Ernie Marinelli Jr., Age 12, Of West Berlin, N.J., for his question:

What is the loudest noise in the world?

The biggest bangs may have happened before there were people on earth to notice them. But the loudest noise of recorded history happened on aug. 2t, 1883, when a volcano on the island of Krakatoa in the East Indies blew its top. The noise of the mighty explosion was heard in the faraway Philippines and Australia. It was heard in the Indian Ocean by people on the island of Madagascar, almost 3000 miles from the disastrous eruption.

Human ears can hear the noise of a nuclear bomb for many miles in all directions and meters can pick up the vibrations from even greater distances. But the biggest bangs on earth are made by nature. They are made by exploding volcanoes, and the loudest noise on record happened when the volcanic island of Krakatoa exploded in  1883