The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1886-03-30


mate of the quantity Of those solid ejecfa o
the crater which were so coarse as to b
speedily precipitated. This amounted to Il
cubic kilometers or as cubic miles, two-thirdE
of which fell as ashes and pumice within ra-
dius of nine miles. He believes that at least al
equal mass was delivered at the highest part
of the column in the form of vapors and impal-
pable dust 1t would be easy to present con.
siderations to show that the finer portion mus
have vastly exceeded the coarser; but thii
might be speculative. We know tina
four and a half cubic miles of solid matter
would over-lay the entire atmosphere of thu
globe with solid film of one seven hundredtf
of an inch in thickness. This would doubtless
be equivalent to many miles in thickness o
such tenuous vapor and dust as have beer
floating in the upper ether.
As to the height of the column of eject;
emitted from Krakatoa Mt its highest activity
some estimate may be formed from known
facts. The heaviest throes were very precise.
" determined ~ to have occurred at 9.55 ant
1915 am. on August 9th. The latter one
was Immediately followed by continuous
downpour of mud and ashes upon the ship
IHlItrS lDtt, tutu OO ulltb ulbtduls VI
miles distant, trees were extensively shattered
by the weight of vet ashes. (nr) Batavia, lOC
miles away, was covered three inches deeI
with white ashes during the hours of toia
darkness following the greatest eruption. L
seems impossible to find room for these facts
on any estimate of the height of the cruptiv'
column as less than one hundred miles. 1t II
true that light ashes might have great latera
J;Hpsa,an from rOlnpn of far ioSa haiuhf I'M
mud and wet ashes must have plunged quite
directly downwards, SO that a lateral throw
of 80 to 20 miles must involve a vertical ascent
OF not less than one hundred.
The height supposed would have driver
the eruptive column entirely through the at
mosphere aud far above it, SO as to deliver its
contents over the surface of the atmosphere
to settle slowly down through It's upper strata
That the great column did actually thus lift
and rend asunder the mighty mass of the at
mosphere above the crater is made probable
by the unique oscillations of the barometers
series of atmospheric waves was sped three
times around the globe at the rate of 700 miles
an hour. (n) The length of each undulatior
was one million meters, that OF the lowest
audible sound waves being "a meters. Twenty
miles away from the crater the mercury
rapidly oscilated between the 18th and the
30th inches. 1t is thus evident that in the
vicinity Of Krakatoa the upper layers of the
atmosphere were swinging up and down
through vertical distance of from ten tC
twenty miles every fifteen minutes. What
could have done this less than an explosion
driving clear through its entire depth?
AS general evidences of the ultra-cOlossal
character of the Krakatoa eruption may be
adduced the following l. The waves driven
upon the coasts of AMER and Merak thirty
miles away were found to have exceeded 81
metres or III feet in height. (o) Over the entire
AMER plain, fifteen miles by five, the inunda-
tion had uprooted every tree, and coral blocks
of from 20 to so tons in weight had been torn
from the bed of the sea and borne inland two
or three miles. (p) $4,000 people persisted in
those. foundations.
2. The detonations of the eruption were
heard throughout circle whose radius is 1900
geographical miles, equal TO One-fifteenth Of
the surface of the earth. (q) Yet the heaviest
could not be heard within a radius of 40 miles
from the crater. The sounds must have pro-
ceeded from tremendous rendiDgs of the air at
an immense height, whence the sounds were
easily spread to vast distances, while from
localities beneath, the massive torrent of des-
cending ejecta cut off the sounds like wall.
3. Ashes fell at Singapore s35 miles n.
West; at Buucalis 9l5 miles N. W.; at Keeling
1900 miles S. W.; ID on the Australian coast
1850 miles E. S. f.; on the ArdbsLSd $40 miles
W. n. West. The entire area of ash-fall was
officially estimated as at least 100000 kilO-
meters, (S) or as large as the Southern States
east of the Mississippi.
the collapse of the mountain on the morning
OF the 9th, the eruptions became submarine;(9
the ocean waters rushed into tho burning
depths. Under the pressure of many miles OF
water the lava and the waters commingled
and struggled with geyserlike discharges of
augmenting violence, until finally there arose
a continuous column Of white hot water and
lava. Through the wide throat apparently
three miles in diameter the vast column drove
upwards, expanding and exploding as it flew,
into steam and pumice, till reaching one humid
red miles or more in height its mingled solids
and liquids had exploded in the vacuum into
thinnest ether.
The ashy ejecta as analysed, were mainly
glass in the form of pumice, together with the
solid constituents Of sea- water. az This Wire
Gus matter being comminuted by the force of
the explosions TO ultra-microscopic tineness,
formed together with the vaporized sea-water,
a vast bulk Of extreme tenuity aud lightness
above the atmosphere. Falling thence upon
The upper strata of the atmosphere, and pre-
cipitatiDg its coarser dust, its finer portions
have continued suspended for more than two
years in their ethereal encampment, and there
are likely to abide for many years to come.
From the beginning the white sun-glow has
been very uniform, while the night CLOVIS have
been quite irregular, although it is believed
they have always been perceptible. In the
Northern tropics there has been a marked in
crease of brilliancy and continuity during each
of the two winters. Probably the haze is
distributed through the atmosphere III unequal
and irregular drifts.
John Aitken's demonstrations of the neces-
sity of dust nuclei to the formation of ice pic
ules in the atmosphere, (U) indicate that such
ice particles probably play prominent part
in the CLOVIS. Not improbably they would be
in larger quantity in the tropics during the
winter, and so the CLOVIS increase at that sea-
son. Varying atmospheric conditions would
also at all seasons vary the amount of con-
collation..
In conclusion the writer takes the oppoGtu-
nifty to venture the surmise that thorough
study of the Krakatoa smoke belt of Septem-
Der, 1888, and its dynamic conditions, may
furnish material aid in calculating the still
mysterious problem of the Belts of the planet
Jupiter.
]. Nature Vol. go PIP 10-tI
1. Nature 30, IL. Nature q, 40.
m. Leisure hour, July 1885, page 49,.
n. Nature %, ISL.
Nature 80 II. Leisure hour, Sept 1885, page 636
The history of the eruption shows that upon
p. Leisure hour August 1885, page $50.
q. Nature 30. p, ~.
Nature 30, 10.
g. Nature 80 p. -.
{. Nature 30, page l..
Il. Nature 30, p. 10.
Z. Nature, 80 p. 40j.
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