Will try to find a video I saw on Facebook of an eruption in Indonesia- will try to find it and share. Some folks were on a boat, filming the steam coming off the volcano when it blew. Based on the time it took the shockwave of the explosion to reach them, they were 2 1/2 miles from the volcano when it blew. That figure may be off, because the shockwave may have been supersonic; the video shows evidence of a vapor cone.
The first thing I thought when I saw the explosion was the scene from
ST VI: The Undiscovered Country where the USS Excelsior is hit by the shockwave from the Klingon moon Praxis exploding. I could hear Captain Sulu shouting "Shields! Turn her into the wave!"
