Opening adress

Abstract

The hundredth anniversary of the great explosive eruption, which on 27 August 1883 destroyed the island of Krakatau in Indonesia and was the subject of the finest and most comprehensive report on any volcanic eruption (Royal Society 1888), is an appropriate occasion to review our knowledge of the effects of volcanic explosions on the atmosphere and on climate. This is especially so, since the eruptions of the El Chichón volcano in southern Mexico in late March and early April 1982 have provided the greatest volcanic cloud in the stratosphere for many decades past, perhaps indeed the greatest since 1883.