últimas notícias

Call for donations for victims

If you like to send a small donation for the victims of the Dec 2018 tsunami in Java (Indonesia), we are providing a direct channel to do so: we collect donations through our PayPal account and forward this money direct to our local expedition leader Andi who delivers this money directly to affected people in need through his organization ITGA / HPI.
You can do this through PayPal:

Large part of Anak Krakatau has collapsed into the sea – reconstruction of the eruption

First visual information about the situation on Anak Krakatau island group itself has come in, revealing that a large part of Anak Krakatau’s SW flank has collapsed, which most likely is the trigger for last night’s tsunami.

An overflight of was undertaken today by the Kumparan agency and revealed continuous, violent phreatomagmatic explosions, i.e. driven by lava and water interaction.

The combined information allows a rough reconstruction of the events:

#1 A new surge of magma arrives in the upper conduit of Anak Krakatau from around 20-21 Dec, causing increasing explosive and effusive activity – strombolian explosions or lava fountains, and lava flow emission – from the summit vent. It looked more or less like this:

(video from a similar paroxysm in Sep 2018)
A photo submitted by a visitor, taken on 22 Dec at 11:15 shows the advancing lava front close to the southern shore and strong strombolian explosions, which occurred at intervals of 15-30 seconds according to the report. This activity probably reached its peak on the evening of 22 Dec, when it was clearly visible by naked eye from more than 40 km away on the coast.
#2 In the evening of 22 Dec, lava fountains fed flows that reached the sea, probably on the south or southeast shores of Anak Krakatau, in similar locations as during previous episodes this year.
#3 Around 21:00 local time, the weight of rapidly accumulated lava on the subaerial and submerged cone of Anak Krakatau triggered an instability and a larger landslide removed a part of the southwestern cone – a flank collapse occurred. This rapid displacement caused the (small, but devastating) tsunami which reached the Java coast around 21:30 (local time).
#4 As a consequence, sea water gained access to large masses of hot rocks and possibly the conduit itself, triggering an ongoing series of steam explosions that produced the steam and ash plume first observed later this morning on satellite data and seen in this video:

Erosion of material from the ongoing explosive activity and along the new shoreline continues to eat away parts of the island.

What will come next?
This is difficult to say, but at least to a large extent it will depend on how much magma continues to rise, whether new collapses occur and so on. A possibility of even larger explosions, pyroclastic flows, tsunamis is clearly increased.
The alert level of the volcano was raised to red.

Media worldwide was unaware of disaster for 8 hours
On a side note, it is quite strange to see that it took international media about 8-9 (!) hours before they became aware of this major disaster. The tsunami occurred around 21:30 local time (14:30 GMT), but it was only about 8 hours later, on the next morning (local time) or late evening GMT time that Øystein Lund Andersen posted his eyewitness report, which we picked up first and only then it spread quickly around the world to all channels.

Unfortunately, the death toll of the tsunami last night continues to rise. So far, at least 62 fatalities and 584 injured people have been counted by authorities.

A major explosive eruption might have occurred at the volcano earlier this morning. VAAC Darwin spotted a large cloud, possibly an ash plume from the eruption reaching approx. 55,000 ft (15 km) altitude and drifting S and SW.
Whether it is is from the eruption still needs to be confirmed, but seems rather likely. What role the yesterday’s deadly tsunami plays here is also still unknown, but they are hardly unrelated.
In the meanwhile, more material is emerging on social channels about the tsunami, such as this dramatic video, showing the arrival of the first wave, destroying a band and its audience playing a concert (at the end of the video):

• All news about: Krakatoa volcano
• Information about: Krakatoa volcano

Krakatoa volcano (Sunda Strait, Indonesia): strong eruptive phase, tsunami hits West Coast of Java

[Update 4]:
According to the latest information, 43 people died, 584 were injured and two persons are still missing persons from last evening’s tsunami on Java’s west coast. In addition, 430 houses and 9 hotels were heavily damaged according to information from PNBG.

The current eruptive phase of the volcano seems to be in fact rather strong. A new lava flow is reaching the sea and strong explosive activity, likely pulsating lava fountains are occurring at the summit vent.
Our friend Øystein Lund Andersen reported that a small tsunami, possibly caused by stronger explosions from the volcano, hit the west coast of Java near Anyer, where we was on the evening of 22 Dec observing the volcano. A first wave traveled 15-20 m inland and was followed by another (stronger) one that invaded the street and buildings near the coast. According to his report, it drowned cars, injured and possibly killed an unknown number of people. However, not much other news have reported a major incident, so it might have been not as severe as reported, fortunately.
UPDATE: another possibility is that the waves were unusually strong spring tide waves; there is no official confirmation for a tsunami to have occurred (yet).
2nd UPDATE: more news is slowly emerging. Unfortunately, it seems that indeed the waves were a tsunami and caused at least 20 fatalities, according to BCC, referring to Indonesian governmental sources.
3rd UPDATE:
Indonesia’s Civil Protection Agency (BNPG) has officially announced that a tsunami has occurred and hit several coastal areas in the Sunda Strait, including on the coast in Pandeglang, Serang, and South Lampung Regencies. The tsunami occurred on 12/22/2018 around 9:27 p.m. WIB.
According to them, the tsunami was not caused by earthquakes (as no tectonic activity was detected), but most likely by an underwater landslide of accumulated sediments giving way. Whether it was caused by the eruption of Krakatoa and where exactly is still unclear. Its size also may have been increased by the influence of the full moon spring tide.
The Geological Agency detected that the start of the current paroxysm of the volcano began at 21:03 WIB local time. It damaged the local seismic station (probably it was hit by lava bombs).
The full impact of the tsunami is still unclear, but preliminary data indicate 20 people died and 165 people were injured; 2 people were missing and dozens of buildings were damaged. Unfortunately, the number of victims is likely to continue to grow considering that it is still night in Indonesia and not all areas have been investigated.
People are encouraged to remain calm and avoid the coast of the Sunda Strait for a while. BMKG and the Geology Agency are still conducting further research.

Below is Øystein’s original post:

• All news about: Krakatoa volcano
• Information about: Krakatoa volcano

• Øystein Lund Andersen on facebook
• Benar, Tsunami Menerjang Pantai di Selat Sunda (BNPG on facebook)

Krakatoa volcano (Sunda Strait, Indonesia): increased activity, likely new phase of lava fountains and lava flow

Another strong eruptive phase (paroxysm) is currently going on at the volcano.
Seismicity at Anak Krakatau has sharply increased during the past days and now shows continuous explosive/effusive activity. The observatory informed us that a lava flow is occurring from the summit vent, likely accompanied by lava fountaining, similar to what we observed in Sep and Nov during our latest expeditions to Krakatau.
This is what it probably looks like now:

(eruption in Sep, daytime)
and

(Nov eruption, evening)

• All news about: Krakatoa volcano
• Information about: Krakatoa volcano