1815 eruption of Mount Tambora

Catastrophic volcanic eruption in Indonesia in 1815 1815 Eruption of Mount Tambora 1815 tambora explosion-2.png 250px Impact range of the 1815 Tambora Explosion 1812Tambora 264040 2022-02-08 1815 7 15 y Mount Tambora Ultra-Plinian Sumbawa, Lesser Sunda Islands, Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) 8.25 S 118.00 E type:event_region:ID-NB inline,title 37-45 km3 7 10,000 to 11,000 deaths from direct volcanic effects; 49,000 to 90,000 deaths from post-eruption famine and epidemic diseases on Sumbawa, Lombok and Bali; reduced global temperatures in the following year which led to famine in numerous regions In April 1815,Stothers Richard B. 1984-06-15 The Great Tambora Eruption in 1815 and Its Aftermath https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.224.4654.1191 Science 224 4654 1191–1198 10.1126/science.224.4654.1191 subscription Mount Tambora, a volcano on the island of Sumbawa in present-day Indonesia (then part of the Dutch East Indies), erupted in what is now considered the most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded human history.Hägerdal, Hans (2017), Held's History of Sumbawa. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, p. 19-20, 141–2. This eruption, with a volcanic explosivity index (VEI) of 7, ejected 37-45 km3 in of dense-rock equivalent (DRE) material into the atmosphere,Kandlbauer J. Sparks R. S. J. 2014-10-01 New estimates of the 1815 Tambora eruption volume https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377027314002601 Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 286 93–100 10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2014.08.020 2014JVGR..286...93K 0377-0273 subscription and was the most recent confirmed VEI-7 eruption.Oppenheimer Clive Clive Oppenheimer Climatic, environmental and human consequences of the largest known historic eruption: Tambora volcano (Indonesia) 1815 Progress in Physical Geography 27 2 2003 230–259 10.1191/0309133303pp379ra 2003PrPG...27..230O 131663534 Although the Mount Tambora eruption reached a violent climax on 10 April 1815,Mount Tambora Volcano, Sumbawa Island, Indonesia https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/mount-tambora-volcano-sumbawa-island-indonesia-39412/ NASA Earth Observatory 16 September 2026 19 July 2009 increased steaming and small phreatic eruptions occurred during the next six months to three years. The ash from the eruption column dispersed around the world and lowered global temperatures in an event sometimes known as the Year Without a Summer in 1816.https://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/Indonesia/description_tambora_1815_eruption.html Tambora Volcano, Indonesia United States Geological Survey 3 June 2002 8 September 2010 https://web.archive.org/web/20100602181055/http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/Indonesia/description_tambora_1815_eruption.html 2 June 2010 This brief period of significant climate change triggered extreme weather and harvest failures in many areas around the world. Several climate forcings coincided and interacted in a systematic manner that has not been observed after any other large volcanic eruption since the early Stone Age. Chronology of the eruption thumb|left|Current topography of Sumbawa, Mount Tambora in the centre, the largest mountain thumb|left|The estimated volcanic ashfall regions during the 1815 eruption. The red areas show thickness of volcanic ash fall. The outermost region (1 cm 2 thickness) reached Borneo and Sulawesi. Mount Tambora experienced several centuries of dormancy before 1815, caused by the gradual cooling of hydrous magma in its closed magma chamber.The petrology of Tambora volcano, Indonesia: A model for the 1815 eruption J. Foden Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 27 1–2 1986 1–41 10.1016/0377-0273(86)90079-X 1986JVGR...27....1F Inside the chamber at depths between 1.5 and 4.5 km ft -3, the exsolution of a high-pressure fluid magma formed during cooling and crystallisation of the magma. An over-pressurization of the chamber of about 4000 - 5000 bar MPa psi was generated, with the temperature ranging from 700 - 850 C -1. In 1812, the volcano began to rumble and generated a dark cloud.Stothers Science The Great Tambora Eruption in 1815 and Its Aftermath 224 4654 1984 1191–1198 10.1126/science.224.4654.1191 17819476 1984Sci...224.1191S 23649251 Richard B. On 5 April 1815, a giant eruption occurred, followed by thunderous detonation sounds heard in Makassar on Sulawesi 380 km away, Batavia (now Jakarta) on Java 1260 km away, and Ternate on the Molucca Islands 1400 km away. On the morning of 6 April, volcanic ash began to fall in East Java with faint detonation sounds lasting until 10 April. What was first thought to be the sound of firing guns was heard on 10 April in Trumon, Sumatra, more than 2600 km away.Raffles Sophia Memoir of the life and public services of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, F.R.S. &c., particularly in the government of Java 1811–1816, and of Bencoolen and its dependencies 1817–1824: with details of the commerce and resources of the eastern archipelago, and selections from his correspondence. 1830 John Murray London, England https://archive.org/stream/memoiroflifepubl00raff#page/n5, cited by Oppenheimer (2003). New analysis and agreements in dates suggest the rumbles of Tambora were heard even farther in Nong Khai (modern-day Thailand) at 3352 km away, Vientiane (modern-day Laos) at 3368 km away, and perhaps Mukdahan (Thailand) at 3117 km away.cs1 Goldrick Richard Tambora's Rumblings in The Annals of Lang Xang At about 7:00 p.m. on 10 April, the eruptions intensified. Three plumes rose up and merged.249 The whole mountain was turned into a flowing mass of "liquid fire".249 Pumice stones of up to 20 cm 0 in diameter started to rain down around 8:00 p.m., followed by ash at around 9:00–10:00 p.m. Soon after, a violent whirlwind ensued, which hit the village of Saugur (now Sangar), blowing down nearly every house and carrying everything it encountered into the air, including large trees.Boers Bernice De Jong Mount Tambora in 1815: A Volcanic Eruption in Indonesia and Its Aftermath Indonesia 1995 60 37–60 10.2307/3351140 3351140 1813/54071 https://www.jstor.org/stable/3351140 free subscription Pyroclastic flows cascaded down the mountain to the sea on all sides of the peninsula, wiping out the village of Tambora, and affecting a total area on land of about 874 km2.https://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/volcanowatch/1998/98_04_16.html Lest we forget (USGS account of historical volcanic induced tsunamis) Volcano Watch 26 April 2012 https://web.archive.org/web/20120126043128/http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/volcanowatch/1998/98_04_16.html 26 January 2012Sutawidjaja Igan Supriatman Sigurdsson Haraldur Abrams Lewis 2006 Characterization of volcanic deposits and geoarchaeological studies from the 1815 eruption of Tambora volcano https://www.researchgate.net/publication/307786615 A moderate-sized tsunami struck the shores of various islands in the Indonesian archipelago on April 10th, with a height of up to 4 m 0 in Sanggar around 10:00 p.m. A tsunami of 1 - 2 m ft 0 in height was reported in Besuki, East Java, before midnight, and one of 2 m ft 0 in height in the Molucca Islands. The total of tsunami related deaths has been estimated to be around 4,600. Loud explosions were heard until the next evening, 11 April. The ash veil spread as far as West Java and South Sulawesi. A nitrous odor was noticeable in Batavia, and heavy tephra-tinged rain fell, finally receding between 11 and 17 April. 25em right The first explosions were heard on this Island in the evening of 5 April, they were noticed in every quarter, and continued at intervals until the following day. The noise was, in the first instance, almost universally attributed to distant cannon; so much so, that a detachment of troops was marched from Djocjocarta, in the belief that a neighbouring post was being attacked, and along with the coast, boats were in two instances dispatched in quest of a supposed ship in distress. —Sir Stamford Raffles' memoir.241 The explosion had an estimated VEI of 7.Briffa K. R. Jones P. D. Schweingruber F. H. Osborn T. J. Influence of volcanic eruptions on Northern Hemisphere summer temperature over 600 years Nature 393 450–455 10.1038/30943 1998 6684 1998Natur.393..450B 4392636 An estimated 41 km3 0 of pyroclastic trachyandesite were ejected, weighing about 10 billion tonnes. This left a caldera measuring 6 - 7 km 2 across and 600 - 700 m deep. The density of fallen ash in Makassar was 636 kg/m3 lb/ft3.Richard B. Stothers Density of fallen ash after the eruption of Tambora in 1815 Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 134 4 2004 343–345 10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2004.03.010 2004JVGR..134..343S Before the explosion, Mount Tambora's peak elevation was about 4300 m, making it one of the tallest peaks in the Indonesian archipelago. The explosion dropped its peak height by about one-third, to only 2851 m.Monk K. A. Fretes Y. Reksodiharjo-Lilley G. The Ecology of Nusa Tenggara and Maluku Periplus Editions Ltd. 1996 Hong Kong 60 962-593-076-0 The 1815 Tambora eruption is the largest observed eruption in recorded history, as shown in the table below. The explosion was heard at least 2600 km away and possibly over 3350 km away, and ash fell at least 1300 km away. Aftermath On my trip towards the western part of the island, I passed through nearly the whole of Dompo and a considerable part of Bima. The extreme misery to which the inhabitants have been reduced is shocking to behold. There were still on the road side the remains of several corpses, and the marks of where many others had been interred: the villages almost entirely deserted and the houses fallen down, the surviving inhabitants having dispersed in search of food. ... Since the eruption, a violent diarrhoea has prevailed in Bima, Dompo, and Sang'ir, which has carried off a great number of people. It is supposed by the natives to have been caused by drinking water which has been impregnated with ashes; and horses have also died, in great numbers, from a similar complaint. 30% right —Lt. Philips, ordered by Sir Stamford Raffles to go to Sumbawa248–249 All vegetation on the island was destroyed. Uprooted trees, mixed with pumice ash, washed into the sea and formed rafts up to 5 km 0 off across. Between 1 and 3 October, the British ships Fairlie 1810 ship 2 and James Sibbald encountered extensive pumice rafts about 3600 km west of Tambora.(Anon.) Volcanic phenomenon The Asiatic Journal August 1816 2 161 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044011202165;view=1up;seq=161 Clouds of thick ash still covered the summit on 23 April. Explosions ceased on 15 July, although smoke emissions were observed as late as 23 August. Activity resumed in August 1819—a small eruption with "flames" and rumbling aftershocks, and was considered to be part of the 1815 eruption. This eruption was recorded at 2 on the VEI scale. thumb|upright|The yellow skies typical of summer 1815 had an impact on the paintings of J. M. W. Turner.Griffiths Sarah The historic volcanic eruptions encoded in art https://www.bbc.co.uk/future/article/20231122-krakatau-the-volcano-eruption-that-turned-the-moon-blue 2025-04-10 bbc.com en 2023-11-23 The eruption column reached the stratosphere at an altitude of more than 43 km m. The coarser ash particles settled out one to two weeks after the eruptions, but the finer ash particles stayed in the atmosphere from a few months to a few years at altitudes of 10 - 30 km ft. Longitudinal winds spread these fine particles around the globe, creating optical phenomena. Prolonged and brilliantly colored sunsets and twilights were seen frequently in London between 28 June and 2 July 1815, and 3 September and 7 October 1815. The glow of the twilight sky typically appeared orange or red near the horizon and purple or pink above. The estimated number of deaths varies depending on the source. Zollinger (1855) puts the number of direct deaths at 10,000, probably caused by pyroclastic flows. On Sumbawa, 18,000 starved to death or died of disease. About 10,000 people on Lombok died from disease and hunger.Zollinger Heinrich Besteigung des Vulkans Tamboro auf der Insel Sumbawa und Schilderung der Eruption desselben im Jahre 1815 Ascent of the Tambora Volcano on the Island of Sumbawa and Account of its Eruption in the Year 1815 1855 Joh. Wurster & Co. Winterthur, Switzerland de 20 https://books.google.com/books?id=W3FBAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA20, cited by Oppenheimer (2003). Petroeschevsky (1949) estimated that about 48,000 people were killed on Sumbawa and 44,000 on Lombok.Petroeschevsky (1949): A contribution to the knowledge of the Gunung Tambora (Sumbawa). Tijdschrift van het K. Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap, Amsterdam Series 2 66, 688–703, cited by Oppenheimer (2003). Stothers in 1984 and several other authors have accepted Petroeschevsky's claim of 88,000 deaths in total. However, a 1998 journal article authored by J. Tanguy and others claimed that Petroeschevsky's figures were unfounded and based on untraceable references.Victims from volcanic eruptions: a revised database Tanguy J. C. Scarth A. Ribière C. Tjetjep W. S. Bulletin of Volcanology 137–144 1998 10.1007/s004450050222 60 2 1998BVol...60..137T 129683922 Tanguy's revision of the death toll was based on Zollinger's work on Sumbawa for several months after the eruption and on Thomas Raffles's notes. Tanguy pointed out that there may have been additional victims on Bali and East Java because of famine and disease. Their estimate was 11,000 deaths from direct volcanic effects and 49,000 by post-eruption famine and epidemic diseases. According to Clive Oppenheimer, there were at least 71,000 deaths in total. Reid has estimated that 100,000 people on Sumbawa, Bali and other locations died from the direct and indirect effects of the eruption.Anthony Reid, 'Lessons of Tambora ignored, 200 years on', 25 April 2015, East Asia Forum, Australian National University, accessed 27 April 2015. Disruption of global temperatures The eruption caused a volcanic winter. During the Northern Hemisphere summer of 1816, global temperatures cooled by 0.53 C-change 2. This cooling directly or indirectly caused 90,000 deaths. The eruption of Mount Tambora was the largest cause of this climate anomaly.Volcanic eruptions and climate Alan Robock http://climate.envsci.rutgers.edu/pdf/ROG2000.pdf 11 March 2016 While there were other eruptions in 1815, Tambora is classified as a VEI-7 eruption with a column 45 km ft tall, eclipsing all others by at least one order of magnitude. The VEI is used to quantify the amount of ejected material, with a VEI-7 being 100 km3. Every index value below that is one order of magnitude (meaning ten times) less. Furthermore, the 1815 eruption occurred during a Dalton Minimum, a period of unusually low solar radiation.Extreme climate, not extreme weather: the summer of 1816 in Geneva, Switzerland Climate of the Past https://www.academia.edu/2961986 11 March 2016 Spadin Reto Stickler Alexander Breda L. Bühler M. Spadin R. Stickler A. 2012 8 1 325 10.5194/cp-8-325-2012 2012CliPa...8..325A free 20.500.11850/47338 free Volcanism plays a large role in climate shifts, both locally and globally. This was not always understood and did not enter scientific circles as fact until the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa tinted the skies orange. The scale of the volcanic eruption will determine the significance of the impact on climate and other chemical processes, but a change will be measured even in the most local of environments. When volcanoes erupt, they eject carbon dioxide (CO2), water, hydrogen, sulfur dioxide (SO2), hydrogen chloride, hydrogen fluoride and many other gases (Meronen et al. 2012). CO2 and water are greenhouse gases, which comprise 0.0415 percent and 0.4 percent of the atmosphere, respectively. Their small proportion disguises their significant role in trapping solar radiation and reradiating it back to Earth. Global effects Year Without a Summer thumb|Sulfate concentration in ice core from Central Greenland, dated by counting oxygen isotope seasonal variations: An unknown eruption occurred around the 1810s.Dai Jihong Mosley-Thompson Ellen Thompson Lonnie G. 1991 Ice core evidence for an explosive tropical volcanic eruption six years preceding Tambora Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 96 D9 17, 361–17, 366 10.1029/91jd01634 1991JGR....9617361D The 1815 eruption released SO2 into the stratosphere, causing a global climate anomaly. Different methods have estimated the ejected sulfur mass during the eruption: the petrological method; an optical depth measurement based on anatomical observations; and the polar ice core sulfate concentration method, using cores from Greenland and Antarctica. The figures vary depending on the method, ranging from 10 to 120 million tonnes. In the northern spring and summer of 1815, a persistent "dry fog" was observed in the northeastern United States. The fog reddened and dimmed the sunlight, such that sunspots were visible to the naked eye. Neither wind nor rainfall dispersed the "fog". It was later identified as a stratospheric sulfate aerosol veil. In the summer of 1816, countries in the Northern Hemisphere suffered extreme weather conditions, dubbed the "Year Without a Summer". Average global temperatures decreased by about 0.4 to 0.7 C-change 1, enough to cause significant agricultural problems around the globe. On 4 June 1816, frosts were reported in the upper elevations of New Hampshire, Maine (then part of Massachusetts), Vermont and northern New York. On 6 June 1816, snow fell in Albany, New York, and Dennysville, Maine. On 8 June 1816, the snow cover in Cabot, Vermont, was reported still to be 46 cm in 0 deep.1816: The Year Without a Summer https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/1816-year-without-a-summer/ The New England Historical Society 6 June 2014 30 March 2021 Such conditions occurred for at least three months and ruined most agricultural crops in North America. Canada experienced extreme cold during that summer. Snow 30 cm in 0 deep accumulated near Quebec City from 6 to 10 June 1816. The second-coldest year in the Northern Hemisphere since around 1400 was 1816, and the 1810s are the coldest decade on record. That was the consequence of Tambora's 1815 eruption and possibly another VEI-6 eruption in late 1808. The surface temperature anomalies during the summer of 1816, 1817 and 1818 were -0.51 C-change 2, -0.44 C-change 2 and -0.29 C-change 2, respectively. Parts of Europe also experienced a stormier winter.Taylor Matt When was the worst summer? Was there a year without a summer? https://www.bbc.com/weather/articles/c2x3ke0l46ko BBC Weather BBC 20 January 2025 31 May 2024 This climate anomaly has been blamed for the severity of typhus epidemics in southeast Europe and along the eastern Mediterranean Sea between 1816 and 1819. The climate changes disrupted the Indian monsoons, caused three failed harvests and famine, and contributed to the spread of a new strain of cholera that originated in Bengal in 1816.Peterson, Doug LAS News (Spring 2010) University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign p. 11. Many livestock died in New England during the winter of 1816–1817. Cool temperatures and heavy rains resulted in failed harvests in the British Isles. Families in Wales travelled long distances as refugees, begging for food. Famine was prevalent in north and southwest Ireland, following the failure of wheat, oat and potato harvests. The crisis was severe in Germany, where food prices rose sharply, and demonstrations in front of grain markets and bakeries, followed by riots, arson and looting, took place in many European cities. It was the worst famine of the 19th century. Effects of volcanism Volcanism affects the atmosphere in two distinct ways: short-term cooling caused by reflected insolation and long-term warming from increased CO2 levels. Most of the water vapor and CO2 is collected in clouds within a few weeks to months because both are already present in large quantities, so the effects are limited.10.1127/0941-2948/2011/0288 Perceiving, explaining, and observing climatic changes: An historical case study of the "year without a summer" 1816 2011 Bodenmann Tom Brönnimann Stefan Hadorn Gertrude Hirsch Krüger Tobias Weissert Helmut Meteorologische Zeitschrift 20 6 577–587 2011MetZe..20..577B https://boris.unibe.ch/9225/1/s1%282%29.pdf 1 It has been suggested that a volcanic eruption in 1809 may also have contributed to a reduction in global temperatures. Impact of the eruption May 2025 By most calculations, the eruption of Tambora was at least a full order of magnitude (10 times) larger than that of Mount Pinatubo in 1991.November 2021 Its energy release was equivalent to about 33 GtonTNT J 2 on.Erik Klemetti https://www.wired.com/2015/04/tambora-1815-just-big-eruption/ https://web.archive.org/web/20190429092957/https://www.wired.com/2015/04/tambora-1815-just-big-eruption/ 2019-04-29 Tambora 1815: Just How Big Was the Eruption? Wired An estimated 1220 m ft of the top of the mountain collapsed to form a caldera, reducing the height of the summit by a third. Around 100 km3 of rock was blasted into the air.Williams Martin 2012-05-01 The ∼73 ka Toba super-eruption and its impact: History of a debate https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S104061821100485X Quaternary International The Toba Volcanic Super-eruption of 74,000 Years Ago: Climate Change, Environments, and Evolving Humans 258 19–29 10.1016/j.quaint.2011.08.025 1040-6182 subscription Toxic gases, including sulfur, were pumped into the atmosphere.Cole-Dai Jihong Ferris David Lanciki Alyson Savarino Joël Baroni Mélanie Thiemens Mark H. 2009 Cold decade (AD 1810–1819) caused by Tambora (1815) and another (1809) stratospheric volcanic eruption https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2009GL040882 Geophysical Research Letters en 36 22 10.1029/2009GL040882 1944-8007 Volcanic ash was over 100 cm in -1 deep within 75 km mi 5 of the eruption, while areas within a 500 km mi 1 radius saw a 5 cm in 0 ash fall, and ash could be found as far away as 1300 km. The ash burned and smothered crops, creating an immediate shortage of food in Indonesia. The ejection of these gases, especially hydrogen chloride, caused the precipitation to be extremely acidic, killing much of the crops that survived or were rebudding during the spring. The food shortages were compounded by the Napoleonic Wars, floods and cholera. The ash in the atmosphere for several months after the eruption reflected significant amounts of solar radiation, causing unseasonably cool summers that contributed to food shortages. China, Europe and North America had well-documented below-normal temperatures, which devastated their harvests. The monsoon season in China and India was altered, causing flooding in the Yangtze Valley and forcing thousands of Chinese to flee coastal areas.November 2021 The gases also reflected some of the already-decreased incoming solar radiation, causing a 0.4 to 0.7 C-change 1 decrease in global temperatures throughout the decade. An ice dam formed in Switzerland during the summers of 1816 and 1817. The winter months of 1816 were not much different from previous years, but the spring and summer maintained the cool-to-freezing temperatures. The winter of 1817, however, was radically different, with temperatures below −30 F C flip in central and northern New York, which were cold enough to freeze lakes and rivers that were normally used to transport supplies. Both Europe and North America suffered from freezes lasting well into June, with snow accumulating to 32 cm in 0 in August, which killed recently planted crops and crippled the food industry. The length of the growing seasons in parts of Massachusetts and New Hampshire were less than 80 days in 1816, resulting in harvest failures. Visually unique sunsets were observed in western Europe, and red fog was observed along the eastern coast of the U.S. These unique atmospheric conditions persisted for the better part of 2.5 years.Robock Alan Free Melissa P. 1996 Jones Philip D. Bradley Raymond S. Jouzel Jean The volcanic record in ice cores for the past 2000 years https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-61113-1_25 Climatic Variations and Forcing Mechanisms of the Last 2000 Years en Berlin, Heidelberg Springer 533–546 10.1007/978-3-642-61113-1_25 978-3-642-61113-1 subscription Scientists have used ice cores to monitor atmospheric gases during the cold decade (1810–1819), and the results have been puzzling. The sulfate concentrations found in both Siple Station, Antarctica and central Greenland bounced from 5.0April 2013 in January 1816 to 1.1April 2013 in August 1818. This means that 25–30 megatons of sulfur were ejected into the atmosphere, most of which came from Tambora, followed by a rapid decrease through natural processes. Tambora caused the largest shift in sulfur concentrations in ice cores for the past 5,000 years.September 2025 Estimates of the sulfur yield vary from 10 megatons (Black et al. 2012)November 2021 to 120 megatons (Stothers 2000),November 2021 with the average of the estimates being 25–30 megatons. The high concentrations of sulfur could have caused a four-year stratospheric warming of around 15 C-change 0, resulting in a delayed cooling of surface temperatures that lasted for nine years. Climate data have shown that the variance between daily lows and highs may have played a role in the lower average temperature because the fluctuations were much more subdued. Generally, the mornings were warmer because of nightly cloud cover and the evenings were cooler because the clouds had dissipated. There were documented fluctuations of cloud cover for various locations that suggested it was a nightly occurrence and the sun killed them off, much like a fog. The class boundaries between 1810 and 1830 without volcanically perturbed years was around 7.9 C-change 1. In contrast, the volcanically perturbed years (1815–1817) had a change of only around 2.3 C-change 1. This meant that the mean annual cycle in 1816 was more linear than bell shaped and 1817 endured cooling across the board. Southeastern England, northern France and the Netherlands experienced the greatest amount of cooling in Europe, accompanied by New York, New Hampshire, Delaware and Rhode Island in North America. The documented rainfall was as much as 80 percent more than the calculated normal with regards to 1816, with unusually high amounts of snow in Switzerland, France, Germany and Poland. This is again contrasted by the unusually low precipitations in 1818, which caused droughts throughout most of Europe and Asia.https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/8/325/2012/ 10.5194/cp-8-325-2012 Extreme climate, not extreme weather: The summer of 1816 in Geneva, Switzerland Climate of the Past 24 February 2012 8 1 325–335 Auchmann R. Brönnimann S. Breda L. Bühler M. Spadin R. Stickler A. 2012CliPa...8..325A free 20.500.11850/47338 free Russia had already experienced unseasonably warm and dry summers since 1815 and this continued for the next three years. There are also documented reductions in ocean temperature near the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. This seems to have been an indicator of shifted oceanic circulation patterns and possibly changed wind direction and speed.(Meronen et al. 2012)November 2021 Taking into account the Dalton Minimum and the presence of famine and droughts predating the eruption, the Tambora eruption accelerated or exacerbated the extreme climate conditions of 1815. While other eruptions and other climatological events would have led to a global cooling of about 0.2 C-change 1, Tambora increased on that benchmark substantially. Impact of the eruption on popular culture In the summer of 1816, Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, John Polidori and George Lord Byron, spent the summer at Lake Geneva, Switzerland. Due to the extremely poor weather, they spent most of the summer indoors. Byron challenged his friends to each write a ghost story, and Mary Shelley invented the story that became the novel Frankenstein. 13 June 2016 Mary Shelley, Frankenstein and the year without a summer https://www.panmacmillan.com/blogs/history/frankenstein-and-the-year-without-a-summer 11 September 2026 Comparison of selected volcanic eruptions + Comparison of selected volcanic eruptions within the last 2,000 years Eruptions Country Location Year Column height (km)  Volcanic Explosivity Index  N. Hemisphere summer anomaly (°C) FatalitiesEruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD Italy Mediterranean Sea 79 30 5Unlikely 02001>2,000Hatepe (Taupo) New Zealand Ring of Fire 232 51 7 ?000000946 eruption of Paektu Mountain China / North Korea Central East Asia946 36 6 ? 00000?1257 Samalas eruption Indonesia Ring of Fire 1257 40 7 −2.0 ??1600 eruption of Huaynaputina Peru Ring of Fire 1600 46 6 −0.8 01400≈1,4001815 eruption of Mount Tambora Indonesia / Dutch East-IndiesRing of Fire 1815 43 7 −0.5 >71,000–121,0001883 eruption of Krakatoa Indonesia / Dutch East-Indies Ring of Fire 1883 27 6 −0.3 3600036,6001902 eruption of Santa María Guatemala Ring of Fire 1902 34 6 no anomaly 070017,000–13,0001912 eruption of Novarupta United States, Alaska Ring of Fire 1912 32 6 −0.4 0000221980 eruption of Mount St. Helens United States, Washington Ring of Fire 1980 19 5 no anomaly 00057571982 eruption of El Chichón Mexico Ring of Fire 1982 32 4–5 ? 02001>2,0001985 eruption of Nevado del Ruiz Colombia Ring of Fire 1985 27 3 no anomaly 2300023,0001991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo Philippines Ring of Fire 1991 34 6 −0.5 8478472022 Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai eruption and tsunami Tonga Ring of Fire 2022 555–6+0.035Jenkins, S., Smith, C., Allen, M. et al. Tonga eruption increases chance of temporary surface temperature anomaly above 1.5 °C. Nat. Clim. Chang. 13, 127–129 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01568-2 020015 Sources: Oppenheimer (2003), and Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program for VEILarge Holocene Eruptions Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism Program 7 November 2006 http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/largeeruptions.cfm 17 January 2012 https://web.archive.org/web/20120117212357/http://volcano.si.edu/world/largeeruptions.cfm dead See also Volcanoes Dalton Minimum List of large Holocene volcanic eruptions List of volcanic eruptions by death toll List of volcanoes in Indonesia Volcanic winter of 536 Volcanism of Indonesia Year Without a Summer References External links rdEO5_rdoFU Tambora – the volcano that changed the world—Deutsche Welle documentary, published 23 October 2019 Category:1815 in Asia Category:1815 in Southeast Asia Category:19th century in Indonesia Eruption of Mount Tambora, 1815 Tambora Category:April 1815 Category:Events that forced the climate Category:Plinian eruptions Tambora Category:Volcanic eruptions in Indonesia Category:Volcanic tsunamis Category:Volcanic winters Category:Volcanism of Indonesia