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Krakatoa

Volcanic Formations

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Krakatoa is a caldera in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra, in Indonesia's Lampung province, sitting above a subduction zone where the Eurasian and Indo-Australian plates meet at a sharp bend that leaves the crust there unusually weak. Its catastrophic eruption of August 26-27, 1883, ejected an estimated 25 cubic kilometers of rock, was heard as far away as Australia, and killed at least 36,417 people, mostly through tsunamis, destroying two-thirds of the original island; Rakata is the only remnant of that island to survive. In 1927 a new volcanic cone, Anak Krakatau, meaning Child of Krakatoa, emerged from the caldera and has erupted periodically since, including a 2018 flank collapse that triggered a deadly tsunami, with further eruptive activity recorded into the 2020s.

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