Reddit reviews Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883

That was the thing that always blew me away about the event: That the effects of Krakatoa on the atmosphere are observable today in landscape paintings made at the time from as far away as England.

There's a really good book on the event called Krakatoa: The Day The World Exploded by Simon Winchester in case anyone is interested.

Edit:correction to book title

This is not true. I read the book about Krakatoa http://www.amazon.com/Krakatoa-World-Exploded-August-1883/dp/0060838590

They actually heard Krakatoa over 3000 miles away but people that were close did not report it as being that loud, really muffled sounding, probably having to do with the way acoustic waves work but interesting either way. That book has some really interesting stuff in it. Krakatoa was the first truly global event since the telegraph lines had just been laid across the oceans.

Any who are interested in this stuff would love Simon Winchester's book on Krakatoa. The man makes the story come alive from both the personal and historical context of it all.

Also holy hell, it was heard on an island 3000 miles away. Imagine hearing something from New York while standing on the Santa Monica pier.

Link to the book https://www.amazon.com/Krakatoa-World-Exploded-August-1883/dp/0060838590

I really like Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Worms or any book by Richard Fortey, really if paleontology and the biological history of the earth is interesting to you.

Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded is also great, especially if you like volcanoes. And sort of similarly is Eruptions that Shook the World.

I also second The Seashell on the Mountaintop that /u/ap0s suggested. It's very good!

It isn't a single survey, but Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 tells the story of that volcanic eruption and includes what amount to mini-courses in vulcanology, plate tectonics, the history of Indonesia, geology, and how Reuters was founded.

Are you interested in a particular aspect of geology?

Are you perhaps interested in sub/related disciplines? If so, I have some paleoclimate, geochemistry, etc. recommendations.

It might be blasphemy on this subreddit, but in a similar thread a ways back, a few people were really singing the praises of The Map That Changed the World by Simon Winchester. I frankly found it to be more than a little boring, even taking Winchester's digression-heavy style into account.

I recently started Krakatoa (also by Winchester) and it seems a bit more like what I was hoping for.

"Light" geology reading is kind of a tough needle to thread, I think.

Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 is a great read.

• Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War by Leo Marks
  
  
• Night of Stone: Death and Memory in Russia by Catherine Merridale. I linked to Amazon.co.uk here because it actually has a description of the book.
  
  
• Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded
  
  
• Labrador by Choice by Benjamin W. Powell Sr. Since Amazon doesn't have a description, I'll link a newspaper article on Ben instead. Labrador by Choice is his autobiography, telling of an extraordinary life in a hostile environment.
  
  You might also be interested in r/history's recommended reading list (on their side bar).

This might not be in the same vein, but check out Krakatoa by Simon Winchester. It's a book on the legendary volcano explosion in the late 19th century that temporarily disrupted global weather pattern in that year.

Apologies if these have been posted already, but I'd highly recommend Simon Winchester's work, particularly The Professor and the Madmad and Krakatoa.

Well researched, well written and thoroughly enjoyable.

I enjoyed Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded by Simon Winchester.

Also, and this one isn't strictly geo, but it's awesome, The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean. Basically a history of the periodic table. And it's really funny too.

Strongly recommended book if you want to learn more about Krakatoa.

I'm a climate change skeptic; I should probably mention that off the bat.

But ecological disturbances (droughts, epidemics, etc.) often trigger mass migrations, which in turn trigger wars when people migrate somewhere where there are already people.

Interestingly, there's a fair amount of evidence that they can also trigger fundamentalist movements. In Krakatoa the author talks about how Islamic fundamentalism took off in Indonesia right after the famous volcano. A lot of people's lives had been completely destroyed and they were looking for something hard to hold onto.

Simon Winchester is really good. I enjoyed Krakatoa and The Professor and the Madman.