Volcanoes and Climate Change
Mount Tambora dominates the small Indonesian island of Sumbawa in the Flores Sea east of Java. In 1815 it exploded in the largest eruption in the last 20,000 years, ejecting between 125 and 175 cubic kilometers of pumice (a type of rock formed by volcanoes) and ash. The year after the eruption, 1816, would become known as the”year without a summer. “Climate is influenced by many processes operating simultaneously, so the precise effect of Tambora is not easily gauged. The eruption was coincident with a span of several decades, from about 1790 to 1830, of colder climate apparently caused by a considerable decrease in solar activity. The years 1812 to 1818 were among the coldest of these, and this may have been primarily a result of the change in solar activity. It is also possible that the other large eruptions that occurred in that decade-Soufriere Hills (Montserrat, 1812). Mayon(Philippines 1814), Colima (Mexico,1814), and Beerenberg (North Atlantic 1818)-contributed to the cold conditions. Sparseness of climate records adds to this uncertainty. Much of our knowledge comes from tree rings and other natural recorders of time and climate.
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