Verlaten Island

About

Verlaten Island (Abandoned, Deserted or Forsaken, modern Indonesian: Pulau Sertung) is a volcanic island in the Sunda Strait, Indonesia, located between Java and Sumatra. It is part of the Krakatoa archipelago, situated above the famous Krakatoa volcano caldera. The island may have been created during the 535 AD eruption of Krakatoa. Other than some minor collapse in the southeast (closest to the main island of Rakata), Verlaten suffered little direct damage in the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa. Instead, it grew almost three times in area due to massive pumice fall, although most of the new coastal gain was quickly eroded away by ocean waves. Today, the island is strictly uninhabited and forms part of the Krakatoa Nature Reserve (Cagar Alam Krakatau).

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.