Think Baby Krakatoa is causing trouble? You should meet her mom.  

Actually, you can’t meet her. She blew up more than 140 years ago. And people still talk about the blast.  

The original Krakatoa volcano blew on August 26 and 27, 1883. When it exploded, it destroyed most of the island. Over 36,000 people died. Only one modern eruption was deadlier—Mount Tambora in 1815. You’ll also find that volcano on the map of Indonesia. No surprise there. Indonesia sits in a volatile spot, right where Earth’s tectonic plates bump into each other. The result? Volcanos. Lots of them. That’s how this part of the world got its nickname—the Pacific Ring of Fire.  

Tambora’s eruption affected people around the globe. The ash blocked sunlight. Crops failed. People in Ireland starved. Folks called 1816 “the year without a summer.” That year, a writer named Mary Shelley got stuck indoors because of all the bad weather. She entered a story in a contest . . . and gave us the book Frankenstein.  

Krakatoa’s explosion got more famous than Tambora’s—mostly because the telegraph had been invented. But people didn’t need the telegraph to see one of Krakatoa’s strangest consequences—blue Moons! 

Tiny particles of ash and sulfur dioxide filled the air. These filtered out the red light coming from the Sun. At night, the Moon looked blue. 

Speaking of strange colors in the sky: Some people think Krakatoa gave us another famous work of art. Some (but not all) researchers blame Krakatoa for the sky color in Edvard Munch’s famous painting The Scream. They say it’s possible that Munch painted this 1893 piece while recalling the time Indonesia’s volcano dust reached Norway, where he lived.  

Recommended Reading: For more about Krakatoa, read Newbery Medal Winner The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois.