The Eruption of Krakatoa Trivia Questions

The 1883 blast destroyed most of the island, but a new cone, Anak Krakatau (Child of Krakatoa), emerged from the caldera in 1927 and is still active.

The 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia was far larger, ejecting over 160 cubic kilometers of material—roughly four times Krakatoa's output.

Over 36,000 of the estimated 36,417 deaths were from tsunamis, which reached heights of 120 feet and wiped out coastal villages across Java and Sumatra.

The sound was recorded as the loudest in modern history, traveling 3,000 miles to Rodrigues Island near Mauritius, where locals heard a distant boom.

Sulfuric ash and aerosols blocked sunlight, leading to a 1.2°C dip in global temperatures and vivid sunsets worldwide for up to three years.

Ash caused vivid red sunsets and a blue-green sun or moon in some areas, but not a green sky. The effect was mostly red and orange hues.

Barographs recorded the atmospheric shockwave traveling around the globe seven times over five days, a rare phenomenon for volcanic eruptions.

No major earthquake preceded the eruption; it was a purely volcanic event driven by internal magma pressure, though it did cause tsunamis.