The Eruption of Krakatoa

Krakatoa was an island volcano located between Java and Sumatra.  After erupting repeatedly during its history, it culminated in a series of massive explosions on August 26-27, 1883 which ejected more than 25 cubic kilometers of rock and ash. 

Massive amount of black smoke, an indication of burning sulfur, billowed out of the volcano.  It generated the loudest sound, a most blood-curdling scream, the Earth could possibly make.  Hundreds of villages and town were destroyed or damaged and thousands died as a result of the explosion or the resultant tsunamis.  Shock waves from the blast traveled around the Earth seven times. 

The volcano that once towered above the ocean nearly 3000 feet on an island 9 km long by 5 km wide blew itself off the the face of the Earth with only about a third of that mass remaining after the explsion.  I mean the mass of the volcano literally disappreared, because all of the material deposited by the blast was magmatic in origin -- none of the material found was from the towering volcano.  The only theory construed at the time was: as the magnma chamber blew its contents upward, the mass of the volcano sank into the pit it created.  It was really a long shot theory, but what else was there to explain the complete disappearance of a massive mountain?  Somehow the massive mountain was pulverized into fine dust and shot like a canon ball high above the atmosphere.

In the aftermath of the explosion, weather patterns were chaotic for years and the eruption injected an unusually large amount of sulfur dioxide gas into the stratosphere.  This was the first time in history that translucent clouds were noticed.  These clouds are called noctilucent.