The loudest noise ever heard was an event so shocking and terrible that not only was it deafening, but also tremendously destructive. It wasn’t exactly the sound that caused the destruction, although it in itself would have had enough power to cause damage, it was the event that caused the loudest noise ever heard that was so terrible. So what exactly could have been so powerful to bring about an almighty sound? Mother nature with an attitude.
If I were to ask you what was the loudest noise ever heard a lot of people would have been looking for man made sounds. Top of the list would be bombs, such as atomic bombs, followed by rockets. While these man made devices sure do have one hell of a bang, they fall short of the record. Even the largest explosion ever made by humans, the Tsar bomb didn’t come close to this mammoth noise. So if it wasn’t man made, it has to be natural. Could it be an impact event from space?
While this scenario is perfectly reasonable, and past devastation from meteor impacts has wiped out entire species, no one was around to hear it happen. If they were the chances are that they would have almost certainly died, along with the other 90 percent of all living things. So for the purpose of this fact we need to look to the period in which humans have graced this planet. And there is only one thing with enough force and power to provide such a devastating sound. That thing is a volcanic eruption.
Volcanic eruptions aren’t all that rare, especially when compared to the geological timeline. They do pack one hell of a punch when they blow, but in most cases the sound is localized. But there was one eruption in the late 19th century that not only devastated the globe, but sent a shock wave of sound for thousands of miles. This was the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883.
The eruption of Krakatoa on the Sumatran island of Indonesia in mid 1883 was the loudest noise ever heard. The eruption was heard on the island of Rodrigues near Mauritius 4800 kilometres (3000 miles), and in Perth, Western Australia 3,110 km (1,930 mi) away away. It was so loud even nearly 5,000 kilometres away that the residents of Rodrigues thought that it was cannon fire from a nearby ship.
This was one of the largest eruption ever recorded in history. For an indication of just how loud a volcanic eruption can be have a look at the video below. It was shot in 2014 and shows a relatively small eruption of a volcano in Papua New Guinea. Holy smoking Toledo, what would Krakatoa have been like?
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