1883 Eruption of Krakatoa - "The Burning Ashes of Ketimbang"

"The Burning Ashes of Ketimbang"

Around noon on 27 August, a rain of hot ash fell around Ketimbang (now Katibung in Lampung Province) in Sumatra. Approximately one thousand people were killed, the only large number of victims killed by Krakatoa itself, and not by the waves or after-effects. Verbeek, and later writers, believe this unique event was a lateral blast, or pyroclastic surge (similar to the catastrophic 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens), which crossed the water. The region of the ash fall ended to the northwest of Ketimbang, where the bulk of Sebesi Island offered protection from any horizontal surges.

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