Environmental Impact of Mount Tambora Eruption
The Mount Tambora eruption of April 1815 was a catastrophic volcanic event on the island of Sumbawa, Indonesia, known for its immense environmental impact and historical significance. This eruption released approximately 100 cubic kilometers of ash and sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, drastically affecting global climate. The ensuing year, 1816, was marked by severe weather anomalies, leading to what became known as the "Year Without a Summer," characterized by unusually cold temperatures and failed crops across Europe and North America. The resulting agricultural failures caused widespread hardship, though no severe famine or political upheaval ensued. The eruption claimed the lives of around 40,000 people immediately, with an estimated 107,000 additional deaths attributed to subsequent famine and disease due to crop destruction. While the eruption itself was one of the most violent natural disasters in the last 10,000 years, its long-term climatic effects were less pronounced than anticipated, highlighting the complexity of volcanic impacts on global weather systems. The event not only influenced agriculture and food supply chains but also inspired notable literary works, reflecting the broader cultural ramifications of environmental disaster.
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Environmental Impact of Mount Tambora Eruption
THE EVENT: Massive volcanic eruption in the East Indies that sent such large amounts of ash and sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere that global temperatures were depressed in the following year
DATES: April 5-12, 1815
The Mount Tambora eruption is the most dramatic and unequivocal historical example of the widespread effects of volcanic eruptions on world climate. The main lesson of this event, however, is that even an eruption of such magnitude is unlikely to produce long-lasting climatic perturbation in the absence of additional reinforcing factors. Although the year was long remembered as one of great hardship, no severe famine or political upheaval occurred in the affected areas in 1816-1817.
On April 5, 1815, Mount Tambora, an enormous volcano on the island of Sumbawa, abruptly came to life. Over the next several days the eruption intensified, culminating in a cataclysm on April 12 that pulverized and sent into the atmosphere some 100 cubic kilometers (24 cubic miles) of mountaintop, approximately five times that ejected by Krakatoa in 1883. Pyroclastic flows coursed down the flanks of Mount Tambora, incinerating everything in their path and triggering tsunamis that devastated the coasts of Lombok, Bali, and Sulawesi. Violent eruptions continued through July of 1815. The eruptions and tsunamis killed upward of 40,000 people outright, and an estimated 107,000 died of famine and disease on Sumbawa, Lombok, and Bali owing to the destruction of crops by a thick blanket of volcanic ash. Tambora ranks high among purely natural disasters in terms of immediate loss of life.
The Tambora eruption was the most massive and violent volcanic event in the preceding 10,000 years. (The Mount Mazama eruption, which took place around 5500 B.C.E., was of the same magnitude overall but occurred in three distinct phases over a period of 100 years.) The force of the Tambora eruption propelled fine and sulfur dioxide more than 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) into the atmosphere, where it was carried around the globe, blocking incident solar radiation. Observers in Europe and North America noted spectacular sunsets and dirty snow in 1815.
Temperatures in the fall and winter of 1815 remained near normal for the decade 1810-1820, which was unusually cold. Climatologists who have examined snow cores suspect that an as-yet-unidentified volcanic eruption somewhere in the Tropics in 1808 started a cooling trend that intensified the effects of Tambora. May, 1815, was unusually cold in both Europe and North America, delaying the planting of crops, and killing frosts occurred in the northeastern United States in June, July, August, and September, destroying sensitive crops as soon as they were planted. In northern and central Europe, low temperatures and high rainfall depressed the yields of cereal grain crops and effectively prevented hay harvesting. In economies entirely dependent on animal power, the failure of feed crops was a major disaster.
Warm temperate and tropical regions were less affected. Difficulties in distributing the food crops produced in these regions highlighted deficiencies in transportation, especially in North America, where people living inland suffered great privation despite adequate food supplies in the southern coastal areas. The experience of 1816—often called the year without a summer—helped stimulate the building of the Erie Canal and accelerated westward migration as people abandoned farms in New England.
People experiencing the nonsummer of 1816 and the bitter winter of 1816-1817 were unaware of the volcanic connection, although Benjamin Franklin had suggested a possible link earlier. Some ascribed the lack of usual summer weather to very conspicuous sunspots, and one Italian scientist confidently predicted that the sun was about to fail. The bizarre weather sparked a number of notable literary works, including Lord Byron’s “Darkness” (written in July, 1816) and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein (first published in 1818). Hard times associated with crop failures and the end of the Napoleonic wars produced riots and civil disturbances in Great Britain and elsewhere, but these had no lasting impact. Most of the high rate seen in this period resulted from typhus epidemics that raged in Ireland and Central Europe.
Bibliography
Evans, Robert. “Blast from the Past.” Smithsonian 33 (July, 2002): 52-57.
Grove, Jean N. Little Ice Ages, Ancient and Modern. 2d ed. New York: Routledge, 2004.
"Mount Tambora and the Year Without a Summer." UCAR, 2012, scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/how-climate-works/mount-tambora-and-year-without-summer. Accessed 18 July 2024.
Stommel, Henry, and Elizabeth Stommel. Volcano Weather: The Story of 1816, the Year Without a Summer. Newport, R.I.: Seven Seas Press, 1983.
Wilson, Nick, et al. "Impact of the Tambora Volcanic Eruption of 1815 on Islands and Relevance to Future Sunlight-Blocking Catastrophes." Scientific Reports, 4 Mar. 2023, www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-30729-2. Accessed 18 July 2024.