How a Volcanic Eruption in 1815 Darkened the World but Colored the Arts

NY Times ^ | August 24, 2015 | William J. Broad

[C19fan]

In April 1815, the most powerful volcanic blast in recorded history shook the planet in a catastrophe so vast that 200 years later, investigators are still struggling to grasp its repercussions. It played a role, they now understand, in icy weather, agricultural collapse and global pandemics — and even gave rise to celebrated monsters.

Around the lush isles of the Dutch East Indies — modern-day Indonesia — the eruption of Mount Tambora killed tens of thousands of people. They were burned alive or killed by flying rocks, or they died later of starvation because the heavy ash smothered crops.

[logi_cal869]

“... twelve cubic miles of earthen matter to a height of more than twenty five miles.”

I think of that every time the Puppet opens his mouth. Generally most libs as well.

(more like that which produces methane, but you get my point)

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Same with the Pinatubo volcano about 24 years ago. Beautiful sunsets.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

I saw it. it wasn’t that great. I like A FAIR WIND TO JAVA.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Wind_to_Java

[null and void]

Note how the surface of the sea seems to freeze right after a depth charge goes off.

(The same phenomena was observed when Krakatoa blew)

Imagine a great meteor doing the same to the atmosphere.

For bonus point ask yourself if such a great impact would break loose enough minerals and sediments to make a third of the waters bitter, even in established wells...

[logi_cal869]

Dust and soot from Tambora may have been the cause of this, as dark material will help ice to melt.

Generally I might have agreed with that long ago (makes sense) . But nature's examples are quite different. http://entropyliveshere.blogspot.com/2014_08_01_archive.html

Scroll down to August 6, 2014 and see what I'm referring to:

We saw a lot of these black ice cones. Apparently the debris from the volcano serves to insulate the ice, so the ice under the dirt melts last (resulting in the cones). Our guide also told us that the early settlers to Iceland were afraid to come up onto the glaciers, because they were convinced these were trolls. I believe it.

Same thing happened back east. There's apparently still snow to be found under street debris that settled on the piles plowed out of streets of Boston.

Ah, found the link

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/07/08/snow-boston-seaport-district/29849439/

[TexasTransplant]

**** ““... twelve cubic miles of earthen matter to a height of more than twenty five miles.”

Can’t even imagine that!” *****

Neither can the MMGW crowd ... just imagine the amount of Greenhouse Gas it took to accomplish the feat, and that was just One eruption.

[Paleo Pete]

Good article but it misses a little interesting info.

This was also during the Dalton Minimum, a period of weak solar activity, that resulted in colder than normal weather, and was the same period as the New Madrid earthquake here in the US, both products of the Dalton Minimum.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/events/1811-1812.php

I’ve posted info on this before, these solar minimums historically are also associated with increased geologic activity, with some of the most serious earthquakes and volcanoes in history occurring during these periods. When this Tambora earthquake occurred, colder winters were already happening, the ash cloud from it made things much worse.

Here’s where it should be of interest to us...

We’re entering another period of decreased solar activity, expected by some to be just as serious as the Dalton and Maunder minimums. People need to stop listening to the “climate change” alarmists and get ready for what’s actually happening...we’re looking at 30 to 50 years of serious winters. The last 2 years are just the beginning.

2013 - Atlanta froze over for days, stranding thousands of cars on the freeways. Took everyone by surprise, Atlanta officials had no experience dealing with this, and it was a huge mess. Harsh winter here in Texas, 1st time in many years I remember 3 inches of snow staying on the ground for several days in this area.

2014 - Record snowfall in the northeast, problems even in cities long accustomed to dealing with heavy snow. Not quite as bad in my area, but still a pretty cold winter.

These are just the beginning...

http://johnhartnett.org/2015/03/29/the-coming-long-dark-winter/

http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/dark-winter-cold-global-cooling/2014/11/16/id/607672/

http://www.thenewamerican.com/tech/environment/item/21116-noaa-s-own-data-shows-that-global-climate-has-cooled-over-10-years

http://www.thenewamerican.com/reviews/movies/item/20505-documentary-outguns-the-opposition-in-the-global-warming-war

This last one has an interesting nugget...

>>>>In reality, Gore himself is not concerned at all about any capitalism-caused catastrophic global warming. The Global Warming War includes a map that plots the location of his San Francisco luxury condo, purchased the same year that An Inconvenient Truth was released. It sits right in the middle of the area that should be flooded by now had his predictions of melting ice caps been accurate. Frankly, the documentary writers let him off easy by omitting mention of his carbon-guzzling mansions in the suburbs of Nashville, Tennessee, and on the beachfront at Montecito, California.<<<<

Now why would Mr global Warming himself buy a mansion on the beach, where he predicted would be flooded in a couple of years???

[SuziQ]

"More generally, he said, the revelation of global volcanic ruin — a portrait 200 years in the making — offers a kind of meditation on the difficulty of uncovering the subtle effects of climate change, whether its origins lie in nature’s fury or the invisible byproducts of human civilization.

It is, Dr. Wood remarked, “hard to see and no less difficult to imagine.” "

Shows how puny humans really are. Just ONE event created at least 3 years of 'global cooling'.

[colorado tanker]

“Krakatoa: East of Java” was the name, the only problem was that Krakatoa is west of Java.

Well, it sounded good . . .

[Nowhere Man]

I remember then where we had snow for Hallowe’en in 1992 and also later on, snow late in May here in the Pittsburgh area. We also had that horrendous St. Patrick Day 2 feet of snow.

[Chickensoup]

I read the book a couple of months ago. Very well done, I heard about it here at FR.

[Nowhere Man]

We’re entering another period of decreased solar activity, expected by some to be just as serious as the Dalton and Maunder minimums. People need to stop listening to the “climate change” alarmists and get ready for what’s actually happening...we’re looking at 30 to 50 years of serious winters. The last 2 years are just the beginning.

Time for my obligatory comment, "that mean 10 and 6 meter DX will suck." I'm also interested in the affects on long range HF an VHF radio communications too since I'm an amateur radio operator. I've read that if we had amateur radio during the Maunder Minimum in the 1600's, most long distance communications on shortwave would be at night on 160 meters (1800 - 2000 kc, just above the AM radio band) and 80 meters (3500 - 4000). Medium wave radio in our AM band as well a longwave for some part of the world wold cover long distances at night. Forget long distance daytime comms. This would affect our defenses too, we would have to rely more on satellites for that as well as ship and air traffic in and over the oceans.

For as long as I can remember, the sun has been very active on the sunspot highs, I just turned 49. I remember Cycles 21 (1979/80) and 22 (1988/90) where I received South African police on VHF-Lo (30 - 50 Mc). I still here old timers still speak of the great times they had during cycle 19 (1957/58) during the time of the International Geophysical Year. The upcoming years might prove to be interesting indeed. The late amateur adio operator who did extensive studies on 160 meters, Stew Perry (W1BB, 1904 - 1990) would probably have a "field day" (pardon the ham radio pun) if things pan out this way.

[gleeaikin]

At various Catastrophism posts I have mentioned that I have found what may be a pattern of increased and decreased geophysical activity for the past few centuries. These include:
1783 to 1815 (Laki Fissure in Iceland, New Madrid EQs 1811-12; Tambora among others);
1883 to 1911 (Krakatao 1883; Charleston EQ 1886; Caribbean Plate volcanoes 1902—Pelee in Martinique, St Vincent, Santa Maria in Guatemala and several others; San Francisco EQ 1906; Katmai/Novarupta volcano 1911.
1982 to ???? Mt. St. Helens, Pinatubo 1991, great Indonesian EQ and Tsunami 2005, and Japan 2011, Nepal EQ and ???

While researching some of this, I am working on a scientific historic novel about the 1902 Caribbean Plate cycle, I became aware that when something especially severe happens, it is not uncommon for other earth phenomena to be recorded at some distance. For example the Great Lisbon EQ and tsunami which killed 50,000 people there, was followed within the month by the worst EQ recorded in Boston, MA, since European settlement.

Our current solar phenomena should not be too surprising. When I took astronomy 55 years ago, we were taught that there were solar spot cycles of roughly 11, 22, and 88 years. Since there were record droughts in the early 1930s, I expected we would have record weather events in the 2000 teens and 20s. Looks like that is happening. Part of the terrible Syria problem is that they had experienced years of severe drought which caused migration to the cities and severe dissatisfaction with government of Assad. Then there are our forest fires and the California drought.

I certainly remember the severe weather (cold, snow, ice, floods) we had for several years after Pinatubo. Pennsylvania was shut down for several days with 3 feet of snow. Was the trigger for the SUV craze. I also remember enjoying many beautiful sunsets.

A final thought. I met a retured Naval captain the other day. He told me that the Naval authorities at Norfolk are very concerned about rising sea water levels there and occurring and future impact on our naval bases. Here is a link that discusses the issue. There is an interesting map showing impact of water levels on Norfolk naval/military facilities.

http://io9.com/the-pentagon-wants-to-tackle-climate-change-but-cong-1581721471

[Nowhere Man]

Interesting, I’ve heard of the 11 year solar cycle of course and the 22 year one from old radio books from the 1930’s to the 1950’s. I remember one Freeper mentioned an 88 year ole, maybe it was you. I think the 22 year old is the Sun’s pole shift IIRC, but what is the 88 year one? BTW, it is interesting how weather influenced history. Washington fought the American Revolution during the Little Ice Age and the Hudson froze then which helped him move arms around the Staten Island and New York City area.

[gleeaikin]

Here is a rather technical article that references the 88 years cycle. It also has a number of charts going back to the 1700 information. After reading these and several pieces I find that there is a feeling the a 22 year cycle is quite important with 2 11 year cycles paired for technical reasons you can find below.

http://iie.fing.edu.uy/simsee/biblioteca/CICLO_SOLAR_PeristykhDamon03-Gleissbergin14C.pdf

This scientific article refers to 11, 22, 88, 200, and 2000 cycles also with graphs.

http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs-0095-00/fs-0095-00.pdf

The link below is part of a large work. On page 58 begins a discussion of solar variation, and then moves on to meteor and volcano influences. In fact this whole book might make interesting reading.

https://books.google.com/books?id=U22IAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA59&lpg=PA59&dq=Sunspot+cycles+11,+22,+88+years&source=bl&ots=AEjwRqa7yb&sig=zKm9kDQLD585V617v9MlYG9InnU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CGoQ6AEwDWoVChMIlKz9_P7FxwIVCYsNCh3NPQic#v=onepage&q=Sunspot%20cycles%2011%2C%2022%2C%2088%20years&f=false

[gleeaikin]

Given that Pinatubo left a 3 mile diameter crater, Tambora left a 4 mile wide crater, imagine what an impact the explosion of Mt. Mazama, currently known as Crater Lake with its almost 6 mile diameter crater must have had when it blew.