KRAKATOA

I recently finished reading Krakatoa by Simon Winchester. This is by far one of the best books I have ever read: enlightening, entertaining, fascinating, instructive, amazing. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves to learn.

A few of the things I learned from this wonderful book are:

1. Krakatoa is/was a small island in the Sunda Strait with three volcanoes on it, Curly, Mo, and Larry. ( I named them that)
2. The Sunda Strait is a narrow passage between Java and Sumatra in Indonesia and has been a busy ship channel for hundreds of years. Lots of spices come from there including pepper and nutmeg.
3. Krakatoa erupted in August 1883 and killed more people than any other volcano in recorded history. The explosions were so loud, they were heard 2000 miles away.
4. When Krakatoa erupted (Curly, Mo, and Larry all at once) in 1883 the entire island disappeared into the sea except a small piece that still today sticks up out of the ocean like a large, lonely dog ear (probably Larry’s ear actually)
5. Almost immediately after Krakatoa erupted in 1883, a new volcano began to form, little by little deep down on the ocean floor. It is an island again and sticks well up into the sky.
It is now called Anak Krakatao or Son of Krakatoa. It grows taller every single day and could erupt at any moment.
6. There are hundreds of volcanoes all around the world.
7. The earth has huge plates deep under the surface that move a lot. When the plates overlap it causes earthquakes. These overlaps cause gas to build up inside the earth. Just like humans and animals, the earth has to pass gas. It passes gas through volcanoes.
8. The earth also has waste products to pass as well. The waste products spewed out of the volcanoes create amazingly fertile soil where vegetation grows in great abundance.

Side note:
This particular part made me think…..a lot. I thought about how animal waste has been used forever for fertilizer. It was a constant during my childhood to have the manure spreader parked by the barn. When the corral got deep in cow poo (manure), the farmer (my uncles and cousins) would use a tractor with a scoop on the front to load the manure from the corral into the manure spreader. Then the manure spreader would be pulled to the field and the manure would be spread all over the field to fertilize the farmland. This process was and is very effective.

The volcanoes basically are a giant manure spreader, spreading fertilizer in a huge way across large pieces of earth which makes it very fertile. A more effective than the manure spreader, less manual labor.

Scientists have recently decided that cow gas (flatulation) is causing global warming.

It has long been known that volcano eruptions cause global cooling by covering the earth with a fine film of volcanic matter that keeps the sun from getting through. So we should keep plenty of cows around to create a balance in the weather when volcanoes erupt. (Just a thought.)

Scientists now generally concur that the earth’s land masses were once all in one piece. If you look at a world map, you can easily see how all the pieces of land could fit together like puzzle pieces.

Another little side note:
In our church, we believe that the earth is a living thing. We believe that when Adam and Eve lived on the earth, pre-yummy apple, the earth was a paradise full of health, peace and joy.

After the fall (the apple incident), the earth fell also into a less paradisiacal state where mortals could live and make themselves happy or miserable.

We believe in the second coming of Christ. We believe that when Christ comes again, the earth will be renewed and return to its paradisiacal glory. In order for the earth to return to this glorious state some serious changes will need to be made; some housecleaning, if you will.

If you read Isaiah 65:17-25 and Doctrine and Covenants 101:23-31, you see how the earth will be cleansed to prepare it for the Second Coming. It will be a paradise again.
So, back to the volcanoes.

9. There are volcanoes in big lines around the earth. They are mostly on the outside edges of various countries. If you look closely at their locations, you can see how, if they all exploded due to the plates moving underground, it could easily push the pieces of the earth back together. The massive volcanic eruptions would cover the earth with great fertilizer and BOOM! Paradise.

This blog is dedicated to my son Chris, because he will love this book as much as I did.