Why did the Krakatoa eruption lower Earth's temperature?

The average temperature of the globe dropped a mere 3 degrees, but that small change proved dramatic for not only Earth's climate but for life in the Northern Hemisphere. ... While no one in 1816 realized that Tambora had global effects, another huge Indonesian eruption — Mount Krakatoa on Aug. read more

Indonesian eruption — Mount Krakatoa on Aug. 23, 1883, which killed an estimated 36,000 people — was evidence that what happens around a volcano doesn’t stay around the volcano. read more

The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) began in the afternoon of Sunday, 26 August 1883 (with origins as early as May of that year), and peaked in the late morning of Monday, 27 August when over 70% of the island and its surrounding archipelago were destroyed as it collapsed into a caldera. read more

Pinatubo cooled the Earth by about 0.3 degrees but, global average temperature returned to it’s pre-eruption level within 5 years. All-in-all, not that big a deal in the long term. The Volcano Explosivity Index is a logarithmic index. So a volcanic eruption twice the size of Krakatoa would still have a VEI = 6. read more