Krakatoa's Tsunamis

A tsunami carried this ship miles inland when    killer waves ravaged Indonesia in 1883

The number of people killed by Indian Ocean tsunamis continues to climb by tens of thousands. In Indonesia alone, the official death toll is nearly 80,000--and there are warnings that it may go even higher.

Such heart-rending scenes have played out in Indonesia before. Some 120 years ago, tsunamis swept over Indonesian islands and claimed at least 30,000 lives when the Krakatoa volcano erupted.

Krakatoa: The Blast Heard
'Round the World

In 1883, the island of Krakatoa lay between the islands of Java and Sumatra, today part of Indonesia. Volcanic eruptions had formed the island over millennia, building up layer upon layer of erupted debris until Krakatoa's cone-shaped peak rose 6,000 feet (1,830 m) above the ocean.

Krakatoa had been quiet for more than 200 years before May 1883, when the volcano started expelling ash and grumbling ominously. It sputtered, on and off, for 100 days before exploding, four times, on August 26 and 27.

The climactic eruption, at around 10 a.m. on August 27, shot a column of ash 50 miles (80 km) into the air and produced an eardrum-shattering blast still in the record books as the loudest sound ever heard by modern humans. People heard the blast as far away as Vietnam, Thailand, Australia, and even Rodriguez Island--nearly 3,000 miles (4,800 km) away, across the Indian Ocean.

Rain of Fire

For people on islands near Krakatoa, the sounds were frightening enough--but it didn't take long for the sky to fill with ash or for pumice stones to start raining down. Krakatoa itself was uninhabited, but about 5,000 people on neighboring islands are believed to have died from the direct effects of the eruption, such as suffocating from the ash in the air.

For most, the worst was yet to come. No one realized it yet, but the island of Krakatoa had blown itself apart. As the magma rushed up through this vent in the crust of the Earth, the top of the 6,000-foot mountain collapsed into itself and most of the island sunk below sea level. Undersea disruptions roiled the ocean, displacing a huge volume of water. The water sloshed around and formed giant sea waves, known by the Japanese word "tsunami."

Four Waves

Each of the final four eruptions gave birth to a tsunami. The giant waves inundated smaller islands and then swept into Java and Sumatra. Already dazed by the rain of ash, people were shocked to see a wall of water suddenly bearing down on them. Most Javanese and Sumatrans lived right near the coast in homes made of rattan and thatched with palm leaves, so there was no place to seek shelter. All anyone could do was run.

"Looking out to sea, I noticed a dark black object through the gloom, traveling toward the shore," recounted an eyewitness on Java. "At first sight it seemed to be a low range of hills rising out of the water--but I knew there was nothing of that kind in that part of the Sunda Strait. A second glance--and a very hurried one at that--convinced me that it was a lofty ridge of water many feet high."

The survivors were plucky or lucky or both. One family survived by scrambling up trees when the water rushed in, then escaping to high ground when the water receded for a few minutes. Another fellow, asleep when the wave hit, simply stayed in bed and rode the wave until it left him--still in bed--atop a hill. But most people were caught in the killer waves, which reached 100 feet (30 m). At least 30,000 people drowned and 165 villages were swept away.

Around the World

The rest of the world was horrified and fascinated with the disaster. Scientists tried to collect and record all evidence of the blast for posterity. Surveying instruments from around the globe, they learned that shock waves from Krakatoa's eruption traveled around the Earth seven times before dissipating. Measurements taken in coastal areas indicated that the effect of the tsunamis traveled all the way to the English Channel.

And there was one more way that the eruptions affected many lives around the world. The millions of tons of dust that Krakatoa had cast into the atmosphere affected sunsets for months, intensifying their colors into vivid purples and mauves--some were even blue. Poets and painters tried to capture the ironic beauty, aware that it had come from a catastrophe that had claimed so many lives.

Colleen Kelly
December 30, 2004

Want to learn more?
See pictures of Krakatoa
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4074651

From: KnowledgeNews

King Arthur Lives

Who Was the Real King Arthur?

When it comes to King Arthur, history and legend get mixed up quick. But at least some points are clear. First, forget about the Knights of the Round Table; 12th-century French and German poets invented those stories. What's more, the real Arthur never ruled all of Britain. He would have been a regional ruler, perhaps given military authority to lead the fight against the Saxons.

Caesar Artorius?

Before the time of King Arthur, Rome ruled Britain for some 400 years. Over those centuries, the native Celts became thoroughly Romanized. In fact, if there was a historical Arthur, his real name was probably the Roman "Artorius."

By the early 5th century, however, the western Roman Empire was collapsing. In 410, the Visigoths sacked Rome, and the emperor recalled many of his legions to defend Italy. That left Britain undefended, with the un-Romanized Saxons, Angles, Picts, Franks, and Scots menacing the island from all sides. Attackers soon landed on the coast and began roaming the countryside--murdering, pillaging, and seizing slaves.

Around 425, a Briton called Vortigern (probably not a name but a title, meaning "high chief") apparently hired several hundred Saxons as mercenaries to fight the Picts. His strategy backfired when the Saxons quit moonlighting for the Britons but kept their day jobs--raping and pillaging--and operated from a secure base within Britain itself.

The Man, The Myth, The Legend

According to early legend, Arthur rallied the Britons and won a great victory at Mt. Badon that contained the Saxons for a generation. But then, while the king and his army were off fighting in Gaul, a disloyal relative named Mordred seized power. By some accounts, Mordred was Arthur's nephew; by others, his son. Either way, Arthur returned to battle Mordred at a place called Camlann, where he killed the rebel but died from his own wounds.

In the following decades, the Angles and Saxons pushed the Britons back to Wales, Cornwall, and eventually across the English Channel to Brittany (in modern France). From these distant lands, the Britons told stories of how Arthur was not dead but merely waiting for the time when he would lead them into a new golden age.

Story or History?

When the Romans left Britain they took their historians with them, so it's hard to know how much of Arthur's legend is actual history and how much is just story. The earliest Briton source--a moral tract by a 6th-century monk named Gildas--mentions the battle at Mt. Badon but doesn't say anything about Arthur.

The earliest undisputed reference to Arthur doesn't show up until 300 years later, in the Historia Brittonum, a compilation of historical and geographical information by the 9th-century Welsh antiquary Nennius. According to Nennius, Arthur was the hero of Mt. Badon (and eleven other battles).

Finally, in the 12th century, Geoffrey of Monmouth gave Arthur a full life story in his Historia Regum Britanniae ("History of the Kings of Britain"), one of the most popular books of the Middle Ages. This account is similar to the one you already know--including a magical advisor named Merlin and a death scene that included transport to Avalon. French poets added Launcelot, of course.

Mark Diller
July 7, 2004

 

Want to learn more?
Live life like a Roman soldier among the Britons
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/vindolanda_01.shtml

From: KnowledgeNews

Circling Jericho

Ancient Jericho's walls were a sight to see

Last week, Israeli forces dismantled roadblocks around the West Bank city of Jericho, formally transferring control to Palestinian police. Jericho is the first of five West Bank cities scheduled to see such barriers come down in the coming weeks. Of course, this isn't the first time in Jericho's 10,000-year history that breaking down barriers has caused a stir.

Circling Jericho

Jericho is one of the world's oldest cities. In fact, Jericho was a city long before most people even knew what a city was.

Along the Banks of the River Jordan

Way back in 9000 BC, primitive hunters passing through Palestine found a spring-fed oasis near the River Jordan, a few miles from the shore of the Dead Sea. A thousand years later, those hunters' descendents had built what might have been the world's first city: Jericho, which had two or three thousand inhabitants at a time when most humans were still living in tents and huts.

The ancient city's very existence is a puzzle. It came together before humans had invented agriculture on any significant scale, but the place had too many inhabitants to be fed by hunting and gathering. Was it a trade city? If so, its lifeblood was probably salt. The Dead Sea provides an almost limitless supply of that valuable resource.

Jericho Builds Its Walls

From its earliest times, Jericho had walls. That in itself was a stunning achievement. The locals hadn't invented pottery yet, so there were no bricks to build with. Instead, Jericho's earliest walls were built of rough stones, some of which weighed several tons.

In 8000 BC, four thousand years before the Egyptian pyramids were built, Jericho had a wall 12 feet (3.5 meters) thick and more than 20 feet (6 meters) high. Reinforcing the wall was at least one 30-foot (9-meter) stone tower containing an interior staircase. At the time, Jericho's walls would have been a marvel to behold.

You don't build walls that high, and then surround them with a ditch, unless you have something to protect--and someone to protect it against. Unfortunately, we have no idea who Jericho's enemies might have been in those days. Archaeological evidence shows that the walls were damaged at least 17 times, though in most cases the culprit was probably an earthquake.

And the Walls Come Tumbling Down

The city was abandoned around 6000 BC, and only intermittently populated during the next 3,000 years. Around 1900 BC, the Canaanites captured the region and rebuilt the city. They were still there 500 or 600 years later, when the people of Israel arrived, looking for the Promised Land.

The Book of Joshua tells the story. Just after Moses had relinquished his command to Joshua, the Israelites made ready to attack the first Canaanite city they saw: Jericho. Joshua sent two spies across the River Jordan to take the measure of the city, and the men reported back that their enemies were paralyzed with fear.

At this news, the Israelites crossed the river and encircled the city. Priests carried the Ark of the Covenant around the walls while blowing horns for seven days, until finally the Israelites let loose with a great shout that collapsed the fortifications. The Israelites then destroyed Jericho, and Joshua pronounced a curse on any man who might rebuild it.

How could such a thing have happened? Experts agree that the walls were, in fact, destroyed in the middle of the second millennium BC. But archaeologists (and others) have been arguing about exactly when, why, and how Jericho's walls came tumbling down for more than a century.

O Little Town of Jericho

Whatever the circumstances, Jericho was abandoned again for more than 500 years. By Roman times, it had migrated to a site a few miles away from the original settlement. Herod the Great, the Roman-appointed king of Judaea, built a winter palace there, where he died in 4 BC.

After that, Jericho declined into a small village. It converted to Islam in the 7th century, and for hundreds of years was part of the Ottoman Empire. In 1949, it was incorporated into Jordan, where it stayed until 1967, when Israel occupied it (along with the rest of the West Bank) during the Six Days' War. A town of less than 15,000 people, it now plays its part in the still-developing story of Palestinian self-rule.

Mark Diller
March 21, 2005

Want to learn more?
See what's left of ancient Jericho
http://holylandphotos.org/browse.asp?s=1,2,6,17,40&thumbs=1

From: KnowledgeNews

Hong Kong Hiccup

 

Two systems?

Imagine what would happen if more than 7 percent of your country took to the streets to demand greater democracy. On July 1, about half a million people in Hong Kong did just that--for the second straight year.

Chinese officials promptly called the march "improper" and refused again to reconsider their ban on general elections for Hong Kong's chief executive and legislative council. Said one official yesterday, "Hong Kong is our pearl. What the central government has done is in the best interests of Hong Kong. You can't expect a parent to change his child's future just because he throws a tantrum."

 

Who Made Hong Kong?

Hong Kong is an odd bird. It rose to prominence as a British imperial outpost in the Far East, and now it's struggling to maintain that prominence as a capitalist outpost in communist China. Makes you wonder who in the world hatched such a place, doesn't it? Answer: drug dealers.

Xianggang, the "Fragrant Harbor"

Before there was a hustling, bustling Hong Kong--packed tight with people--there was an island in which few saw much use. A lively sea trade navigated the surrounding waters, but ships shunned the island itself, which was known chiefly as a hideout for pirates.

Things only began to change once the western "barbarians"--scurrilous sorts from Europe and America--acquired a taste for tea, silk, and fine porcelains imported from China. Western coinage flowed steadily eastward, and, since the Chinese had little interest in manufactures from the industrialized West, a large trade deficit soon sucked silver from European and American coffers. Western traders needed to fill their ships with some commodity that the Chinese would crave enough to tip the balance of trade back in a westerly direction.

Drug Money

In the days before McDonalds, movies, and Brittany Spears, the answer to western traders' prayers was, as it turned out, opium. The Chinese already had a tradition of taking opium in small doses. But at some point, the practice of smoking tobacco spread to China, and, with a little coaching from the Dutch, the Chinese learned you could smoke opium, too. The result was a highly addictive method of ingesting the drug. Soon China was dotted with opium dens filled with addicts slowly puffing their lives away.

Western traders were only too happy to feed their addiction. Vast fields of poppies were planted and harvested in India to supply the new Chinese market. The trade balance swung back in the other direction, until it was Chinese coffers that were being depleted. The Chinese government saw what was happening and tried to put a stop to the drug trade. But the western powers were too pleased with the money they were making to allow that. From 1839 to 1860, Britain and France literally fought to protect the rights of their opium traders.

God Save (and Enrich) the Queen

In 1842, a humiliated China not only agreed to allow the opium trade to continue, it ceded Hong Kong Island to Britain in perpetuity as well. In 1860, it ceded nearby Kowloon Peninsula forever, too. And in 1898, it allowed Britain to lease the adjacent "New Territories" for a period of 99 years. Sleepy Hong Kong--old Chinese fishing hole and sometime pirate den--became an imperial British outpost at the center of international trade.

Hong Kong may have been neglected, but it had a lot to offer--particularly one of the world's best deep-water harbors and a location that could command the main trade routes between Europe and the Far East. No dummies, the British quickly build it into a vibrant economic center. People flocked in, though the Chinese who came had little voice in the government. The city was a British colony, after all, administered by a governor who was appointed by and answered to the British crown. Until 1997, that is.

There Can Be Only One--Or Maybe Two

Technically, the question of how to handle 1997, when Britain's 99-year lease expired, applied only the New Territories, since Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula had been granted to Britain in perpetuity. The new Chinese government didn't see things that way, though, and insisted on treating the entire territory the same. The British--in full retreat from their former imperial ambitions--were willing to go along, and so in 1982 negotiations began on how to hand Hong Kong back to China.

That involved certain obvious difficulties. China had become a communist state, while Hong Kong had become home to some of the most feverish capitalism on the planet. Yet two years of negotiations brought the Chinese and British governments to an agreement. For a 50-year term starting July 1, 1997, China would be one country encompassing two systems. Hong Kong would remain a capitalist outpost within a communist country. After 2007, it could even choose its own government by democratic means. Meanwhile, Hong Kong's economy would serve as a money pump, injecting currency into China's less developed regions.

Ach! Tung

That was the plan, at any rate. In 1997, amid much pomp and circumstance, Hong Kong's last British governor, Chris Patten, stepped down, and shipping magnate Tung Chee-hwa became "chief executive." China's communist government seems happy with the way things turned out--Tung pretty much takes his orders from Beijing. He was never popular among Hong Kong's rank and file, and he lost even more support when his government tried to institute an anti-sedition, anti-subversion, anti-secession law in July 2003. Still, with Beijing's blessing, he is the man in charge.

So Hong Kong marches into the future with more questions than answers. Will the mainland government eventually allow democratic elections? Will China remain one country with two systems, or will Hong Kong's political and economic independence be strangled into nonexistence? Most economists agree that China badly needs Hong Kong to remain a capitalist money machine, but that's bitter medicine for a communist to take.

Want to learn more?
Take a virtual tour of Hong Kong
http://www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/interactive/tour/index.jhtml 

From: KnowledgeNews