THE BLOWING UP OF KRAKATOA.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 46, 23 February 1901, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE BLOWING UP OF KRAKATOA.

Sir Robert Ball, in a lecture at the Royal Institution last month, had fi good deal to say about this, the greatest volcanic eruption ever known. Krakatoa is a tiny islet in (the Straits of Sunda, arid in 1353 it created a record by the explosion which took place there and affected the whole earth.- The noise was the greatest ever heard, and was heard .1000 miles away. Huge waves were set tip in the sea, which carried ships high and dry on to Java and Sumatra; mtfny lives were lost, and much damage was done. Great air waves diverged from the seat of. the explosion, converged to the antipodes of Kraka toa, encompassed the globe seven tines before subsiding, and were perceived in Great Britain. The huge red-hot blocks of pumice hurled oitt of the volcano knocked together and produced quantities of dust particles, which were carried far and wide over the entire earth and produced the ,gorgeous sunsets of the winter of 1883. Such eruptions, said Sir Robert, tench us that the interior of the enrth is a great blast furnace, the heaf being tremendous. The earth is now cooling, and therefore contracting*, daily. This shrinking process gives rise to earthquakes, which occur when, the crust of the earth is weak. Some years ago a great boring was made near Leipzig, which went down to .a greater depth than had ever beeri reached before. By means of a diamond drill a hole was bored in the earth to a depth of 150 yards over a mile. A thermometer was let down to the bottom, and it was found- that ; the temperature there was 80 deg. hotter than at the surface.