Mount Tambora 1815: The Biggest Volcanic Eruption in Recorded History

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This week Jamie and Leo dig into the full story of Mount Tambora. On April 10th, 1815, a volcano on the island of Sumbawa in Indonesia erupted. It was the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history. The explosion sent so much ash and sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere that it created an aerosol cloud the size of Australia, blocking sunlight from reaching Earth's surface for two years.

This eruption killed thousands on the island immediately, the ash that buried an entire kingdom so completely it lay undiscovered for nearly 200 years, and the global chain reaction that followed. Crops failed across Europe and North America. Grain prices in the United States soared by 400 percent. A new strain of cholera emerged in India and spread to Moscow and eventually North America. Riots broke out across European cities. And a group of writers trapped indoors by the relentless cold and rain at Lake Geneva in Switzerland held a writing contest that produced Frankenstein.

One volcano. Years of fallout.

Serious history. Told not so seriously.

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Sources:

• Goldrick, Richard. Tambora's Rumblings in The Annals of Lang Xang.
• https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/1816-the-year-without-summer.htm
• https://www.science.smith.edu/climatelit/the-eruption-of-mount-tambora-1815-1818/
• https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/year-without-summer-poverty-year
• https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/200-years-after-tambora-volcano-eruption-unusual-effects-linger-180954918/
• https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/mount-tambora-volcano-sumbawa-island-indonesia-39412/
• https://visittambora.com/long-lost-kingdom-excavation-site/

Theme music: Ways of the Wizard-geoffharvey

Used with permission, Thank you Geoff!

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