Mount Tambora
Mount Tambora | |
---|---|
Tomboro | |
Highest point | |
Elevation | 2,850 m (9,350 ft)[1] |
Prominence | 2,722 m (8,930 ft)[1][2] |
Coordinates | 8°15′S 118°0′E / 8.250°S 118.000°E |
Geography | |
Location | Bima & Dompu Regencies, Sanggar peninsula, Sumbawa, Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia |
Geology | |
Age of rock | Late Pleistocene-recent |
Mountain type | Trachybasaltic-trachyandesitic stratovolcano |
Volcanic arc | Sunda Arc |
Last eruption | 1967[1] |
Climbing | |
Easiest route | Southeast: Doro Mboha Northwest: Pancasila |
Mount Tambora, or Tomboro, is an active
Tambora
Geographical setting
Mount Tambora, also known as Tomboro,[4] is situated in the northern part of Sumbawa island, part of the Lesser Sunda Islands.[5] It is a segment of the Sunda Arc, a chain of volcanic islands that make up the southern chain of the Indonesian archipelago.[6] Tambora forms its own peninsula on Sumbawa, known as the Sanggar peninsula. To the north of the peninsula is the Flores Sea[3] and to the south is the 86 kilometres (53 mi) long and 36 kilometres (22 mi) wide Saleh Bay.[7] At the mouth of Saleh Bay there is an islet called Mojo.[8]
Besides the
There are two routes of ascent to the caldera. The first begins at Doro Mboha village on the southeast of the mountain and follows a paved road through a cashew plantation to an elevation of 1,150 metres (3,770 ft). The road terminates at the southern part of the caldera, which at 1,950 metres (6,400 ft) is reachable only by hiking.[11] This location is only one hour from the caldera, and usually serves as a base camp from which volcanic activity can be monitored. The second route starts from Pancasila village at the northwest of the mountain and is only accessible on foot.[11] The 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) hike from Pancasila at 740 metres (2,430 ft) elevation to the caldera of the volcano takes approximately 14 hours with several stops (pos) en route to the top. The trail leads through dense jungle with wildlife such as Elaeocarpus, Asian water monitor, reticulated python, hawks, orange-footed scrubfowl, pale-shouldered cicadabird (Coracina dohertyi), brown and scaly-crowned honeyeater, yellow-crested cockatoo, yellow-ringed white-eye, helmeted friarbird, wild boar, Javan rusa and crab-eating macaques.[12]
History of Mount Tambora
Geological history
Formation
Tambora is located 340 kilometres (210 mi) north of the
A high volcanic cone with a single central vent formed before the 1815 eruption, which follows a
The
Since the 1815 eruption, the lowermost portion contains deposits of interlayered sequences of
Eruptive history
In 1812, Mount Tambora became highly active, with its maximum eruptive intensity occurring in April 1815.
Around 1880 ± 30 years, eruptions at Mount Tambora have been registered only inside the caldera.
Mount Tambora is still active and minor lava domes and flows have been extruded on the caldera floor during the 19th and 20th centuries.[1] The last eruption was recorded in 1967. However, it was a gentle eruption with a VEI of 0, which means it was non-explosive.[23][25] Another very small eruption was reported in 2011.[26] In August 2011, the alert level for the volcano was raised from level I to level II after increased activity was reported in the caldera, including earthquakes and steam emissions.[27][28]
1815 eruption
Chronology of the eruption
Before 1815, Mount Tambora had been
A moderate-sized eruption on 5 April 1815 was followed by thunderous detonation sounds that could be heard in
The eruptions intensified at about 7:00 p.m. on the 10th.[29] Three plumes rose and merged.[30] Pieces of pumice of up to 20 centimetres (7.9 in) in diameter rained down at approximately 8 p.m., followed by ash at around 9–10 p.m. The eruption column collapsed, producing hot pyroclastic flows that cascaded down the mountain and towards the sea on all sides of the peninsula, wiping out the village of Tambora. Loud explosions were heard until the next evening, 11 April. The veil of ash spread as far as West Java and South Sulawesi, while a "nitrous odor" was noticeable in Batavia. The heavy tephra-tinged rain did not recede until 17 April.[29] Analysis of various sites on Mount Tambora using ground-penetrating radar has revealed alternations of pumice and ash deposits covered by the pyroclastic surge and flow sediments that vary in thickness regionally.[31]
The eruption is estimated to have had a
The 1815 Tambora eruption is the largest and most devastating observed eruption in recorded history; a comparison with other major eruptions is listed below.[3][29][36] The explosion was heard 2,600 kilometres (1,600 mi) away, and ash deposits were registered at a distance of at least 1,300 kilometres (810 mi). A pitch of darkness was observed as far away as 600 kilometres (370 mi) from the mountain summit for up to two days.[29] Pyroclastic flows spread to distances of about 20 kilometres (12 mi) from the summit and an estimated 9.3–11.8 × 1013 g of stratispheric sulfate aerosols were generated by the eruption.[37]
Aftermath
The island's entire vegetation was destroyed as uprooted trees, mixed with pumice ash, washed into the sea and formed rafts of up to 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) across.
On my trip towards the western part of the island, I passed through nearly the whole of Dompo and a considerable part of Bima. The extreme misery to which the inhabitants have been reduced is shocking to behold. There were still on the road side the remains of several corpses, and the marks of where many others had been interred: the villages almost entirely deserted and the houses fallen down, the surviving inhabitants having dispersed in search of food.
...
Since the eruption, a violent diarrhoea has prevailed in Bima, Dompo, and Sang’ir, which has carried off a great number of people. It is supposed by the natives to have been caused by drinking water which has been impregnated with ashes; and horses have also died, in great numbers, from a similar complaint.
—Lt. Philips, ordered by Sir Stamford Raffles to go to Sumbawa[30]
A moderate
Fatalities
The number of fatalities has been estimated by various sources since the nineteenth century. Swiss botanist
Volcano | Location | Year | Column height (km) |
VEI |
N. hemisphere summer anomaly (°C) |
Fatalities |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Taupō Volcano | New Zealand | 181 | 51 | 7 | ? | unlikely |
Paektu Mountain | Democratic People's Republic of Korea | 946 | 25 | 7 | ? | ? |
Mount Samalas | Indonesia | 1257 | 38–43[43] | 7[44] | −1.2[45] | ? |
1452/1453 mystery eruption | Unknown | 1452 | ? | 7 | −0.5 | ? |
Huaynaputina | Peru | 1600 | 46 | 6 | −0.8 | ≈1,400 |
Mount Tambora | Indonesia | 1815 | 44[46] | 7 | −0.5 | >71,000 |
Krakatoa | Indonesia | 1883 | 80 | 6 | −0.3 | 36,600 |
Santa María Volcano | Guatemala | 1902 | 34 | 6 | no anomaly | 7,000–13,000 |
Novarupta | United States | 1912 | 32 | 6 | −0.4 | 2 |
Mount St. Helens | United States | 1980 | 24 | 5 | no anomaly | 57 |
El Chichón | Mexico | 1982 | 32 | 5 | ? | >2,000 |
Nevado del Ruiz | Colombia | 1985 | 27 | 3 | no anomaly | 23,000 |
Mount Pinatubo | Philippines | 1991 | 34 | 6 | −0.5 | 1,202 |
Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai | Tonga | 2022 | 58 | 5–6 | ? | 6 |
Sources: Oppenheimer (2003),[3] and Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program[47] |
Global effects
The 1815 eruption released 10 to 120 million tons of
In the spring and summer of 1816, a persistent stratospheric sulfate
That year became the second-coldest year in the northern hemisphere since 1400,
This climate anomaly has been cited as a reason for the severity of the 1816–19 typhus epidemic in southeast Europe and the eastern Mediterranean.[3] In addition, large numbers of livestock died in New England during the winter of 1816–1817, while cool temperatures and heavy rains led to failed harvests in the British Isles. Families in Wales travelled long distances as refugees, begging for food. Famine was prevalent in north and southwest Ireland, following the failure of wheat, oat and potato harvests. The crisis was severe in Germany, where food prices rose sharply. Demonstrations at grain markets and bakeries, followed by riots, arson and looting, took place in many European cities. It was the worst famine of the 19th century.[3]
Culture
A human settlement obliterated by the Tambora eruption was discovered in 2004. That summer, a team led by
Based on the artifacts found, such as
The
The eruption is captured in latter-day folklore, which explains the cataclysm as divine retribution. A local ruler is said to have incurred the wrath of Allah by feeding dog meat to a hajji and killing him.[10] This is expressed in a poem written around 1830:
Bunyi bahananya sangat berjabuh |
Its noise reverberated loudly |
Ecosystem
A team led by the Swiss botanist Heinrich Zollinger arrived on Sumbawa in 1847. Zollinger sought to study the area of eruption and its effects on the local ecosystem. He was the first person after the eruption to ascend the summit, which was still covered by smoke. As Zollinger climbed, his feet sank several times through a thin surface crust into a warm layer of powder-like sulfur. Some vegetation had regrown, including trees on the lower slope. A Casuarina forest was noted at 2,200 to 2,550 metres (7,220 to 8,370 ft), while several Imperata cylindrica grasslands were also found.[57] In August 2015 a team of Georesearch Volcanedo Germany followed the way used by Zollinger and explored this way for the first time since 1847. Because of the length of the distance to be travelled on foot, the partly very high temperatures and the lack of water it was a particular challenge for the team of Georesearch Volcanedo.[58]
Resettlement of the area began in 1907, and a coffee plantation was established in the 1930s in the Pekat village on the northwestern slope.
An 1896 survey records 56 species of birds including the
A commercial
Exploration of the caldera floor
Zollinger (1847), van Rheden (1913) and W. A. Petroeschevsky (1947) could only observe the caldera floor from the crater rim. In 2013, a German research team (Georesearch Volcanedo Germany) for the first time carried out a longer expedition into this caldera, about 1300 m deep, and with the help of a native team climbed down the southern caldera wall, reaching the caldera floor while experiencing extreme conditions. The team stayed in the caldera for nine days. People had reached the caldera floor only in a few cases as the descent down the steep wall is difficult and dangerous, subject to earthquakes, landslides and rockfalls. Moreover, only relatively short stays on the caldera floor had been possible because of logistical problems, so that extensive studies had been impossible. The investigation program of Georesearch Volcanedo on the caldera floor included researching the visible effects of smaller eruptions which had taken place since 1815, gas measurements, studies of flora and fauna and measurement of weather data. Especially striking was the relatively high activity of Doro Api Toi ("Gunung Api Kecil" means "small volcano") in the southern part of the caldera and the gases escaping under high pressure on the lower north-east wall. Besides the team discovered near the Doro Api Toi a lavadome which had not yet been mentioned in scientific studies. The team called this new discovery "Adik Api Toi (Indonesian "adik": younger brother). Later this lavadome was called by the Indonesians "Doro Api Bou" ("new volcano"). This lavadome probably appeared in 2011/2012 when there was an increased seismic activity and probably volcanic activity on the caldera floor (there is no exact information about the caldera floor at that time). In 2014 the same research team carried out a further expedition into the caldera and set a new record: over 12 days the investigations of 2013 were continued.[58]
Monitoring
Indonesia's population has been increasing rapidly since the 1815 eruption. In 2020, the population of the country reached 270 million people, of which 56% concentrated on the island of Java.[62] An event as significant as the 1815 eruption would impact about eight million people.[63]
The directorate created a
Panorama
References
Notes
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- ^ Foden, 1979, p. 51
- ^ Foden, 1979, p. 56
- ^ Foden, 1979, p.60
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- ^ a b c d e f "Tambora: Eruptive History". Global Volcanism Program. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
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- ^ a b c d Raffles, S. (1830). Memoir of the life and public services of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, F.R.S. &c., particularly in the government of Java 1811–1816, and of Bencoolen and its dependencies 1817–1824: with details of the commerce and resources of the eastern archipelago, and selections from his correspondence (PDF). London: John Murray. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 August 2018. Retrieved 2 August 2018. Cited by Oppenheimer (2003)
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- ^ Zollinger (1855): Besteigung des Vulkans Tamboro auf der Insel Sumbawa und Schiderung der Eruption desselben im Jahren 1815, Winterthur: Zurcher and Fürber, Wurster and Co., cited by Oppenheimer (2003).
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Bibliography
- Foden, J.D. (1979). The petrology of some young volcanic rocks from Lombok and Sumbawa, Lesser Sunda Islands (PDF) (PhD thesis). University of Tasmania. pp. 1–306. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
External links
- "Indonesia Volcanoes and Volcanics". Cascades Volcano Observatory. USGS. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
- "Tambora, Sumbawa, Indonesia". Volcano World. Department of Geosciences at Oregon State University. Archived from the original on 2 July 2007. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
- WikiSatellite view at WikiMapia
- [https://www.google.com/maps/@-8.2487456,118.0387926,37841m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en google/docs