Volcanic activity recommenced in May 1883, and continued into August, the first Eruption appearing on the northern, Perbuatan Volcano. The number of active vents increased on both the northern volcanoes. On the 26th and 27th August a series of cataclysmic explosion occurred which where heard as far away as shout Australia and Ceylon. They generated tsunamis (Tidal Waves) that were registered even in the English Channel, and which in the Sunda strait area devastating, killing more than 36.000 people. The total volume of material ejected by the eruption is estimated at some 18 -21 cubic kilometers, with an ash cloud circling the earth several times. Causing "Blue Sun" and “Orange moons" In Europe and north America. The amount of the sun's energy reaching the earth was reduced, and in the year or two that followed, annual average temperatures in the northern hemisphere were lower than usual.
In the aftermath of explosions only about third of Krakatau remained. The northern two thirds, including the volcano Perbuatan and Danan and the northern half of Krakatau Volcano, were gone. In their place was a collapsed crater (Caldera) 200m beneath the sea (Fig.2e,3), covering an area of about 28 square kilometers.
The remaining, southern part of Rakata was left as an approximate half-cone with an almost perpendicular cliff from the summit (813 m) to the sea, providing a natural, geological section through volcano. The other two Islands, Seretung and Panjang, were enlarged considerably (Seretung doubled in size) by the glowing ash and pumice which smothered them to depth of 30 meters, on Rakata, the south and West coast were extended almost a kilometer seawards and the ash layer reached a thickness of 60 m in some areas, although probably much shallower on the steeper slopes. Weeks after explosion, rain water turned into steam as it trickled into crevices and even a month later the surface was too for bare feet. It is believed that all life, plant and animal, was destroyed on the Islands. Yet the three Island are now cover in forest, and over 200 species of higher plants and 36 species of land birds have been found on Rakata in the 1980.
