Batavia and Brussel: Nationaal Aardrijkskundig Instituut; and Landsdrukkerij, 1884-1885. First edition. 2 volumes, comprising: text, 8vo; and atlas album, oblong folio. Text: half-title, errata slip laid in, light spotting. Album: title sheet, index sheet, and 25 colored drawings on nine plates, loose as issued. Marginal dampstaining to plates, some reinforcement to margins of title sheet and index sheet. Text: original cloth-backed printed boards, printed paper spine label, extremities rubbed. Album: original printed boards, rebacked, covers dampstained and worn at edges. Bastin/Brommer N-701.

Rogier Diederik Marius Verbeek was a Dutch geologist whose meticulous research into the eruption of Krakatau remains a landmark in the history of volcanic studies. Appointed by Dutch authorities, Verbeek arrived in the Sunda Strait to document the events following the catastrophic eruption that occurred between May and October 1883, peaking during a series of massive explosions on August 26 and 27. Those blasts destroyed over two-thirds of the island, plunging the region into darkness with volcanic ash and unleashing gigantic tsunamis that obliterated more than 165 coastal settlements on Java and Sumatra. The eruption and resulting waves claimed the lives of at least 36,000 people and generated the loudest sound in recorded history, heard thousands of miles away. Bastin/Brommer N-701.

Together with:

De opneming van de Krakatau-Groep in mei 1908. Batavia: Javasche Boekhandel & Drukkerij, 1909. Numerous folding maps. Original printed wrappers, spine chipped, reinforced; Krakatau in 1908, door den mijingenieur Hugo Cool... Batavia: Landsdrukkerij, 1910. Several folding maps. Original printed wrappers, spine reinforced.