Tambora: The Eruption. The Cold. The Year Without Summer.Episode 81:37
The Famine That Killed After the Ash
Disease, delayed monsoons and prolonged food shortages reveal that Tambora’s largest death toll came long after the eruption ended.
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Transcript
In July 1816, snow fell across New England—and the harvest failed.
A year earlier, Tambora released 60 megatons of sulfur into the air.
Smaller particles reached the stratosphere, where they could spread worldwide more easily.
In 1816, the South Asian monsoon was delayed, and crops failed across several regions.
North America, Western Europe, and parts of Asia faced food shortages.
Across Europe, malnutrition spread as typhus and dysentery became rampant.
A composite voice represents European civilians facing shortages, disease, unrest. The shelves are bare, and the crowd outside is growing.
As European prices rose, English rioters with spiked sticks demanded, “Bread or Blood.”
Federal weather officials report more than 100,000 deaths from shortages in the next decade.
Ireland alone saw famine and disease kill more than 40,000 people.
Tambora fell from 14,100 feet to under 10,000 feet.
The cold, wet summer trapped Mary Shelley indoors as she wrote Frankenstein.
Tree-ring studies identify 1816 as one of the coldest summers of six centuries.
A contemporary Banyuwangi witness recorded how the eruption changed daylight itself.
By 1 p.m. April 11th, 1815, candles were necessary.
Where it leaves off
The shortages even reduced the supply of service animals in Europe—and one inventor began imagining transport without them.
Sources
- This Day In History: Mount Tambora Explosively Erupts in 1815 | NESDIS | National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Servicenesdis.noaa.govprimary
- Volcano Watch — Infamous Mount Tambora is rumbling again | U.S. Geological Surveyusgs.govsecondary
- Mount Tambora and the Year Without a Summer | Center for Science Educationscied.ucar.edusecondary
- New book tells the story of a little-known volcano’s global impact – News Bureaunews.illinois.edusecondary
- April 10, 1815: Mount Tambora blows up | Skulls in the Starsskullsinthestars.comprimary
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