Mapping Armaggedon: Earth’s looming tsunamis and mega-quakes
A landslide from Anak Karkatau triggered a tsunami that killed 437 people and injured 30,000 in December 2018 AFP/File
As villagers along the Sunda Strait were finishing their meals on the evening of 22 December last year, they had no idea of the cataclysmic event that awaited them.
After bubbling on and off for months, the active volcano of Anak Krakatoa erupted, triggering a 0.3-kilometre-cubed sized chunk of rock to plunge into the unusually deep waters off the coast of Indonesia’s west Java and South Sumatra regions.
The resulting tsunami, which hit the coast just minutes after the landslide, killed 437 people and injured 30,000 more.
The killer wave was the most recent of a geological phenomenon that has led to around a quarter of a million deaths in the last two decades alone.
And it won’t be the last.