a cracker TOA committee to investigate the effects of the eruption on a global scale Dr Highwood studies changes in CL and atmospheric conditions after large volcanic eruptions and the Royal Society contains the most comprehensive collection of material devoted to kakoa are these yes they are these are the papers relating to the craer committee and that's the committee minutes okay thank you the katoa committee collated in meticulous detail documentation from all over the world they collected newspaper cuttings and ships logs commission scientific reports and even invited the public to write in with eyewitness accounts of the effects of katoa the result was the most comprehensive report about a volcanic eruption of its time so this report starts right from the start of the volcanic eruption talking about the geology and then it it covers everything it goes through the sea waves there's time scales for the atmospheric waves um passing around the the globe seven times and they're recorded everywhere from Australia right the way through to Oxford um really a global phenomenon and then an awful lot on optical phenomena so Twilight effects um Sunset sunrises so um August the 29th from Japan um the sun was blood red with jets like smoke passing across its face a month later or so Hazel Meir in Su light pink Sirus Stripes at Sunset buan Aeries uh the last days of September the glows began they lasted 1 hour 30 minutes the sun and moon were occasionally colored and there's evidence here that this continued for four or 5 years this was really the first evidence that started to give metrologists a good idea of of how matter is transported through the [Music] atmosphere these changes in the night sky within days of the eruption confirmed the existence of high-speed high altitude winds that transported volcanic particles through the atmosphere today these winds are known as jet streams and their Discovery has plac played a pivotal role in our understanding of the [Music] weather the eruption of katoa propelled 11 cubic miles of Ash and dust into the air the heavier material fell back to Earth but the tiniest particles and sulfur dioxide gas continued to rise into the the upper atmosphere within days carried by jet streams this aerosol of tiny droplets of sulfuric acid veiled 70% of the world and reflected solar radiation back to space the result was an overall cooling of the Earth's temperature by half a degree C but this process had another impact on the globe it turned the skies blood [Music] red housed in the archive of London's science museum is perhaps the most vibrant example of how craa affected weather systems on the other side of the world curator Wendy Sheridan is showing Dr Highwood the work of Victorian painter William ascra between September 1883 and 1886 ascroft sketched the changing Skies from Chelsea West London the result is a series of extraordinary oil pastels this is the first panel of 72 of 533 sketches that the artist William ascroft started sketching in 1883 three when he noticed changes in the colors of sunsets and he spent four years in virtually the same place sketching them timing each sketch uh according to the changes in the colors so this sequence shows some particularly Vivid colors um some very very strong red and yellow coloration through the whole of the atmosphere so these really Vivid Reds are a product of of the fact that there was osol in the stratosphere that had been transported from the catara eruption and light passing through that layer is scattered but it's scattered differently depending on what color it is and so we tend to see Reds um more strongly in sunsets and sun [Music] rises in an age of black and white photography asra's unique work acts as a time-lapse account of how kakoa thousands of miles away directly affected the British [Music] Skyline over 120 years later the story of katoa is far from [Music] over although the eruption in 1883 almost completely destroyed the entire volcano from its ashes a new one is emerging in the middle of the old cira lies anak katal the child of kataa and it's active and growing Mike rampino set foot on anak 26 years ago he's now returning there with Dr Rudy Hadis Santino from the volcanological survey of Indonesia Rudy accompanied him on his first trip this must grow so so fast this very fast growth because there was almost no Forest here when we were here last time so the uh the lava flows on the other side of the island this side of the island mostly jungle but so this is the end of the forest and there is an twice as big as it was 25 years ago yeah when I was here with you yeah yeah right in its short life the volcano has injured five tourists and claimed the life of one hit by a lava bomb exploding out of the crater there's now an official warning advising against venturing onto the island it's hard to climb yeah very steep anak cracker first revealed itself in December 1927 when it erupted violently just beneath the surface of the water since then it has been erupting with increasing intensity and growing rapidly at a rate of 15 ft every year today anak is over 2,600 100 ft High almost the same height katur was in 1883 it covers one and a qu square miles and between 1992 and 2000 ejected over 50 million tons of material it appears that kakat TOA is preparing itself for another huge eruption almost at the main crat yeah it's here oh wow wow what do you think the diameter do it looks uh about 200 M across 600 ft across yeah I think so yeah and the ferals yeah here I'm choking though from The sulfur dioxide we're standing here on on an active volcano and at katoa the old peak of katoa is behind us and the old uh craters the rupt centers for the 1883 eruption were on the same line so that's why volcanologists now think that there was a a fault line of Fisher that ran along in a straight line here along which all of these volcanic centers were erupting the anak cracker tow is being carefully monitored by the volcanological survey of Indonesia and particular attention is being paid to the viscosity of the magma what's the temperature uh 110 110 cels and then this is in the future we would expect that anak Kau would build larger and larger volcano here but eventually things going on inside the earth uh will cause changes in the type of magma that's coming up and uh the more viscous it is the more chance of uh congealed magma uh sealing or or blocking the throat of the volcano the more chance of an explosive eruption an atracker Tower will continue to grow in size and it's a geological inevitability that sooner or later processes deep beneath the volcano will cause katoa to erupt once more with paroxysmal Force as we know from the tra events of the tsunami of 2004 history repeats itself and for the people of Indonesia living in this geologically unstable region the unpredictability of nature is all too real the tragedy of katoa was it was located in the middle of The sunnda Straits surrounded by water and surrounded by coastlines that were fairly densely populated uh very low-lying coastlines unprotected Ed in any way from from these kinds of waves the work of Sherman vanderock and the Royal Society was an important step in advancing modern science's understanding of how these geological processes work but the challenge for the future is not just to understand these forces but to predict them the hard Lessons Learned are that the destructive power of nature should never be underestimated katoa and the tsunami of 2004 remind us that we live on an active planet where the Earth's crust is constantly destroyed and regenerated these immense geological forces going on beneath us reveal themselves in unforeseen ways is and with terrible consequences

Channel: Naked Science

Views: 1,634,418

Keywords: doc, documentary film, documentaries, HD documentary, education, history, informative, docudrama, krakatoa, volcanic, eruption, volcano, krakatoa story, anak krakatau, lampung, banten, shockwave, earthquake, tsunamis, indonesia, geography, geology, tectonic plates, earth, nature, natural forces, true story, real life, true drama, caldera, lava, magma, erupting lava, volcanic eruption, top 10 volcanos, volcanoes on camera, history documentary, real sound, krakatoa sound, krakatua, sunda strait, mountain

Id: P9cfgOCd5Oc

Length: 85min 12sec (5112 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 01 2023