Mt. Bromo Brilliance ~ East Java, Indonesia

By Dian Hasan | August 31, 2009

Mt. Bromo. Photo: flickr member isa_adsr

Volcanoes look somewhat more peaceful, smoke and all, when bathed in the light and cool colors of sunrise or sunset – almost deceptively innocent in the distance. We are of course referring to Mount Bromo Volcano in East Java, Indonesia. One of numerous volcanoes along the Ring of Fire chain of volcanoes that span across Indonesia’s Sumatra, Java, Bali and Lesser Sunda Islands. Or at least this is where you’ll find most of Indonesia’s volcanoes. After all, the world’s largest archipelago, with over 17,000 islands and counting (some islands pop in and out, depending on high tides! Kidding aside, Indonesia’s lost count of the myriad of island it has, a bulk of which is inhabited), is also home to other superlatives: close to a fifth of the world’s volcanoes, and among the world’s most active.

Mt. Bromo at its most majestic, just after sunrise. Photo: flickr member isa_adsr

The most famous eruption was probably that of the Krakatau in Sunda Strait, between Java and Sumatra, in 1883. The eruption was well recorded, it literally shook the world, caused an earthquake, sent tsunami waves across the region, and rendered dark clouds so thick the sun’s rays could not penetrate for days. Just to place it into context, the magnitude of the explosion according to wikipedia was as follows:

With a Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) of 6, the eruption was equivalent to 200 megatons (MT) of TNT—about 13,000 times the nuclear yield of the Little Boy bomb (13 to 16 kT) that devastated Hiroshima, Japan during World War II and four times the yield of the Tsar Bomba (50 MT), the largest nuclear device ever detonated.

The 1883 eruption ejected approximately 21 cubic kilometres (5.0 cu mi) of rock, ash, and pumice. The cataclysmic explosion was distinctly heard as far away as Perth in Western Australia, about 1,930 miles (3,110 km) away, and the island of Rodrigues near Mauritius, about 3,000 miles (5,000 km) away.[citation needed].

Near Krakatoa, according to official records, 165 villages and towns were destroyed and 132 seriously damaged, at least 36,417 (official toll) people died, and many thousands were injured by the eruption, mostly from the tsunamis that followed the explosion. The eruption destroyed two-thirds of the island of Krakatoa. ~ wikipedia

Mt. Batok dormant inMt. Bromo belching sulphur to the left, the dormant Mt. Batok in the foreground, and Mt. Semeru erupting in the distance. Photo: flickr member isa_adsr