Bandar Lampung, Indonesia

April 23, 2011

            It’s so much easier to breathe at a lower elevation level. After my 4 days in the Himalayas, I am now back at sea-level on an island in Indonesia. It is called Lampung. I am in the capital city; Bandar Lampung. The exact location is at 5° 27’ 0” S and 105° 16’ 0” E.

            Yesterday, I went to visit a small island in the Krakatoa island formation in the Sunda strait, which isn’t very far from where I am now. I went to visit the very famous volcanic island that exploded in 1883. Its location is 6° 6’ 7” S and 105° 25’ 23” E. This island, and many of the ones around it, was formed because of the convergent subduction boundary between the Eurasian plate and the Australian plate. The heavier oceanic Australian plate collided with the Eurasian plate and got forced underneath it. Then, as the Austalian plate got closer and closer to the earth’s core, it started to melt and the liquid rock bubbled up and formed the volcano on the surface of the earth.

            Throughout history, there have been quite a few explosions on this island. Prior to the 1883 eruption, there was one in 1680 and multiple earlier than 100 BCE. The biggest explosions were on August 27th, 1883 when multiple large explosions almost destroyed the island. The main explosion has been said to be the loudest sound ever heard on earth. This explosion was also so big that it affected weather patterns and temperatures for multiple years afterwards.

A drawing of Krakatoa's 1883 explosion:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/Krakatoa_eruption_lithograph.jpg

            There have also been many earthquakes in Indonesia. Since 1915, there have been more than 50 earthquakes that were over a 6.0 on the Richter scale. The largest was a 9.1 earthquake in 2004. There were 227, 898 fatalities and a lot of damage was done. The most recent earthquake was in 2010. It was a 7.2 earthquake with no fatalities.

2004 earthquake damage:

http://www.virginmedia.com/images/earthquakes7-4x3.jpg

After a very information packed day yesterday, I came back to town at around midnight and was disappointed to find that the restaurants were all closed, so I went back to my hotel and had dinner there. The food wasn’t amazing, but it was good enough. Tomorrow, I will explore the city a bit more and then the day after that I will be flying back home. This was an amazing trip. I’m sad that it’s almost over, but hopefully I can go on another trip next summer.

J