18. The Terrible Tambora Eruption
On April 10th, 1815, Mount Tambora on Sumbawa Island in the Dutch East Indies (today’s Indonesia) erupted. It was the most powerful volcanic explosion of the past 10,000 years. It started on April 5th, when the first loud eruption occurred with a thunderous clap that was heard almost 1000 miles away. In the following days, the volcano streamed steadily, with faint detonation sounds every now and then. Then, on April 10th, people in Sumatra, 1600 miles away, were startled by a terrible noise that sounded like cannons going off. Tambora had finally gone off.
On Sumbawa Island, the eruptions had grown more energetic early that morning. Flames rose up into the sky, and lava and glowing ash began pouring down the mountainside. By 8 AM, bits of pumice up to eight inches wide were raining down, and ash spewed into the air so thickly that it stayed pitch dark for two days as far as 400 miles away. The volcano poured rivers of incandescent ash down its sides to scorch the island, while its tremors sent tsunamis racing across the Java Sea. When it went off in a cataclysmic explosion, 12,000 were killed instant in Sumbawa. Another 80,000 died in the surrounding region from famine and starvation, after falling ash and pumice ruined their crops and fields.
