Amazing But True

                                              WAVE GOOD-BYE

Rakata,Indonesia,August 27,1833

                                        Four gigantic explosions rock the 4 1|3 mile (11 km) island,which sits at a place where the indo-Australian plate subducts the Pacific plate.The volcano krakatau is blowing up-and telling the whole world about it.The third of these eruptions is the single most violent explosion on Earth in our time,its awesome power reinforced by the steam produced when seawater rushes into the collapsed cone.The noise can be heard 2,200 miles (3,540 km) away in Australia.

                                      This Plinian/Ultra-plinian eruption,equal to 200 million tons of TNT,blasts out a pile of rock equal to half the island.A black pillar of smoke and ash three times as high as Mt.Everest rises into the atmosphere.Its dust cloud will turn day into night in the surrounding areas and later spend a year circling the Earth,causing brilliant red sunsets.

                                      The enormous energy of the blast makes the sea floor twitch.Small waves being to form,building as they rush away in all directions.By the time the largest wave reaches Java and Sumatra,it is a terrifying wall of water as high as a 12-story building.

                                      In the harbors,the wave sinks more than 5,000 boats.A ship named the Baron is carried to a forest a couple of miles inland and dumped into the treetops.Now 36,000 people are dead and 160 villages are ruined,but the wave keeps on going.

                                      Moving as fastas a jet airplane,it tears through the Indian Ocean around the Cape of Good Hope and into the Atlantic Ocean.A day and a half after the eruption,people comment on the high tides in the English Channel,on the other side of the world.

A Ripple in the ocean,A Killer on the Shore

                                      Tsunami is the japanese wod for a monster wave that reaches shore.But if you were flying above one,you wouldn't even see it.That's because these waves go down thousands of feet in the ocean and cover such a huge distance.There are hundreds of miles between crests,and the crests themselves may be just a few feet tall.But there is so much force behind the waves-called momentum-that they can travel great distance without losing much energy.

                                   Near the shore,the approaching wave begin to interact with the shallower ocean floor.They slow down,but they pile up on each other and pull back.All the water is sucked away from shore.Harbors empty.Fish flop on the sand.The withdrawing of the sea is always followed by the tsunami,s shattering collapse on shore.That a tsunami the size and speed of the one you've just read about was generated by a volcanic eruption off the coast of peru.