Posted on 01/02/2016 7:00:37 AM PST by C19fan
Two hundred years ago, the greatest eruption in Earth’s recorded history took place. Mount Tambora—located on Sumbawa Island in the East Indies—blew itself up with apocalyptic force in April 1815.

After perhaps 1,000 years’ dormancy, the devastating evacuation and collapse required only a few days. It was the concentrated energy of this event that was to have the greatest human impact. By shooting its contents into the stratosphere with biblical force, Tambora ensured its volcanic gases reached sufficient height to disable the seasonal rhythms of the global climate system, throwing human communities worldwide into chaos. The sun-dimming stratospheric aerosols produced by Tambora’s eruption in 1815 spawned the most devastating, sustained period of extreme weather seen on our planet in perhaps thousands of years.
(Excerpt) Read more at nautil.us ...
The following year, 1816, was known as “eighteen hundred and froze to death” and “the year of two winters” when there was snow in June in North America, and killing frosts in July and August.
They taught us this in grade school.
Let's hope Yellowstone doesn't throw a tantrum in our lifetime....
It would probably end our lifetime...
Bush’s fault.
Yep - perhaps the most humane place to be would be on vacation in Yellowstone when she blew....
The same thing seems to have happened in 536, with worldwide effects.
Thanks for the link. Interesting read and not obviously ‘agenda science.’
It’s nice to remember that there are just some things humans can’t do much about.
Oldplayer
Thank-You for posting the article. It explained a lot: earth science, art, literature, and a study of the human condition. Well done!
Doesn’t Jeb have enough trouble without you saying that? ;-)
That may have been a meteor strike in Australia. Either way, it made a mess of the world.
thank you for posting this excellent article.
It is long, but worth reading.
In 1818, a British expedition tried to sail through the Northwest passage.
There was no ice in the Canadian Arctic and they could have sailed all the way through to Alaska, but, the captain freaked out and turned back.
The next expedition found the path choked with ice.
This article has an incomplete description of the trip:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ross_%28Royal_Navy_officer%29
I have always wondered if the lack of ice was related to the Tambora event.
Even a widespread state of war, with numerous nuclear bombings, could not produce the continuing effects of the eruption of Mt. Tambora. Most of that was from aerosols sprayed up into the stratosphere, far above any rain clouds that would have washed the dust particles and rather caustic chemicals produced out of the air. While some atomic weapons are pretty powerful, nothing yet so far produced has the stupendous energy exhibited with this eruption in 1816.
And there have been even bigger eruptions in the past. Nobody can say whether there may be even more cataclysmic eruptions in the future.
Yet, like ants, the individual hills get smashed, poisoned, scorched, and otherwise obliterated, ants still seem to survive elsewhere.
Even today, it remains as the best novel ever written by a teenager.
Not bushm
Tracking in Oklahoma/sarc
Well, not so much. The writer’s opening statement is hugely misleading to wit: “... the greatest eruption in Earth’s recorded history ...” The key here is to make the reader believe that “recorded history” is the same thing as in human history.
Tambora was only a large eruption VEI of 8, but not the largest in human history. That was the Mt Toba eruption 74,000 years ago which made Tambora look like Mt St Helens in comparison. Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) = each number is greater by a factor of 10.
The Toba eruption was off the scale at VEI of 9 or super volcanic, and likely killed most of the human race then living. Largest volcanic eruption in 400 million years, producing 2.500-3.000 cu. kilometers of ash, and 1 trillion tons of aerosols (including 200,000,000 tons of sulfur dioxide - SO2). Cloud was more than 34 kilometers high. Ash covers India between 1 and 6 meters deep. (May have started following cooling period). 6 year period during which the largest amount of volcanic sulfur was deposited in the past 110,000 years, followed by 1000 years of the lowest ice core oxygen isotope ratios, temperatures were colder than during the Last Glacial Maximum at 18 - 21,000 years ago. Sea level was 160 feet below current.
Global temperature drops average of 21 degrees. Volcanic Winter lasted about six years. It was followed by 1,000 years of the coldest Ice Age on record. Warming begins again 1,000 years later.
It is believed that the 1% human genetic variation stems from this time. No other species shows such a small variation. Genetic evidence suggests only 10,000 adults survived world wide. May be event which caused rise in modern racial differences - Professor Stanley Ambrose of the University of Illinois.
The Toba event was like the projections for Yellowstone, pretty near an ELE (Extinction Level Event).
Once we get to the super volcano level all bets are off as to the extent of the destruction - you can make guesses based of the geology of past events, but that’s all they are - guesses.
One of these super eruptions could be like the Deccan Traps (512,000 cubic kilometers of magma, more than 2,000 meters deep, covering an area as high as 1.5 million square kilometers) or the Siberian Traps (between 1 and 4 million cubic kilometers magma covering 7 million kilometers) eruptions. These last types of eruption aren’t just a blast or two lasting a few days or weeks, rather duration is measured in years or centuries ... Fortunately, as far as we know no human was around then, but that does no lessen the possibility of such events happening again.
Really interesting post. Thank you.
Excellent article. Thanks for posting.
L
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