Tsunami caused by Anak Krakatoa’s collapse

Indonesia’s emergency teams continued to search for survivors yesterday in the rubble left by the tsunami that hit the Sunda Strait on Saturday between the islands of Java and Sumatra. So far 371 deaths have been recorded, 128 people are missing, 1,459 are injured and 12,000 have been evacuated. Yesterday geologists confirmed that the eruption of the Anak Krakatoa volcano located in the middle of the strait led to an underwater landslide that caused the tsunami.

Local officials and scientists stated yesterday that the tsunami was caused by a partial collapse of Anak Krakatoa. Anak Krakatoa is 300 meters high and has a crater to one side, it had been erupting daily over the last three months, spraying ash and lava, until a whole section of the southwestern face of the mountain, about 64 hectares fell to the sea. “This caused an underwater landslide and eventually caused the tsunami,” explained Dwikorita Karnawati, head of the Indonesian meteorological agency. This has also been confirmed in images of the deadly natural phenomenon captured by the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1 satellite. The 64 hectares of land fell to the sea and triggered the giant waves that devastated the nearest coastal zone. Apparently warnings were not triggered because the tsunami was caused by a volcano rather than by an earthquake.