ep26 Explosion Heard Three Thousands Miles Away

The explosion is heard more than 3,000 miles away from its source. A man is sentenced to hang himself. Another man goes to jail because he fried a steak. Yes, impossible as those statements sound, they're all true.

And this is Lindsay McCarry back with another session of Can You Imagine That? The proof of those statements made a moment ago will be forthcoming in just one and a half minutes, so wait for us will you please?

It was our version of the terrific volcanic explosion of the island of Krakatoa. It takes the prize for being the world's biggest and loudest noise, and the most tragic.

But before we tell you about it, we will build up to it by telling you about other big noises. Our first is the dynamite explosion on the island of Nova Zembla in the Arctic, one day in December 1933.

The sound of it was detected in Berlin, Germany more than 2,000 miles away. Can you imagine that? Then there was the noise caused by the landing of the Great Siberian meteor on June 30, 1988, which was heard over a distance of 400 miles.

And only that it affected weather instruments in Europe. But those two big noises are pikers when it comes to the explosion of Krakatoa. Their sounds were merely detected while Krakatoas was actually heard by human ears more than three thousand miles away in Rodriguez.

Krakatoa was an island in the Sunda Straits between Sumatra and Java. I say was because after the explosion caused by volcanic disturbances, only a cavity, one thousand feet below sea level was what remained of the island.

far more serious than the actual explosion was the effect. A succession of gigantic sea waves, some of them more than fifty feet in height, was generated. The destruction caused by these waves was beyond all imagination. Harbors, villages, settlements, and fishing breeches were wiped out by the inundations. Thirty-six thousand human beings were killed.