Tambora Eruption
1815 CE
Largest recorded volcanic eruption, causing the 'Year Without a Summer'.
Historical Context
In 1815, the world was healing from the Napoleonic Wars (Waterloo occurred in June). Indonesia (then the Dutch East Indies) was briefly under British control.
The Event
In April 1815, Mount Tambora (Sumbawa island) exploded cataclysmically (VEI-7). The mountain lost 1500 meters in altitude. The eruption killed 71,000 locally and injected millions of tons of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere.
Key Figures
Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles (British governor who documented the eruption), Mary Shelley, Lord Byron.
Aftermath
The aerosol veil caused a radical global cooling. 1816 became known as the 'Year Without a Summer'. Snow fell in July in the US, while torrential rains caused the worst famines of the 19th century in Europe.
Legacy & Culture
Famine in Germany pushed Karl Drais to invent the draisine (ancestor of the bicycle) to compensate for dying draft horses. In Switzerland, confined by rain, Mary Shelley wrote 'Frankenstein' and Polidori 'The Vampyre'.
Historiography
It is the founding event of modern historical climatology. Historians study the Tambora eruption as the perfect example of extreme planetary interconnections (an Asian volcano causing misery in Europe).
Sources and References
Rapports de Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles
Analyse des carottes de glace polaires (sulfates)
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (écrit pendant l'année sans été)