Word: krakatau
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...Krakatau, a volcanic island in the Sunda Straits about 25 miles from Java, destroyed two-thirds of itself in a mighty explosion in 1883, sent out a tidal wave that drowned 36,000 inhabitants of adjacent lands. In the Krakatau group, four new islands were formed from the wreck of the former three. Naturalists agreed almost unanimously that every particle of life, down to the last seed and spore, must have been wiped out by lava, ash, gas and steam, that if life again took root on the islands it must come from outside. A minutely detailed story of vegetable...