Perboewatan was one of the three main volcanic cone

Volcanic cone

Volcanic cones are among the simplest volcanic formations. They are built by ejecta from a volcanic vent, piling up around the vent in the shape of a cone with a central crater. Volcanic cones are of different types, depending upon the nature and size of the fragments ejected during the eruption...

s (the others being Danan

Danan

Danan was one of the three volcanic cones on the island of Krakatoa, in the Sunda Strait, in Indonesia. It stood , laid in the central area of the island, and may have been a twin volcano...

 and Rakata

Rakata

Rakata is a collapsed stratovolcano of the Indonesian island of Krakatoa in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Sumatra and Java. Standing tall, it was the largest and southernmost of three volcanoes that formed the island Krakatoa and the only one not totally destroyed in the eruption of 1883...

) on the island of Krakatoa

Krakatoa

Krakatoa is a volcanic island made of a'a lava in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra in Indonesia. The name is used for the island group, the main island , and the volcano as a whole. The island exploded in 1883, killing approximately 40,000 people, although some estimates...

 (or Krakatau), in the Sunda Strait

Sunda Strait

The Sunda Strait is the strait between the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra. It connects the Java Sea to the Indian Ocean...

, in Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

. It was the lowest (400 ft) and northernmost of the cones. Perboewatan was completely destroyed in the 1883 eruption; the caldera

Caldera

A caldera is a cauldron-like volcanic feature usually formed by the collapse of land following a volcanic eruption, such as the one at Yellowstone National Park in the US. They are sometimes confused with volcanic craters...

 is approximately 1800 feet (548.6 m) deep where it had been.

Form

Perboewatan is the only cone on Krakatoa that there are good pre-1883 photographs of; made on May 27, 1883, by visitors to the island. In the photos it appears to be a low hill with a flat top. Climbers reported the erupting crater to be about 3300 feet (1,005.8 m) across at the top, narrowing to 150 at the bottom and 500-800 feet deep. Samples were collected and on analysis, revealed a silica (SiO₂) content of 65%.

1680-81

In February 1681 two travelers through the straits saw Krakatoa erupting. Johann Wilhelm Vogel, a mining assayer

Assayer

An assayer is a person who tests ores and minerals and analyzes them to determine their composition and value. They may use spectrographic analysis, chemical solutions, and chemical or laboratory equipment, such as furnaces, beakers, graduates, pipettes, and crucibles.An assayer separates metals...

, was told that the eruption had begun in May, 1680. Since they were passing to the north of the island, apparently Perbowatan was the erupting cone. This is backed up by Verbeek's visit in 1880, when he took samples from a 'fresh-looking' lava flow on the northern coast. The flow was unweathered, with little vegetation, indicating recent origin.

The 1883 Catastrophe

Perboewatan started erupting on May 20, 1883, being previously thought to be extinct. On May 27, 1883, the GG Loudon took a sight-seeing group of about 90 to Krakatoa, landing on the northern end of the island, just below Perboewatan. Several in the party climbed up to the crater, which was still erupting. As the ship was leaving, a photographer took several photos of the erupting volcano.

In R. D. M. Verbeek's reconstruction of the eruption, Perboewatan is thought to have been the first cone destroyed, at about 4:40 am, August 27.