Year Without a Summer
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| - | '''Mount Tambora''' (or '''Tamboro''') is an active [[stratovolcano]] which is a peninsula of the island of [[Sumbawa]], Indonesia. Sumbawa is flanked both to the north and south by [[oceanic crust]], and Tambora was formed by the active [[subduction zone]] beneath it. This raised Mount Tambora as high as {{convert|4300|m|abbr=on}}, making it, in the 18th century, one of the tallest peaks in the Indonesian archipelago. After a large [[magma chamber]] inside the mountain filled over the course of several decades, volcanic activity reached a historic climax in the eruption of 10 April 1815. This eruption was about a [[volcanic explosivity index]] (VEI) of 7, the only eruption unambiguously confirmed of that size since the [[Hatepe eruption|Lake Taupo]] eruption in about 180 [[Common Era|CE]]. (The [[Heaven Lake]] eruption of [[Baekdu Mountain]] around 969 CE may have also been VEI-7.) | + | The year 1816 is known as the '''Year Without a Summer''' (also the '''Poverty Year''', the '''Summer that Never Was''', '''Year There Was No Summer''', and '''Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death'''), because of severe [[Volcanic winter|climate abnormalities]] that caused average global temperatures to decrease by 0.4–0.7 °C (0.7–1.3 °F). This resulted in major food shortages across the [[Northern Hemisphere]]. Evidence suggests the anomaly was caused by a combination of a [[Dalton Minimum|historic low in solar activity]] with a [[volcanic winter]] event, the latter caused by a succession of major volcanic eruptions capped by the [[1815 eruption of Mount Tambora]], in the [[Dutch East Indies]] (Indonesia), the largest known eruption in over 1,300 years. |
| - | + | ==Description== | |
| - | With an estimated ejecta volume of 160 km3, Tambora's 1815 outburst was the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history. The explosion was heard on [[Sumatra]] island more than 2000 km away. Heavy [[volcanic ash]] falls were observed as far away as [[Borneo]], [[Sulawesi]], [[Java]], and [[Maluku Islands]]. Most deaths from the eruption were from starvation and disease, as the eruptive fallout ruined agricultural productivity in the local region. The death toll was at least 71,000 people, of whom 11,000–12,000 were killed directly by the eruption; the often-cited figure of 92,000 people killed is believed to be overestimated. | + | The Year Without a Summer was an agricultural disaster. Historian John D. Post has called this, "the last great [[subsistence crisis]] in the Western world". The unusual climatic aberrations of 1816 had the greatest effect on most of [[New England]], [[Atlantic Canada]], and parts of western [[Europe]]. Typically, the late spring and summer of central and northern New England and southeastern Canada are relatively stable: temperatures (average of both day and night) average between about 68 and 77 °F (20 and 25 °C) and rarely fall below 41 °F (5 °C). Summer snow is an extreme rarity. |
| - | The eruption caused global climate anomalies that included the phenomenon known as "[[volcanic winter]]": 1816 became known as the "[[Year Without a Summer]]" because of the effect on North American and European weather. Crops failed and livestock died in much of the [[Northern Hemisphere]], resulting in the worst [[famine]] of the 19th century. | ||
| - | During an [[Excavation (archaeology)|excavation]] in 2004, a team of [[archaeology|archaeologists]] discovered [[Tambora culture|cultural remains]] buried by the 1815 eruption. They were kept intact beneath the 3-m-deep pyroclastic deposits. At the site, dubbed the '[[Pompeii]] of the East', the artifacts were preserved in the positions they had occupied in 1815. | + | ==See also== |
| + | * [[Global cooling]] | ||
| + | * [[Little Ice Age]] | ||
| + | * [[New England's Dark Day]] | ||
| + | * [[Timetable of major worldwide volcanic eruptions]] | ||
| + | * [[White Christmas (weather)#Southern Hemisphere|White Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere]] | ||
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The year 1816 is known as the Year Without a Summer (also the Poverty Year, the Summer that Never Was, Year There Was No Summer, and Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death), because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by 0.4–0.7 °C (0.7–1.3 °F). This resulted in major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere. Evidence suggests the anomaly was caused by a combination of a historic low in solar activity with a volcanic winter event, the latter caused by a succession of major volcanic eruptions capped by the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora, in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), the largest known eruption in over 1,300 years.
Description
The Year Without a Summer was an agricultural disaster. Historian John D. Post has called this, "the last great subsistence crisis in the Western world". The unusual climatic aberrations of 1816 had the greatest effect on most of New England, Atlantic Canada, and parts of western Europe. Typically, the late spring and summer of central and northern New England and southeastern Canada are relatively stable: temperatures (average of both day and night) average between about 68 and 77 °F (20 and 25 °C) and rarely fall below 41 °F (5 °C). Summer snow is an extreme rarity.
See also
- Global cooling
- Little Ice Age
- New England's Dark Day
- Timetable of major worldwide volcanic eruptions
- White Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere
