Javanese nervously eye volcano

Press, 30 November 1982, Page 9

Javanese nervously eye volcano

By

PETER GRIFFITHS,

of

Reuter (through NZPA) Anak Krakatoa, Indonesia Sensing a conjunction Of ill omens, the dukuns, high priests of Javanese.. mysticism, are shuffling their chicken bones harder than usual., ’■ Nowhere are the incantations to appease the wrath of the gods louder than in the tiny village mosques crouched among terraced paddies within range of “The Childof Krakatoa? Soothsayers and Javanese peasants agree ’ that the , spirits are angry and are * expressing their rage ; by, withholding rain and vomiting flames. The country's Vice-President, Mr Adam Malik, conscious of ? the mood, has called on the 150 million Indonesians crowded on to the hottest part of the Pacific ring of volcanic fire to humble themselves before Allah the Almighty, r He told some of the 30,000 refugees who have fled from the erupting Galunggung volcano in central Java: >“The are a warning from the Almighty. You

must realise your sins and return to the path of righteousness.” It is not difficult to understand the apprehension. The pnce-fertile area around Galunggung has been blanketed by ashes. There is real fear that nearby valley towns could be swept away in huge mudslides triggered by the now-overdue monsoon rains. • But ironically Indonesia is also gripped by its most serious drought for years. The- dry season rice crop was hit, , and the vital wet ' season - crop, already, a month late, has yet to be planted. And on the coasts of Java and Sumatra, along the nar- ' row' and turbulent Sunda Straits between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea, people are casting a wary eye at “The Child of j Krakatoa,” rising from the : sea; ' Next August 27, at 10.02 a.m. to be exact, it will be • 100 years since the Krakatoa volcano exploded in the biggest natural bang in history. The blast, with the power of

100 atom bombs, was heard in India and Australia. In a few minutes an island the size of Manhattan virtually disappeared. A facing wall of water rolled out in air directions. Rearing up as it approached the shore, it swept through coastal towns, at a greater height than the steeples of their Dutch Reform churches; In Java and Sumatra at, least 36,000 people drowned. The wave swept across the Indian Ocean, touched Cape Horn and rolled up the Atlantic. Two days after it left Krakatoa there were unusually high tides in the English Channel, 11,500 miles (18,400 km) away. “The Child of Krakatoa is growing bigger every year. When the spirits are angry it spits fire. One. day it will explode again.’’ So says Amir, a 50-year-old father of four who braves the capricious weather and strong currents of the straits to sail his ancient wooden perahu 30 miles from the Javanese village of Labuan

toX fish around the volcano, - “Wq. can only pray and make gifts to the spirit of the sea,” he said. Rakata, the' remains of Krakatoa after three-quar-ters of it was engulfed, became cloaked in vegetation within 40 years. Then the pythons and giant rats which colonised Rakata saw the birth of a new Krakatoa nearby. Amid a dense cloud of steam, a fiery cone of cinders emerged ®) metres above the sea in Octobet, 1952. By March the next year, “The Child of Krakatoa” measured 100 metres.

It is now 1000 metres long, more than 200. metres high and growing with x every eruption which blasts red hot lava and ash from its, fiery crater. . ■' i It. is possible,* although dangerous-, to. land on 'the, java-store of Anak Krakatoa when it is not going through one of its intermittent eruptions. ... - People who dig their toes into the black lava beach can feel the subterranean heat.

Reeds, their bright green contrasting sharply with the coal-coloured terrain and the azure sea, have gained a foothold furthest from the crater.

An agonising half-hour climb over a moonscape of jagged lava shimmering with heat ends at the lip of Anak Krakatoa’s crater.

Bright yellow splashes of sulphur mark gas blowholes around its rim. The stinking sulphurous fumes are almost overpowering but the visitor can stare down through a thick haze of gas into a vast pit of hot lava. Vulcanoldgists believe that the danger that Anak Krakatoa will explode like its father is remote. They say that the ejected material is still mainly basaltic, with none of the dangerous increase in silica content which would indicate that caldera collapse —- the technical name for the Krakatoa ■ disaster r-. is imminent. ■■- But, ■ millions of simple Javanese like Amir know nothing of silica or basalt and for them the omens are ominous.