Mount Tambora

Mount Tambora is an active stratovolcano on Sumbawa Island, Indonesia. Its 1815 eruption caused catastrophic regional destruction and global climatic effects.

Plinian eruption: A sustained explosive volcanic eruption that sends a high column of gas and ash into the atmosphere. Tambora’s 1815 eruption produced an exceptionally high ash column characteristic of this eruption style.
Year Without a Summer: The unusually cold and disruptive Northern Hemisphere summer of 1816, following major volcanic aerosols from Tambora. Tambora’s eruption helped cause the 1816 cooling and crop failures across parts of Europe and North America.
Sumbawa: An Indonesian island in the Lesser Sunda chain, east of Lombok. Tambora occupies the northern part of this island.
Tambora caldera: The broad summit depression left by Mount Tambora’s catastrophic 1815 eruption. Its scale records the collapse and material loss associated with the eruption.
Pyroclastic flow: A fast-moving, ground-hugging mixture of hot gas, ash, and volcanic rock fragments. These flows devastated settlements and landscapes around Tambora during the eruption.
1815 eruption of Mount Tambora: The massive April 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora, one of the largest recorded volcanic eruptions. This event is the source of Tambora’s best-known human and climatic consequences.
Lesser Sunda Islands: An Indonesian archipelago extending east from Bali toward Timor. Sumbawa and Tambora lie within this volcanic island chain.
Tambora archaeological sites: Buried settlements and artifacts preserved beneath volcanic deposits from Tambora’s 1815 eruption. These remains provide evidence of communities overwhelmed by the eruption.
Volcanic ash: Fine particles of pulverized rock and glass expelled during volcanic eruptions. Tambora’s ash fell across the region and its finest particles entered the atmosphere.
Volcanic winter: A period of climatic cooling caused by volcanic particles that reduce incoming sunlight. Tambora is a major historical example of eruption-driven cooling on a global scale.

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