Mount Tambora The Year Without Summer

By Leo Frampton

The Pacific Ring of Fire

• Has the most volcanoes out of any area in the world• Natural Disasters Galore (Krakatau)• You can find Indonesia in this area, where

Mt.Tambora is

Before the Eruption• Mt.Tambora stood 4200m high (five times the size of the empire state building), towering

over many of Indonesia's other volcanoes. Tambora was located on Sumbawa Island, taking up most of it.

• Inside Tambora, there was a big chamber of magma, that had been building up for thousands of years.

Let’s think for a moment

• Mt. Tambora was five times as tall as the empire state-building

• The volcano erupts, making most of the mountain explode.

-The Question is no longer, “Was this a big eruption?” At this point, the question is just how big WAS this big explosion?

The Explosion• April 5th, 1815, Mount Tambora explodes,

causing most of the mountain itself to be destroyed in the eruption.

The eruption shot 30 miles of

ash and pulverized rock into the atmosphere, covering neighboring islands in ash and hot lava.

1. 700 2. 1000 3. 25,000 4. 100,000 5. 43,7821. Set off tons of other natural disasters such

as whirlwinds and earthquakes that began to damage surrounding islands.

How Big Was the Death Toll?

100,000

• The immediate effects of Mt.Tambora killed approximately 100,000 Indonesian citizens, making it the largest volcano eruption in human history

• Sinking islands and covering various kingdoms in ash, Tambora’s explosion was 10 times larger then Krakatau and 100 times larger then Vesuvius!

But Wait! There's more!

Mount Tambora had some big after–effects. Guess what they are –

1. Caused many other natural disasters, such as earthquakes and whirlwinds that damaged surrounding islands.

2. Spewed ash so high that it blocked out many sun-rays, causing global cooling.

3. Caused an economic crisis in Europe.

The Answer is: All Three!

All of the things listed were true. The after-effects of the Mt.Tambora eruption were actually worse then the immediate effects.

The Year Without Summer• The eruption of mount Tambora was so huge,

that it actually affected the weather and temperature of the earth. 400 million tons of gas were released from the volcano into the sky,

• Once the gas collided with the water vapor in the atmosphere, it formed bits of sulfuric acid that became suspended in the stratosphere forming a veil around the Earth, blocking sun-rays and dropping the temperature.

Why was it called “The Year Without Summer”?

• Average temperatures dropped about 5 degrees Fahrenheit. In New England and Canada there were literally snowfalls in June, and frost in July and August.

• In Europe it was cold and ash fell along with the snow. In India and Asia there was cold, frost, and monsoons.

• Crops failed and hundreds of thousands of people starved and died from disease.

Discussion Questions

• Why do you think that Mount Tambora might not be as well known as other eruptions, despite it’s magnitude?

• If a similar eruption happened today, do you think the death toll and effects would be the same?

• Do you think any recent natural disasters might have affected our economy?

• Do you think that we should work to prevent natural disasters like this or are there reasons to let them occur naturally?