30. Krakatoa Was Loud
By early evening, August 26th, 1883, Krakatoa’s seismic activity was triggering mini tsunamis that struck the Sumatran and Javan coasts 25 miles away. The climax began early the following morning, with two big eruptions at 5:30 and 6:44 AM on August 27th, that gave rise to more tsunamis.
Then at 10:02 AM, Krakatoa erupted with a huge bang. It was the loudest sound ever heard until then in recorded history: a cataclysmic explosion of about 180 decibels. That was equivalent to 15,000 Hiroshima bombs, and it put the preceding eruptions to shame. It was heard almost 2000 miles away in Perth, Australia, 3000 miles away on the island of Rodrigues, near Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, and produced a tsunami about 100 feet high in places.