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"For sixty million years the two tectonic plates that
converge on Java had been grinding slowly and steadily toward each other, four inches every year...that would be consequent
upon all those years of subterreanean shifting and sliding was at last about to occur." (Winchester,
S. 2003, 204)
Krakatau is a unique geological event that occurred over 100 years ago.
This massive explosion was the cause of nearly 40,000 deaths, major tidal waves and more than "3 cubic miles of flowing magma"
(O'Hanlon 2007).
Mount Krakatau was positioned in a very unique location on earth. Its large magma source was the cause
of "one of the largest tectonic plate collision zones" (O'Hanlon 2007).
As the Australian Plate is being subducted beneath the Eurasian Plate, the amount of heat and pressure from the Earth's
mantle causes seawater to bubble at extreme temperatures and boil upward. (O'Hanlon 2007).
The intense heat created in the layers of the earth is one of the primary causes of the magma.
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| Island Arc Formed by Oceanic-Oceanic Subduction (Subduction Zone Volcanism) |
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