Tambora: The Eruption. The Cold. The Year Without Summer.Episode 111:32
The Lake Inside the Missing Mountain
Modern scientists enter Tambora’s transformed summit, where water, fumaroles and renewed unrest reveal a volcano that is damaged but alive.
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Transcript
A 13,000-foot peak vanished, leaving a crater where the summit had been.
Before 1815, Tambora was one of Indonesia’s tallest mountains.
The eruption began April 5th, 1815, climaxing on April 10th, 1815.
The eruption left a caldera about 3.7 miles wide, about 3,600 feet deep.
The Rajah of Sanggar was among those who described what the mountain became.
The three columns of flame united in the air.
Today, the crater floor can hold an ephemeral freshwater lake.
NASA reports active fumaroles still exist within Tambora’s caldera.
A field team crosses loose ash toward the water, each step sliding downhill.
At the monitoring gate, a survey badge refuses to scan; the team tries again.
Together, calm water and rising steam reveal a volcano that remains alive.
The Rajah of Sanggar described the mountain as a mass of liquid fire.
Tambora’s alert rose to three on a one-to-four scale on September 8th, 2011.
The U.S. Geological Survey deemed another cataclysmic Tambora eruption unlikely in the near future.
A repeat of that magnitude would need many hundreds, possibly thousands, of years to recharge.
Years earlier, in 2004, scientists discovered what the eruption left behind: a buried village.
Where it leaves off
Then, on Tambora’s flank, scientists discovered a village that the eruption had buried and history had lost.
Sources
- Mount Tambora Volcano, Sumbawa Island, Indonesia - NASA Sciencescience.nasa.govprimary
- This Day In History: Mount Tambora Explosively Erupts in 1815 | NESDIS | National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Servicenesdis.noaa.govprimary
- VolcanicDegassing | The great eruption of Tambora, April 1815blogs.egu.euprimary
- Volcano Watch — Infamous Mount Tambora is rumbling again | U.S. Geological Surveyusgs.govprimary
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