This Volcano Changed the World's Temperature

Bright Side

The 1883 eruption of Mount Krakatoa caused massive destruction with ash and smoke leading to a dramatic temperature drop and a tsunami that destroyed ships and towns. The lighthouse keeper survived and warned others of the danger. Many casualties resulted from tsunamis and volcanic mudflows, not just the eruption itself. The eruption also had long-lasting climate effects, causing global temperatures to drop for several years. Let's look at this and other natural events that have changed our planet.   #brightside   Animation is created by Bright Side.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Listen to Bright Side on:  Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/idhttps-podcasts-apple-com-podcast-bright-side/id1554898078 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/brightside/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official/ Tik Tok - https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en Snapchat - https://www.snapchat.com/p/c6a1e38a-bff1-4a40-9731-2c8234ccb19f/1866144599336960  Stock materials (photos, footages and other):  https://www.depositphotos.com  https://www.shutterstock.com  https://www.eastnews.ru  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me

Transcript

00:00So, this huge volcano, everyone thought to be extinct, woke up and spat out a black ash

00:07cloud 50 miles high.

00:09That's about 9 times as tall as Mount Everest.

00:12Located in what is now Indonesia, the powerful Krakatoa had caused huge tsunamis that rocked

00:17over ships as far away as South Africa.

00:20It also changed the temperatures around the world for several years.

00:24The volcanic island of Krakatoa in the Sunda Strait was likely born thanks to another

00:29major eruption several centuries ago.

00:32It hadn't erupted for at least 200 years before 1883.

00:36So the first tremors and blasts in May of that year came as a total shock to people

00:41living nearby.

00:43Then ships sailing through the busy water passage started reporting clouds of ash above

00:48the volcano.

00:49It went quiet again for a while, but they could still see ash above it.

00:56The eruption culminated at the end of August.

00:59It was so powerful that it shattered the island into fragments.

01:03Witnesses heard the sound produced by it in Australia, around 3,000 miles away.

01:08They described the noise as the roar of heavy cannons.

01:12Some say it was the loudest sound ever heard.

01:15During the next 5 days, the pressure wave from the eruption traveled around the globe

01:193.5 times and was seen on barographs on different continents.

01:24Loud avalanches of ash spread down the volcano as far as 25 miles away at crazy speeds.

01:30They ruined the surrounding islands and took 36,000 lives.

01:34Tens of thousands more drowned in tsunamis that happened after the volcano had collapsed

01:39into the caldera.

01:41Over a hundred coastal villages on Java and Sumatra were completely wiped out.

01:46All this made the waking up of Krakatoa one of the most devastating in the entire recorded

01:51history.

01:55The Earth's crust is like a giant puzzle, made up of massive pieces known as tectonic

02:00plates.

02:01These plates are constantly sliding against each other over the mantle, which is the molten

02:06layer beneath.

02:07Indonesia is right in the middle of the so-called subduction zone.

02:11Here, the Indo-Australian plate collides with part of the Asian plate as it moves northward.

02:17As the Oceanic plate dives down, it gets heated up, and you've got the perfect recipe for

02:22a volcanic hotspot.

02:25Krakatoa had three peaks, each serving as an exit door for a massive magma chamber beneath

02:30it.

02:31During a previous eruption, debris blocked one of these exits, and the pressure built

02:35up beneath.

02:36When Krakatoa finally blew its top, the blast split the magma chamber wide open.

02:44The eruption led to a so-called volcanic winter.

02:47Krakatoa had sent 6 cubic miles of rock, ash, and debris into the atmosphere.

02:53They created a thick veil that surrounded the Earth.

02:56The particles scattered sunlight, and the troposphere below cooled down.

03:00The effect stayed strong for several years.

03:03The northern hemisphere experienced colder-than-average temperatures, and in some regions, summer

03:08temperatures didn't rise to typical levels.

03:11Northern California received a record amount of rainfall in the months following the eruption.

03:18The sky became darker in different parts of the world for years afterwards.

03:23The sunsets, for many months, turned into a spectacular show of red and orange.

03:28One astronomer supposed it was the source of the inspiration for The Scream by Edvard

03:33Munch.

03:34The painting shows exactly what the sky over Norway looked like after the eruption.

03:39It also produced a rare type of halo called Bishop's Ring, and a volcanic purple light

03:44at night.

03:46For several years after Krakatoa had blown up, the moon looked blue, and sometimes green.

03:51That's because some ash clouds were full of particles large enough to scatter red light,

03:57only letting other colors pass.

03:59Someone even witnessed lavender sun and night-shining clouds.

04:05Krakatoa became the first scientifically well-recorded and studied eruption of a volcano.

04:11Between the moments the first clouds of ash were seen by a ship passing by, and the disastrous

04:16eruption, scientists managed to organize geological expeditions.

04:20They studied the volcano and gathered samples of volcanic rocks.

04:25It became useful for understanding volcanic activity.

04:29Krakatoa was sleeping tight until the 1920s, when some locals noticed a column of steam

04:34and debris spewing from the collapsed caldera.

04:37Within weeks, the rim of a new cone sprang up above sea level.

04:42After a year, it was a small island named Child of Krakatoa.

04:46It continues to erupt, but fortunately, without serious consequences… so far.

04:54In April of 1815, Mount Tambora unleashed a massive eruption, wreaking havoc on the

05:00Indonesian island of Sambawa.

05:02It destroyed homes and claimed 10,000 lives.

05:06Another 80,000 perished because of diseases that spread in the aftermath.

05:10The following went in history as the year without a summer.

05:15Cold wet conditions wrapped Europe and North America in an unexpected chill.

05:20It became the coldest in at least 250 years.

05:24In the summer of that year, the temperatures dropped the most.

05:27Crops didn't grow, livestock didn't survive, and famine took over Western Europe and North

05:32America.

05:33New England had snow and terrible frost in the summer months.

05:37Food prices went up, oats for horses became a luxury.

05:41Some people say it even inspired the invention of the bicycle in 1817.

05:48Scientists used early data and climate models to see if it was all because of the Tambora

05:53eruption.

05:54They compared the data to similar years.

05:56They showed that precipitation was around the same, but the temperatures were much warmer.

06:02When they introduced the volcano into the scenario, they got the exact data for the

06:06year without summer.

06:08They say that a powerful volcanic eruption like that one increases the likelihood of

06:13extreme cold by up to 100 times.

06:19The explosion of the Toba supervolcano on the island of Sumatra around 74,000 years

06:25ago became the Earth's largest volcanic eruption in 28 million years.

06:30Parts of Indonesia, India, and a slice of the Indian Ocean got a cozy blanket made up

06:35of 6 inches of volcanic debris.

06:38It spat out a volume of rock comparable to almost 3 million Empire State Buildings.

06:44The crater it had left behind is still seen from space.

06:48All the ash and volcanic gases that sprang into the atmosphere because of the eruption

06:52partially blocked the sunlight.

06:54A severe volcanic winter began and lasted for 6 to 10 years.

07:00Some anthropologists see a connection between the Toba eruption and how limited modern humans

07:05are when it comes to genetic variety.

07:08Around 74,000 years ago, exactly when the Toba erupted, there was a population nosedive.

07:14That's why all modern humans trace their roots back to a tiny group of survivors.

07:20The Toba catastrophe theory proposes that most early humans in Europe and Asia didn't

07:25make it through the post-eruption climate chaos.

07:28Instead, a lucky, genetically limited bunch found their safe haven in Africa.

07:34But archaeological and paleoclimate records disagree with this theory.

07:41Benjamin Black from Rutgers University and his team set out to crack the code and discovered

07:46a hidden paradox.

07:48Maybe we were peering through the wrong climate lens.

07:51They ran 42 different climate model simulations, varying the magnitude of volcanic emissions,

07:57time of year of the eruption, background climate state, and eruption column height

08:02to see what climate disruptions the Toba eruption might have caused.

08:07There was a significant drop in temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere in the first year

08:11after the event, up to 18 degrees Fahrenheit.

08:15The Southern Hemisphere, where the early humans were settling, didn't go through a rough

08:19cooling that could have affected them all.

08:24The most significant eruptions that can seriously change the world's climatic patterns come

08:29from supervolcanoes like Yellowstone or Mount Toba.

08:33Luckily, these erupt very rarely, about every 100,000 years or more.

08:39Still, climate scientists study volcanic eruptions to understand and explain short periods of

08:44cooling in the history of our planet.

08:47Every few decades or so, a volcanic eruption lets out a substantial number of particles

08:51and gases.

08:53Some of them will block enough sunlight to start a brief global cooling period.

08:57Nothing like the real volcanic winter, but still felt across the globe.

09:05That's it for today!

09:06So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your

09:11friends!

09:12Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!

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