Krakatoa
author of The Professor and the Madman and The Map That Changed the World examines the enduring and world-changing effects of the catastrophic eruption off the coast of Java of the earth's most dangerous volcano -- Krakatoa. The legendary annihilation in 1883 of the volcano-island of Krakatoa -- the name has since become a byword for a cataclysmic disaster -- was followed by an immense tsunami that killed nearly forty thousand people. Beyond the purely physical horrors of an event that has only very recently been properly understood, the eruption changed the world in more ways than could possibly be imagined. Dust swirled round the planet for years, causing temperatures to plummet and sunsets to turn vivid with lurid and unsettling displays of light. The effects of the immense waves were felt as far away as France. Barometers in Bogota and Washington, D.C., went haywire. Bodies were washed up in Zanzibar. The sound of the island's destruction was heard in Australia and India and on islands thousands of miles away. Most significant of all -- in view of today's new political climate -- the eruption helped to trigger in Java a wave of murderous anti-Western militancy among fundamentalist Muslims: one of the first outbreaks of Islamic-inspired killings anywhere. Simon Winchester's long experience in the world wandering as well as his knowledge of history and geology give us an entirely new perspective on this fascinating and iconic event as he brings it telling back to life.
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What Hacker News says
- If you are looking for an in depth (pop-sci) dive into the mass extinctions in earth's history definitely check out "The Ends of the World" by Peter Brannen. It covers the five mass extinctions with a good mix of scientific detail and entertaining writing. IIRC it discusses the likelier explanations for Silurian extinctions including disruptions to the carbon-silicate cycle (volcanism -> fresh silicate rocks -> weathering removes CO2 from the atmosphere as ultimately insoluble CaCO3 -> global ice age), anoxia/CO2 drawdown caused by increased phosphorous and other nutrient availability, and others.
"The Ends of the World" stands out as a top disaster book along with Simon Winchester's "Krakatoa" and Sebastian Junger's "The Perfect Storm".
- The barometers around the world recording the shock wave is one of the coolest things.
“Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883” by Simon Winchester went into this point.
Also, this write up from 2016 at Nautilus after the Papua New Guinea Volcano eruption. https://nautil.us/issue/38/noise/the-sound-so-loud-that-it-c...
- Just to put a plug in for Simon Winchester's book, Krakatoa: the Day the World Exploded. If anyone wants to dive deeper in this topic.
- I'd like to recommend Simon Winchester's "Krakatoa The Day the World Exploded, August 27, 1883" to anyone interested in learning more about the Krakatoa eruption. It's quite a story.
- For anyone interested, I'd recommend Simon Winchester's book "Krakatoa": http://www.amazon.com/Krakatoa-World-Exploded-August-1883/dp...
Also interesting are how quickly the volcano has risen out of the sea again after being totally obliterated, and how much life now thrives on it.
- Falcon Guides (for hiking and outdoorsy stuff) are on there.
Also mainstream non-fiction, like Super Freakonomics and Simon Winchester books (Krakatoa, Professor and Mad Man)
