Krakatoa & Supervolcano

This column first appeared in the Age on April 9, 2005

A documentary on SBS a few months ago contained facts I found fascinating: Volcanic ash has been found in peat bogs in Ireland, originating from eruptions Iceland in 1104, 1510 and 1362. These eruptions coincide with cooler, wetter weather, bad growing seasons and famine. When Krakatoa erupted the explosion was the loudest recorded sound in human history. It could be heard 2000 miles away, in Perth Australia, the temperature on the planet dropped half a degree and sunsets were turned blood red for many years. The documentary on the life, and dramatic death of this volcano, Krakatoa (ABC, 8,30 p.m., Sunday) is harrowing viewing in the wake of the recent tsunami, for it was tsunamis rather than the eruption itself that killed dover 36, 000 on the morning of August 7th, 1883. These tsunami’s dramatic reconstruction reminds us again what so many in Asia have recently been through. The wave caused by Krakatoa was 40 meters high - higher than the recent one, but did not spread as widely. After the eruption hail-sized stones fell over 100 miles away, and the city of Jakarta (then Batavia) fell into total darkness. The eruption was one of the best-documented natural cataclysms in history; each step being witnessed and recorded by the Dutch settlers living in the region. While their testimonials are crucial to this dramatic reconstruction - and the birth of a new science, Vulconology - this documentary is also careful to pay respects to the loss of Indonesian life - a fact barely acknowledgde in the international press at the time who were much more upset by the deaths of 37 Westerners. As we saw last week, earthquakes are going to continue in this region and Anak Krakatau (child of Krakatoa) is still active and threatening to erupt.

Also active are disaster documentaries and movies, which are descending upon us like so many lumps of pumice in the next few weeks. Krakatoa is fine television but next week’s telemovie, Supervolcano (Saturday April 16, ABC, 8.30 p.m.) aims more for shock value than education. Supervolcano is set in the year 2020 when the world faces the eruption of a gigantic volcano beneath Yellowstone National Park. It is made more the effective by watching Krakatoa because Krakatoa provides the science Supervolcano lacks ( this fantastic account is more of the 'gee whiz, look at my computer's 3-d modeling effects'school of science). Supervolcano works with all the cliche's we have come to expect from these movies: evasive politicians, panicked americans being denied entry into Mexico, feisty environmental TV reporters who seek out the truth, and the scientist as hero. Professor Rick Lieberman (Michael Riley), has the hapless last of job of monitoring seismic activity around the park. He is ordered by the Government to down-play the threat but then the eruption begins and no one has any idea how long it will last. The results are apocalyptic. Whereas Krakatoa makes us fret for the fate of a nation, Supervolcano asks us to care about the fate of one scientist who is, frankly, a bit of dork.

As for how much science underlies Supervolcano, watch the two-part series about volcanoes at Yellowstone National Park - Catalyst: The Truth About Yellowstone. (Thursday April 14th and 21st, ABC, 8.00 p.m.). The effect of these documentaries is certainly cumulative, and appropriately terrifying. It is, perhaps, no bad thing, to remember just how conditional our relationship with nature actually is.

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