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

The bestselling author ofThe Professor and the MadmanandThe Map That Changed the Worldexamines the enduring and world-changing effects of the catastrophic eruption off the coast of Java of the earth's most dangerous volcano -- Krakatoa.

The legendary annihilation in 1883 of the volcano-island of Krakatoa -- the name has since become a byword for a cataclysmic disaster -- was followed by an immense tsunami that killed nearly forty thousand people. Beyond the purely physical horrors of an even...