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Historic Disasters That Were Way Worse Than People Think

Khalid Elhassan April 6, 2020 33 min

Yellow River - 1887 Yellow River flood — 1887 Yellow River Flood. Hakai Magazine

13. Tambora – Indonesia’s Other Nightmare Volcano

The nineteenth century’s most famous volcanic eruption was that of Krakatoa, in what is now Indonesia. However, Krakatoa was eclipsed by a bigger volcanic eruption, also in Indonesia: the 1815 Mount Tambora Eruption. The biggest volcanic eruption in recorded human history, occurred on Sumbawa Island in what was then the Dutch East Indies.

It was preceded by five days of rumblings, starting on April 5^th, 1815, when a loud eruption occurred, with a thunderous clap that was heard almost a thousand miles away. When Tambora finally blew up in a grand finale on April 10^th, 1815, it was the strongest volcanic explosion of the past ten thousand years.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.