VOLCANOES IN JAVA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20191, 31 August 1927, Page 12

VOLCANOES IN JAVA.

“Java,” says Mr Edward Long in tho Wide World Magazine, “is not only a land of volcanoes; it is also one of the world’s ‘safety-valves/ for, although great eruptions are happily rare, minor ones occur constantly in a good many of tho 125 known volcanic centres, in other ways —by means of steam fountains, mud geysers, and gas jets—the island also ‘ lets off steam,’ and so helps to keep the rest of the earth normal. “ Occasionally, however, she has had to pay a heavy bill owing to volcanic disaster. In August, 1883, for instance, Krakatoa, a small island in the Sunda Straits, between Java and Sumatra, blew most of itself to atoms. When the outbreak was over, instead of a volcano rising high into the air, there was a huge cavity below the sea with a depth in places of over 1000 ft. The force of the eruption was absolutely terrific. Nearly 40,000 people perished on the coasts of Java and Sumatra, overwhelmed by a huge tidal wave; the sun was obscured by an intense darkness; columns of smoko and flame shot up into the sky, and for a considerable distance in the neighbourhood of Krakatoa the countryside was covered with a thick layer of pumice dust and ashes.”