Seeing the eruption of Mount Tambora Enormity

Most of us would not know that Mount Tambora was recorded as the highest volcano in Indonesia. That was before the volcano erupted explosively in April 1815.
When the peak of Mount Tambora reach a height of about 4,300 meters above sea level (asl). Compare with the highest land in Indonesia today, namely Puncak Jayawijaya, Papua, the altitude of about 3050 m above sea level.
After the great Tambora eruption, land at the summit was thrown into different directions.As a result, the height of a volcano that is still remaining half, which is about 2851 m above sea level.
The eruption of a very horrible also leaving a huge caldera. In fact, according to records, the size of the caldera is the most widespread in Indonesia. Imagine, the caldera has a diameter of about 7 km, the maximum length of 16 km, and a depth of 1.5 km.
Now, the volcano which is administratively located in two districts; Dompu and Bima, West Nusa Tenggara Province (NTB) had left the magical tale, not only in Indonesia but also have an impact until the various parts of the world.


Very tense The tragedy began in early April 1815. When the area around Mount Tambora began to vibrate. Vibration is further strengthened on April 10, 1815, at 19:00 local time. Since then up to five days, the explosion of Mount Tambora reaches its climax.
At night, from a distance Tambora really bright because of the fire that continues to radiate from the top of the mountain. The atmosphere is very tense. Mount it as if turned into a huge fire flow.
At the same time, the eruption was also spewing out hot gas, volcanic ash and boulders down to 20 km down to the sea. The villages in the vicinity of Tambora was destroyed by pyroclastic flows engulfed them.
According to Haris Paradise in his book titled Greatest Mysteries of Indonesia (2008), three small kingdoms scorched and destroyed by lava and eruption of Mount Tambora material. The third kingdom is the Concentration which is about 30 km west of Tambora.Then, the Kingdom Studios located 35 km east of Tambora, and the kingdom of Tambora is 25 km from the volcano.


Almost all residents in the three kingdoms are killed. Only two people survived. In fact, the locations of the three kingdoms that had already grown quite safe from the effects of volcanic eruptions.
The eruption of Mount Tambora was also carrying a very large landslide material to the sea. Landslide caused a tsunami in various beaches in Indonesia such as Bima, East Java, and Maluku. The height of the tsunami is estimated at 4 meters.
Not only that, it also cast a powerful blast of volcanic ash up to West Java and South Sulawesi. Even the smell of nitrate also wafted up to Batavia (now Jakarta). Heavy rain accompanied the fall of ash also occurred.
According to geologists, the eruption is the largest natural disaster in history. Imagine, as compared with the eruption of Krakatoa which occurred in August 1883, explosion of Mount Tambora more dahsat four times that.


Mount Tambora eruption was heard up to the island of Sumatra, Makassar, and Ternate as far as 2,600 km. Ashes were also flown as far as 1,300 km with an altitude of 44 km from the surface. The volume of dust was estimated to reach 400 km3.
I was so thick dust that fly in the sky, along the area with a radius of 600 km from the volcano visible darkness for two days. Understandably, the sun could not penetrate the thick gray earlier.
Areas most affected, of course, which is adjacent to the location of Mount Tambora.According to the Swiss botanist, Heinrich Zollinger, in once this eruption killed about 10,000 people.
After that, the number of deaths from starvation reached 38,000 people on Sumbawa and Lombok 10,000 people. Other sources said the explosion had been reduced to the remaining population Sumbawa only 85,000 people.
Number of Victims Spreads Not only that. The death toll also extends to the island of Bali, which reached 10,000 people. The next Impact, 49,000 people died because of disease and starvation.
Why the prolonged famine? There are several reasons. First, all plants on the island of Sumbawa when it was completely destroyed by a thick ash covered and engulfed in flames.
Second, during the two weeks of heavy clouds still covered the areas around Mount Tambora, including Bali. In effect, many crops were destroyed and crop failure. Third, the ash particles in the long term was still in atmofer with a height of 10-30 km. As a result, climate cycles become erratic and farmers could not harvest the crop cultivation.
Climate chaos also hit Europe, the United States, and Canada. A year after the eruption, in 1816, the area experienced year without a summer. Weather in the area changed completely. Understandably, the ash particles were still wrapped around the earth's atmosphere blocking sunlight to break through the soil surface.
Famine also hit Canada, U.S., UK, and others. Frozen air that occur in these countries eliminate farmers dream. Residents were food shortages. Ireland experienced the worst impact. There, cold rainfall occurs almost throughout the summer. Approximately 65,000 people die of hunger and typhus epidemic affected. The epidemic then spread to Europe and killed 200,000 people.
The eruption of Mount Tambora was tragic. The eruption was cut off hundreds of thousands of people, both those affected directly or indirectly. This heartbreaking story of Tambora in accordance with the name derived from two words; ta and mbora which means an invitation to disappear.
According to the myth that developing communities around the mountain believe, there are reportedly about 4,500 hikers, hunters, and explorers are missing. They were never found on Mount Tambora which is now covered with forests with a variety of orchids so fascinating.
NAPOLEON, Raffles, and Tambora Great eruption of Mount Tambora in April 1815 not only crushed and destroyed three small kingdoms in the island of Sumbawa. More than that, far away in mainland Europe, precisely in Belgium, army troops under the command of the ruler of France, General Napoleon Bonaparte must bend the knees at the hands of Britain and Prussia.
Yes, three days after the Tambora erupted explosively, precisely on June 18, 1815, Napolean trapped enemy forces. The reason, in the rest of the day the weather worsened. The rain kept pouring area. In fact, the French soldiers were heading fight the battle.
Due to bad weather, the train wheel for driving cannon stuck in mud. All vehicles can not drive smoothly. Ground was slippery, covered with snow. Understandably, a thick ash from the eruption of Mount Tambora was still scattered in the atmosphere blocking sunlight that falls to earth.
War was a tragic story of Waterloo for Napoleon. The greatness of Napoleon in subdue his enemies over. He also surrendered. The general was then exiled to Saint Helena Island, a small island in the southern Atlantic Ocean. On the remote island's why he spends his time until death in 1821 due to attack cancer.
Kenneth Spink, a geologist theorize, that bad weather caused the eruption of Mount Tambora be one trigger of the defeat of Napoleon. At the scientific meeting of Applied Geosciences at Warwick, England (1996), Spink said that the eruption of Mount Tambora has a big impact on the order of the world's climate at the time, including bad weather in Waterloo in June 1815.
In Yogyakarta, the eruption of Tambora surprise Thomas Stamford Raffles. Governor-General of the United Kingdom in Java in power in 1811-1816 it was thought the explosion was coming from enemy cannon fire sound. Naturally so, because when the technology of communication (telegraph) was not created so that the eruption could not be delivered to various parts of the countryside in a relatively quick.
Fear of enemy attack, Raffles was then sent soldiers to guard posts along the coast to be ready on standby. The boats were alerted. What may make, Raffles false allegations.There was no enemy attack.