The Eruption That Silenced Krakatoa

On August 27th, 1883, sailors aboard the British ship Norham Castle felt a shockwave ripple through the Indian Ocean as the island of Krakatoa exploded. Every clock in Jakarta, over 100 miles away, froze at 10:02 AM, shattering windows and blowing eardrums across towns. Ash darkened the skies so completely that people in Sumatra lit lanterns at noon, and in Australia, telegraph operators reported two days of unnatural twilight. The noise was so violent it ruptured the eardrums of crew on the Norham Castle, yet no one could understand how any eruption could echo to the other side of the world. The blast from Krakatoa was so powerful, its sound circled the globe seven times and killed over 36,000 people in a matter of hours.