Mount Tambora #OnThisDay

On 10th of April 1815 the most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded history took place when Mount Tambora, Indonesia exploded.

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. 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.

Wikipedia
Image Science and Analysis Laboratory, NASA-Johnson Space Center. “The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth”., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The number of deaths is estimated but could be as many in total as 100,000, some directly as a result and others due to the effects of starvation or disease. Globally there were more deaths as the world was plunged in winter conditions.

I had a dream, which was not all a dream.

The bright sun was extinguish’d, and the stars

Did wander darkling in the eternal space,

Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth

Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;

Lord Byron From ‘Darkness’

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