Powerful Series

You want to talk about power? In August of 1883, a volcano erupted on the Island of Krakatoa. The initial blast sent a cloud of gas and debris 15 miles into the atmosphere. On the morning of August 27th, four tremendous explosions were heard 3,000 miles away. That would be like us hearing Mount St. Helens exploding all the way over here in Canton/Beaverdam.

The force of Krakatoa’s explosions equaled 200 megatons of TNT. To give you an idea of how powerful that is, the bomb that devastated Hiroshima, Japan, in World War II had a force of 20 kilotons. The explosions at Krakatoa were nearly 10,000 times more powerful than the atomic bombs that we dropped on Japan.

The pyro clast … or molten lava … flowed over 25 miles at a speed of 62 miles per hour. Over 36,000 people died. The ash from the explosion covered the earth and lowered the earth’s temperature by 1.2 degrees for the next five years.

While Krakatoa’s eruption is justifiably classified as one of the most destructive volcanic eruptions in modern times, believe it or not, it is not one of the most powerful. That “honor” belongs to Mount Tambora in Indonesia … which erupted on April 10th of 1815. The ash from that explosion covered the earth and caused global temperatures to drop five degrees. Even in the United States, the year of 1816 was known as “the year without a summer.” Crops failed worldwide. And a weird, unexpected outcome of that eruption was the invention of the … bicycle! That’s right … the bicycle! Because of the crop failures, horses became too expensive to feed.

You want to talk power? Let’s talk tsunamis. The eruption of Krakatoa set off shock waves and an earthquake that created a tsunami … get this … 120 feet tall! That’s 12 stories high! Six (12) times higher than this sanctuary.

You might remember the tsunami that struck Japan in 2011. We saw the devastation as a 30-foot wave crashed into Japan. Over 15,000 people were killed. You may not remember the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. That one killed 230,000 people.

And let’s talk about earthquakes while we’re at it, since earthquakes and tsunamis go hand in hand. You can’t have a tsunami without an earthquake. The force of the earthquake that created the Japanese tsunami in 2011 moved the entire island of Honshu 8 feet to the east. Wow! Think about that for a minute. The main island of Japan moved 8 feet to the left. It shifted the earth’s axis 4 to 10 inches. Did you hear that? The force of that earthquake shifted the earth’s axis 4 to 10 inches! Now that’s power, amen? It increased the rotational speed of the earth by 18 milliseconds … which changed the length of the day as well.

You want to talk power? Anyone here felt the fury and power of a hurricane, amen? Andrew reached speeds of 190 miles per hour … Camille reached speeds of 200 miles per hour. The last hurricane that I went through was Hurricane Irma. It was a category 5 hurricane when it hit Cuba with sustained winds of 165 miles per hour. It was a category 4 when it hit Cudjoe Key with sustained winds of 130 miles per hour. And it was a cat 3 with sustained winds of 115 miles per hour when it literally passed over my head. 134 people died … 92 in the contiguous United States. The strongest hurricane gust was recorded at Paso Real de San Diego, Cuba … at 211.7 miles per hour.

You want to talk about power? Let’s talk briefly about … tornadoes! The most powerful tornado in American history was the “Tri-State Tornado” that touched down on March 18, 1925. It tore a path of destruction 219 miles long through the states of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. It holds the record for the longest duration … 3.5 hours … and the fastest forward speed … 73 miles per hour. It is considered to be the deadliest tornado in American history … killing 695 people and it is the third costliest since we’ve begun tracking and recording tornadoes.

The deadliest tornado on record is the Daulatpur-Saturia tornado that touched down in Bangladesh on April 26, 1989. It carved a path one mile wide and 10 miles long and killed 1,300 people.

The title of “most extensive tornado outbreak” once again belongs to the United States. In 1974, 148 tornados touched ground in a period of 18 hours. Most of them were F4 and F5 category tornadoes. F4 tornadoes have wind speeds between 165 and 200 miles per hour. And F5 tornadoes has speeds over 200 miles per hour. During the outbreak there were a minimum of 16 tornadoes on the ground at the same time. Over 300 people were killed during the 1974 tornado outbreak. This record has since been broken by the 2011 “Super Tornado Outbreak” … which resulted in 360 tornadoes touching down and killing 324 people.