Krakatau: The Destruction and Reassembly of an Island Ecosystem

By Ian Thornton

Book Overview

On August 27, 1883, the island of Krakatau in the Sunda Strait near Java erupted with a force nearly ten thousand times that of the hydrogen bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. Two-thirds of the island disappeared. When the pall of ash lifted, the toll in human lives stood at nearly 37,000 and more than 160 villages had been wiped away without a trace. All plant and animal life on Krakatau was obliterated. Nine months after the explosion, a French expedition searching for signs of life discovered a single spider that had crossed to the island on a balloon of silk. Life had returned to Krakatau. Scientists have been studying the island ever since.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674505689
• ISBN13: 9780674505681
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 346 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.7" x 9.6"