# ## news travels at the speed of the fastest connection > [!zettel] > - keywords:: > - location:: > - period:: Breaking news seems near instant now, with both cellphones to capture and to consume information. But in the past, news travels as fast as whatever method of transportation was available. > The eruption of Tambora was ten times more powerful than that of Krakatau, which is 900 miles away. But Krakatau is more widely known, partly because it erupted in 1883, after the invention of the telegraph, which spread the news quickly. Word of Tambora traveled no faster than a sailing ship, limiting its notoriety. In my 40 years of geological work I had never heard of Tambora until a couple of years ago when I started researching a book on enormous natural disasters. > > [Smithsonian Magazine – Blast from the Past (2002)](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/blast-from-the-past-65102374/) --- related::