Dartmouth on Krakatau

One hundred years ago the volcano Krakatau in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) erupted in a series of violent explosions which distributed volcanic dust around the world. This year the Indonesian Institute of Sciences celebrated the hundredth anniversary of this event with a symposium in Jakarta to discuss scientific investigations by Indonesians and others on the eruption and its effect on the surroundings. Three Dartmouth earth scientists were there for the symposium. The Joe Obering '55 Fund enabled two of the earth science faculty active in volcano logical research Richard E. Stoiber '32 and Stanley N. Williams (A.M. '80, Ph.D. '83) to travel from Hanover to Jakarta. A recent Dartmouth earth science graduate student, Chris Newhall (Ph.D. '80), now a volcanologist with the United States Geological Survey, was also at the symposium.

Stoiber and Williams reported on their recent Krakatau research. They had studied, by a novel method, the gases evolved during this explosive eruption 100 years ago. Their approach was to locate samples of volcanic ash collected at the time which had never been rained on. Samples were found in museums in the United States, Britain, and Holland. They were washed with distilled water and the washwater was analyzed for sulfur and chlorine, both important constituents of volcanic gas. From the investigation it was found that the eruption of Krakatau released at least seven million tons of sulfur into the atmosphere and more chlorine than any other known eruption. These chemicals are now believed to be more important than the volcanic ash in their potential for climatic impact.

It was just thirty years ago that Robert Decker, former professor of earth sciences at Dartmouth, taught some of the present leaders in earth sciences at the Bandung Technical Institute in Indonesia while on sabbatical leave from the College.

Robert A. Danziger '56, AlumniCouncil Trustee nominee.