Mount Tambora Volcano As Seen From Orbit

Mount Tambora Volcano, Sumbawa Island in Indonesia is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 20 crew member on the International Space Station. On April 10, 1815 the Tambora volcano produced the largest eruption in history. An estimated 150 cubic kilometers of tephra — exploded rock and ash — was produced, with ash from the eruption recognized at least 1,300 kilometers away to the northwest.

Mount Tambora Volcano, Sumbawa Island in Indonesia is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 20 crew member on the International Space Station. On April 10, 1815 the Tambora volcano produced the largest eruption in history. An estimated 150 cubic kilometers of tephra — exploded rock and ash — was produced, with ash from the eruption recognized at least 1,300 kilometers away to the northwest. While the April 10 eruption was catastrophic, historical records and geological analysis of eruption deposits indicate that the volcano had been active between 1812 and 1815. Enough ash was input into the atmosphere from the April 10 eruption to reduce incident sunlight on Earth’s surface and cause global cooling, resulting in the 1816 “year without a summer”.

This detailed photograph depicts the summit caldera of the volcano. The huge caldera — six kilometers in diameter and 1,100 meters deep — formed when Tambora’s estimated 4,000 meter-high peak was removed, and the magma chamber below emptied, during the April 10 eruption. Today the crater floor is occupied by an ephemeral fresh-water lake, recent sedimentary deposits, and minor lava flows and domes emplaced during the 19th and 20th centuries. Layered tephra deposits are visible along the northwestern crater rim. Active fumaroles, or steam vents, are still present within the caldera. In 2004 scientists discovered the remains of a village and two adults buried under approximately three meters of ash in a gully on Tambora’s flank – remnants of the former Kingdom of Tambora preserved by the 1815 eruption that destroyed it.

The similarity of the Tambora remains to those associated with the 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius has led to the site being called “the Pompeii of the East.” high res (0.9 M) low res (60 K)