Q 01/05

Krakatoa lies in a strait between which two Indonesian islands?

A) Java and Bali

B) Java and Sumatra

C) Borneo and Sulawesi

D) Bali and Lombok

Answer · why

B) Java and Sumatra

Java and Sumatra. The strait between them is a busy sea lane, which is why so many of the first reports of the 1883 eruption came from the decks of pa...

Q 02/05

News of Krakatoa's 1883 eruption reached the world within days thanks to which new network?

A) Transatlantic telephone lines

B) Wireless radio stations

C) Undersea telegraph cables

D) Steamship mail routes

Answer · why

C) Undersea telegraph cables

Undersea telegraph cables. The newly laid worldwide network flashed out the news at once, which is why Krakatoa is often called the first catastrophe ...

Q 03/05

Krakatoa rates a 6 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index, about ten times the size of which 1980 eruption rated a 5?

A) Pinatubo

B) Nevado del Ruiz

C) Mount St. Helens

D) El Chichón

Answer · why

C) Mount St. Helens

Mount St. Helens. Each step up the index means roughly ten times more erupted material, so the blast that flattened forests across Washington State wa...

Q 04/05

Krakatoa's climactic blast is put at about 200 megatons, four times the yield of which nuclear device?

A) Castle Bravo

B) Ivy Mike

C) Tsar Bomba

D) Fat Man

Answer · why

C) Tsar Bomba

Tsar Bomba. The largest device ever detonated, the 1961 Soviet test yielded about 50 megatons, and only because its builders had halved its design to ...

Q 05/05

Krakatoa's biggest blast was heard thousands of kilometres away on Rodrigues, an island belonging to which Indian Ocean nation?

A) Seychelles

B) Madagascar

C) Maldives

D) Mauritius

Answer · why

D) Mauritius

Mauritius. Rodrigues lies some 3,000 miles from the volcano, so the sound its people heard had already been travelling for about four hours.