History Repeats as Krakatoa Tsunami Kills Hundreds.

More than 220 people have been killed and 843 injured after a tsunami hit coastal towns on Indonesia's Sunda Strait, government officials say.

The tsunami waves struck at night without any warning, destroying hundreds of buildings.

Officials say the tsunami could have been caused by undersea landslides after Anak Krakatau volcano erupted.

The Sunda Strait, between the islands of Java and Sumatra, connects the Java Sea to the Indian Ocean.

The disaster management agency has warned people to stay away from the coastline due to fears of another tsunami.

Saturday's tsunami struck at about 21:30 local time (14:30GMT), during a local holiday.

It hit several popular tourist destinations including the Tanjung Lesung beach resort in the west of Java island.

Footage shared on social media showed a large wave crashing into a tent in the resort, in which a popular Indonesian rock band, Seventeen, was performing. Members of the band were seen being swept away as the wave destroyed the stage.

They suspect an underwater landslide because no large eruption coincided with tthe tsunami. A small, recent eruption recorded posted on YouTube.



Krakatau (or the older, more familiar name, Krakatoa) is capable of much worse. In 1883, a long series of eruptions climaxed in:

On 27 August a series of four huge explosions almost entirely destroyed the island. The explosions were so violent that they were heard 3,110 km (1,930 mi) away in Perth, Western Australia, and the island of Rodrigues near Mauritius, 4,800 km (3,000 mi) away. The pressure wave from the final explosion was recorded on barographs around the world. Several barographs recorded the wave seven times over the course of five days: four times with the wave travelling away from the volcano to its antipodal point, and three times travelling back to the volcano. Hence, the wave rounded the globe three and a half times. Ash was propelled to a height of 80 km (50 mi). The sound of the eruption was so loud it was reported that if anyone was within ten miles (16 km), they would have gone deaf.

The combined effects of pyroclastic flows, volcanic ashes, and tsunamis had disastrous results in the region and worldwide. The death toll recorded by the Dutch authorities was 36,417, although some sources put the estimate at more than 120,000. There are numerous documented reports of groups of human skeletons floating across the Indian Ocean on rafts of volcanic pumice and washing up on the east coast of Africa up to a year after the eruption. Average global temperatures fell by as much as 1.2 degrees Celsius in the year following the eruption. Weather patterns continued to be chaotic for years and temperatures did not return to normal until 1888.

Why live close to that? Well Indonesia is a heavily populated country with 264,000,000 people, an area of 735,400 square miles (compared to the US's 3,797,000) and  127 active volcanoes. You have to live somewhere.