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by ajkjk 4054 days ago
Hm, the ngram graph seems to show 'effusive' spiking well before Krakatoa, so I doubt that's the root explanation for the increase.
1 comments

If you dial down the smoothing, there is a blip right before Krakatoa's rise (1884-1887). Looking at the books from that time, it seems "effusive" was general parlance appearing in other places as well, including several popular elocution guides (of which Google records many versions).

The blip dies out though, so it would seem that geologic and general science reporting are likely to be the ongoing source.