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.

Describes the destructive eruption of the Krakatau volcanic island in 1883, detailing the events leading up to the eruption, the devastation it caused, and how the eruption changed the Krakatau environment.

In August 1883 massive volcanic eruptions destroyed two-thirds of the island of Krakatau, in the Sunda Strait between Sumatra and Java. It was the day the world exploded. A tsunami wreaked havoc in the region, causing countless deaths, and shock waves were recorded around the world. Ash from the eruption affected global weather patterns for years. Since that time Krakatau has been the subject of more than 1,000 reports and publications, both scholarly and literary but the only surviving account of the event written by an indigenous eyewitness—Syair Lampung Karam (The Tale of Lampung Submerged), by Muhammad Saleh—has only now, after 130 years, found its way into English translation. * * * Pada bulan Agustus 1883 letusan besar gunung berapi meluluhlantakkan dua per tiga Pulau Krakatau yang terletak di Selat Sunda, di antara Sumatra dan Jawa. Tsunami memorakporandakan wilayah itu, dan guncangannya terasa di seluruh dunia. Abu letusan itu memengaruhi pola cuaca global hingga bertahun-tahun. Satu-satunya laporan saksi mata pribumi yang tersisa tentang peristiwa tersebut—Syair Lampung Karam, hasil karya Muhammad Saleh—disajikan pertama kalinya di sini dalam tiga bentuk: bahasa Melayu beraksara Romawi, bahasa Melayu beraksara Jawi dan terjemahan bahasa Inggris. Syair naratif panjang ini ditulis dan dicetak di Singapura pada tahun 1883 sewaktu Muhamad Saleh mencari suaka di negeri itu, menceritakan reaksi warga setempat terhadap malapetaka yang menimpa seluruh wilayah itu dan memperkaya pengetahuan kita tentang bencana alam Krakatau ini.

Simon Winchester's brilliant chronicle of the destruction of the Indonesian island of Krakatoa in 1883 charts the birth of our modern world. He tells the story of the unrecognized genius who beat Darwin to the discovery of evolution; of Samuel Morse, his code and how rubber allowed the world to talk; of Alfred Wegener, the crack-pot German explorer and father of geology. In breathtaking detail he describes how one island and its inhabitants were blasted out of existence and how colonial society was turned upside-down in a cataclysm whose echoes are still felt to this day.

This volume provides the first comprehensive account of the geology of Sumatra since the masterly synthesis of van Bemmelen (1949). Following the establishment of the Geological Survey of Indonesia, after WW II, the whole island has been mapped geologically at the reconnaissance level, with the collaboration of the geological surveys of the United States and the United Kingdom. The mapping programme, completed in the mid-1990s, together with supplementary data obtained by academic institutions and petroleum and mineral exploration companies, has resulted in a vast increase in geological information, which is summarized in this volume. The synthesis of structural controls on sedimentation and magmatism during the tectonic evolution of Sumatra since the late Palaeozoic has provided a background for the formation of economic deposits of metallic minerals, coal, oil and gas. The volume provides a sound basis for future geological research and for the exploration of the energy and mineral resources of the island.