Review

Jerry Ciacho November 3, Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded British journalist, explorer and geologist Simon Winchester delves into and explores the lasting and the ever so powerful consequences and results of the disastrous and shattering explosion in the coast of Indonesia of the planet’s most devastating super volcano island, Krakatoa. Simon Winchester’s concentrated experience travelling all around the world and exploring, together with his expertise and knowhow in the areas of geology and the imparts to readers a complete firsthand viewpoint on among history’s most intriguing and well-known tragedy as he restores the entire experience to life, incorporating the effect the eruption had on mankind as it “ left a trail of practical consequences-political, religious, social, economic, psychological, and scientific consequences among them.” (Winchester 68) Winchester portrays the violent and vehement eruption of Javanese island of Krakatoa by the use of the personal encounter of the ones who were able to survive the catastrophe that wiped out about two thirds of the inhabitants in the island. According to Winchester, he saw Krakatoa as one colossal entity that showed “ a wonderfully seductive combination of qualities, being beautiful and dangerous, unpredictable and unforgettable.” (Winchester 4) Certainly, it was unforgettable for many as the eyewitnesses provide a dismaying and striking description as they tell about the mortality count that arrived at approximately 40, 000 lives, most of whom were drowned and buried underwater from the colossal tidal waves that were created from the eruption’s extremely strong repercussion, affecting the island’s physical and human geography. The dismaying outcomes of the massive tsunamis were sensed as distant of a place as Spain and Italy. Pressure indicators in several states in the United States and some countries located in South America went erratic. Australians, Indians and people who lived thousands and thousands of kilometers away were able to hear the resounding boom of Krakatoa’s ruin. Interminable torrents of searing dust and powder consumed several towns and municipalities; and choked the burning ocean. If many were destroyed by the rushing torrents of the tsunamis, others were destroyed by the raining of thick black volcanic ash. Indeed, in Winchester’s point of view, ” It was the greatest detonation, the loudest sound, the most devastating volcanic event in modern recorded human history, and it killed more than thirty-six thousand people.” (Winchester 22) However, the most unexpected aspect in the book is Winchester’s argument that the desertion of the Dutch from their settlements subsequent to the incident caused the native people who survived the catastrophe to find consolation in Islam, providing the backdrop for an unstable and unsteady future. Considering the administrative atmosphere presently, the volcanic explosion played a big role in generating an upsurge of difficult anti-Western belligerency amid strict Muslims: among the first Islam-stirred flare-up of murders anyplace. The event also affected the locals’ religion immensely. Winchester describes how religious superstition governed in the 19th century during the occurrence of the eruption. Many locals believed that the disastrous incident was a way of communication from a furious deity who ruled the people in that area and the cataclysm’s cause was due to the god’s fury. In a geographic context, the cause of one of the greatest volcanic explosions is two major tectonic plates that lie around the Javanese island of Krakatoa. “ On one side is the Indo-Australian Plate; on the other, the Euro-Asian plate. The middle point, where the two plates meet, where they come together very slowly but with immense and unthinkable raw power, is in consequence a serried line of the world’s greatest, most dangerous, and most predictably unpredictable volcanoes-including, lurking, just on the Asian side of an imagined extrapolation of the Wallace Line, the most demonstrably dangerous of them all, the once-great island of Krakatoa.” (Winchester 113) Taking into consideration the human geography at the time of eruption, Winchester believes that Krakatoa was perhaps the most devastating tragedies to have happened in the history of mankind. Yes, it only stands as the fifth most explosive eruption. However, the difference between the others lies in this simple fact: “ when Krakatoa erupted it was 1883, and the world was a profoundly different place. Sophisticated human beings were on hand to see this volcano’s convulsions.” (Winchester 30) Truly, Winchester did a great job in integrating not only the physical topography, but also included the involvement human layout had on the eruption. This comprised the technical development that permitted the citizens to be informed about the upsurge in moments of its occurrence. At the same time, the then restricted understanding was unable to pacify their uncertainties about the entire situation. Works Cited Winchester, Simon. Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded, August 27, 1883. New York: Harper-Collins, 2003. Print.