Krakatoa: The Sound That Circled the Earth

Krakatoa's 1883 eruption was heard on Rodrigues, 4,800 kilometres away, four hours after the blast. Its pressure wave circled the Earth three and a half times.

On the island of Rodrigues, in the Indian Ocean, a police chief heard what sounded like distant gunfire. The sound had come from Krakatoa, a volcano nearly 4,800 kilometres away.

On 27 August 1883, at 10:02 in the morning, Krakatoa produced the loudest sound in recorded history. More than seventy percent of the island disappeared, tsunamis more than forty metres high swept the coasts of Java and Sumatra, and a pressure wave circled the Earth three and a half times. Ash in the stratosphere turned sunsets red around the world and cooled the following summer.

This film follows the eruption on a black-and-white line map, from the plate boundary beneath the Sunda Strait to the 2018 collapse of Anak Krakatau, the Child of Krakatoa.

⏱ CHAPTERS
0:00 Four Thousand Eight Hundred Kilometres
0:32 The Strait
1:02 Three Peaks
1:32 Beneath the Strait
2:01 Awakening
2:29 Fourteen Vents
2:58 Darkness at Noon
3:25 The Night
3:48 Morning
4:13 10:02 AM
4:42 The Caldera
5:08 The Column
5:31 The Waves
6:01 The Toll
6:26 Heard Across an Ocean
6:52 Pressure Wave
7:19 Red Skies
7:46 Colder Summers
8:15 Pumice Rafts
8:40 The First Global News
9:12 Child of Krakatoa
9:41 Epilogue

Sources and notes
- Symons, G. J. (ed.), The Eruption of Krakatoa and Subsequent Phenomena, Royal Society, London, 1888.
- Wikipedia, "1883 eruption of Krakatoa" and "Anak Krakatoa" (accessed October 2026).
- Scientific American, History of Geology blog, "August 27, 1883: Krakatoa".
- Oregon State University, Volcano World, "Historical eruption sounds".
- Library of Congress, Headlines and Heroes, "Krakatoa" (afterglow reports, 1883).
Vertical scale of the volcanic cones is exaggerated two times. The barograph trace is schematic. Wave heights and the eruption column height are estimates from contemporary and modern sources.

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