[VOLCANOES] Rede betreffende de ramp, veroorzaakt door de werking van den vulkaan Rakata (Krakataoe) [Krakatoa] in 1883,

door Corns. de Groot, uitgesproken in de Indologische Vereeniging te Delft, den 18den Februari 1884. [‘s-Gravenhage : the author], 1884. Octavo (225 x 145 mm), in the publisher’s attractive binding of blind-tooled blue cloth with gilt lettering and decoration at centre of the upper board; original pink endpapers, pp. 39; a fine copy.

Scarce self-published transcript of a lecture by Cornelis de Groot on the recent eruption of Krakatoa, delivered before the Indological Society of Delft. De Groot was a senior member of the Geological Survey of the Netherlands Indies.

The volcano of Krakatoa, on Rakata Island in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra, erupted in May 1883. It had been dormant for over two centuries since its last activity, a significant eruption in 1680. The 1883 eruption continued for four months, but was not considered a major event until, on 26 and 27 August, it culminated in four phenomenal blasts. One of the explosions, which created what is thought to be the loudest sound in history, is estimated to have had a force equivalent to 100,000 hydrogen bombs. It was heard 4,800 km away on the island of Rodrigues near Mauritius, and 3,100 km away in Perth, Western Australia. The destruction wrought by the tsunamis that were unleashed by these explosions resulted in the deaths of around 36,000 people. The waves travelled at speeds of up to 560 kph and reached heights of well over 30 metres, and were detected as far away in the English Channel. Twenty cubic kilometres of ash were erupted some thirty kilometres into the atmosphere, creating spectacular “blue suns” and “orange moons” in Europe and North America. For several years after the eruption, the global temperature dropped by at least one degree Celsius.