How a volcano triggered a world catastrophe and a ’12 months without summer’ | News World

Following a changeable and – at times – wintry previous couple of weeks, the considered snow in May, sunless skies in June and and a pandemic by July is just too much to bear.

But two centuries ago, something very very like this did occur, triggered by a volcanic eruption on the opposite side of the world, which caused a climate catastrophe, three years of disruption and hundreds of thousands of deaths.

On April 10, 1815, the Indonesian island of Sumbawa witnessed probably the most powerful volcanic eruptions in recorded history.

The eruption of Mount Tambora measured seven out of eight on the Volcano Explosivity Index, spewing 24 cubic miles of gasses, dust and rock into the atmosphere. (By comparison, Mount Vesuvius, which killed an estimated 2,000 people in 79 AD, was a magnitude five. The last known level-eight eruption occurred around 26,000 years ago.)

‘The eruption of Tambora was a catastrophic event and one in all the most important volcanic eruptions in 10,000 years. It threw an enormous plume of volcanic eruption high beyond the troposphere, which is where we live, into the stratosphere,’ meteorological expert Nathan Yao tells Metro.

‘There, the aerosols reflected sunlight, and caused temperatures to drop for 3 years. It was 1819 before they recovered. And since the weather affects all the pieces, it had a big impact, not only short term changes and fluctuations in temperature and wind, but additionally on climate.’

Around 10,000 people were killed immediately because the explosion destroyed all vegetation on the island. Uprooted trees, mixed with pumice ash, washed into the ocean, forming rafts up to 3 miles wide. Meanwhile, 100 megatons of sulphur aerosols created a deadly haze that blocked sunlight and cooled the Earth by an estimated 0.5°C.

‘Which may not look like much, but over a sustained period, very small changes within the balance of the atmosphere can have huge repercussions. It had a serious impact when it comes to crops, famine and the resulting disease,’ Nathan explains.

The next summer was recorded because the coldest ever within the UK, with snow falling within the Midlands in May because of the freezing overnight temperatures. Writer Mary Shelley, confined indoors by the cold, was inspired by the grim weather to write down the literary classic Frankenstein, while Lord Byron wrote the poem Darkness, which imagines the sun extinguished and the world collapsing into cold and chaos.

Gloomy, cold rains fell throughout Europe and in america, and the grim months became known across each continents as ‘the 12 months without summer.’

As temperature changes affected rain and snowfall, and the sun remained hidden, harvests failed globally causing poverty, starvation and food riots across Europe. In Ireland, wheat, oat and potato crops failed and the resulting famine and typhus outbreak took many lives.

Life within the UK was marked by strain and hunger. Soldiers returned home from the Napoleonic Wars to seek out low wages, scarce jobs and stilted industry. In rural areas, farmers watched fields rot and within the towns, food prices rose and peculiar families were unable to afford food and garments. The consequences were felt more keenly in Ireland, where fields that ought to have been productive looked sodden or under-grown and the skies were dull and damped by persistent cloud.

Asia was much more severely affected as famine and cholera proliferated across India and rice paddies were destroyed in China.

The eruption is believed to have cost hundreds of thousands of lives. And most frighteningly of all, those affected had no way of knowing whether the death, disease and destruction – and exquisite fiery sunsets attributable to volcanic ash – were punishments issued by a vengeful god.

Nathan explains: ‘That they had no technology, no web, no Met Office, so that they wouldn’t have known what was happening. They wouldn’t have had a clue.

‘People would have made all varieties of analogies and superstitions about God, spirits or strange forces coming into motion.

‘They’d have seen their crops failing and folks suffering, and never understood why. It had never been experienced before, so the strange weather effects would have been frightening. A bit like when people saw comets they usually thought they were omens. It could have been a scary few years.’

So could such a freak weather occurrence occur again? 

While it’s necessary to notice that this was a really rare event and as a civilisation, we’re a lot better protected against natural disasters than 200 years ago, there may be nothing to stop one other ‘12 months without summer’. 

As a journalist, Nathan has been called to cover volcano stories at a moment’s notice, and knows how quickly and without caution they’ll occur.

‘You don’t get many warnings with earthquakes and volcanoes. Have a look at the Tsunami in 2004. No-one saw that coming.

‘Relating to natural disasters, if it’s happened once, it could possibly occur again,’ he adds.

‘The eruption of Mount Tambora was a rare event, but theoretically we could see one other volcanic eruption somewhere on this planet. 

Now,  obviously, there can be way more information and communication, so we’d have the ability to take care of it a lot better – however it could still be catastrophic.’

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