August 27, 1883 Tsunami: Krakatau, Indonesia

Reference #414:

1883, August 27, 10:02. There was a catastrophic eruption of the Krakatau volcano, which was accompanied by an enormous tsunami. The maximal height of rise of water was 30 m on the shores of the Sunda Strait, 4 m on the south coast of Sumatra Island, 2-2 1/2 m on the northern and southern shores of Java Island, 1/2-1 m in the Pacific Ocean as far as South America. In Indonesia, 36,000 people died. The main eruption was preceded by less strong ones on the 26th at 17:07 and 19:00-23:00, the 27th at 1:42, 5:30 and 6:44, which were also accompanied by less intensive tsunamis.

Reference #236:

1883, August 27, 02:59. The explosive eruption of the volcano, Krakatau in the Sunda Strait, produced air-pressure waves, which were recorded by the Honolulu tide gage as a 0.2-m wave. These are not considered to be tsunami waves.

Reference #237:

1883, August 27, 0259 GMT. The explosion of the Krakatau Volcano in Indonesia generated a 30-m tsunami in the Sundra Strait that destroyed numerous towns and killed about 36,000 people. The explosion was heard about 3,000 miles away. It also caused an atmospheric pressure wave that was recorded on the tide gages at remote locations including South Georgia Island, Panama, France, England, Hawaii, Alaska, and San Francisco. Due to the shadowing by continents and island groups, a direct tsunami could not have reached most of these locations. Harkrider and Press (1967) show that the direct air waves (acoustic) are the first to be recorded. Atmospheric gravity waves with phase and group velocities nearer the oceanic gravity wave velocity (sqrt(gd)) occurred and may have excited water waves (tsunamis) by transferring energy to the ocean. The longer the fetch, the more energy that would be transferred.

These waves are the most energetic and are created beyond the land mass shadow zones. The initial acoustic waves, too, may create resonances in the coastal and harbor areas as seiches. To consider these to be true tsunamis is a stretch of the definition but atmospheric gravity waves are or may be a source for tidal disturbance which resemble tsunamis. It was recorded with an amplitude of six inches at Sausalito.

Reference #9779:

The voluminous pyroclastic flows entered the sea where they generated tsunami, and may have produced secondary explosion

Reference #2990:

The largest and most devastating volcanic tsunami of the last 250 years was produced by the Aug 26, 1883 eruption of Krakatoa volcano. This extremely energetic explosive eruption produced multiple tsunami waves was much as 37 m high, among the greatest tsunami waves seen in recent historic time. The waves raised large ships to 10 m above sea level and carried them as far as 3 km inland. These waves deluged more than 250 villages in western Java and eastern Sumatra killing more than 36,000 people. Fatalities due to waves occurred as far as 800 km from the volcano. Small tsunami waves were recorded throughout the Pacific Ocean, and small sea level oscillations were measured at sites thousands of kilometers away in the Indian Ocean, France and England.

Reference #4653:

Krakatoa exploded August 27, 1883 obliterating 5 square miles of land and leaving a crater 3.5 miles across and 200-300 meters deep. Thirty three feet high tsunami waves hit Anjer and Merak demolishing the towns and killing over 10,000 people. In Merak the wave rose to 135 feet above sea level and moved 100 ton coral blocks up on the shore.

Tsunami waves swept over 300 coastal towns and villages killing 40,000 people. The sea withdrew at Bombay, India and killed one person in Sri Lanka.

View a calculated tsunami-travel-time map.