Credit: © The Royal Society
Image number: RS.10675
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Krakatoa tsumami waves 3 and 4
Date
1888
Creator - Organisation
Malby & Sons, Printer
Object type
Library reference
8122
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 295mm
width (print): 217mm
width (print): 217mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Four figures showing the ocean tracks of the third and fourth tsunami waves generated by the eruption of Krakatoa, the island in the Sunda Strait, Indonesia on 27 August 1883.
Plate 11 from The eruption of Krakatoa, and subsequent phenomena. Report of the Krakatoa Committee of the Royal Society, edited by G.J.Symons (London, Trubner & Co., 1888).
The author of the accompanying text, J L Wharton FRS stated that: “The missing mass of Krakatoa may be roughly estimated to be at least two hundred thousand million cubic feet (200,000,000,000). A fiftieth part of this mass dropping suddenly into the water would, by its displacement alone, furnish sufficient liquid to for a wave circle of 100 miles in circumference, 20 feet high, and 350 feet wide...I incline then to the opinion that the destructive waves...were mainly due to these masses falling into the sea, or to the sudden explosions under the sea...but that the long wave ...had its origin in the upheaval of the bottom.”
The plate is inscribed: ‘Krakatoa. Rep.Roy.Soc.Com. Plate XI. WAVE NO.III SECOND PASSAGE FROM KRAKATOA TO THE ANTIPODES. WAVE NO.IV SECOND PASSAGE FROM ANTIPODES BACK TO KRAKATOA. Malby & Sons, Lith.’
Plate 11 from The eruption of Krakatoa, and subsequent phenomena. Report of the Krakatoa Committee of the Royal Society, edited by G.J.Symons (London, Trubner & Co., 1888).
The author of the accompanying text, J L Wharton FRS stated that: “The missing mass of Krakatoa may be roughly estimated to be at least two hundred thousand million cubic feet (200,000,000,000). A fiftieth part of this mass dropping suddenly into the water would, by its displacement alone, furnish sufficient liquid to for a wave circle of 100 miles in circumference, 20 feet high, and 350 feet wide...I incline then to the opinion that the destructive waves...were mainly due to these masses falling into the sea, or to the sudden explosions under the sea...but that the long wave ...had its origin in the upheaval of the bottom.”
The plate is inscribed: ‘Krakatoa. Rep.Roy.Soc.Com. Plate XI. WAVE NO.III SECOND PASSAGE FROM KRAKATOA TO THE ANTIPODES. WAVE NO.IV SECOND PASSAGE FROM ANTIPODES BACK TO KRAKATOA. Malby & Sons, Lith.’
Associated place