Mt. Tambora Sumbawa
A big vulcano that erupted in the 19th century
The paroxysmal eruption of Mt. Tambora on the island of Sumbawa in April 1815 – despite having triggered a world wide historic event – is astonishingly neglected in studies of volcanic activity. The world wide event referred to was the so-called "Year without a Summer" - the exceptionally cold months of 1816. In addition to this, Mt. Tambora's eruption far-eclipsed in violence and ejecta the more famous eruption of Krakatau (Krakatoa) in 1883, which also had an impact on the world's weather.
Though disappointing, the reason for part of this neglect is not hard to find. There exist few contemporary records of the eruption and what there is has seen little reprinting in modern works. Nonetheless, enough data is now available that a more definitive study can and should be undertaken. The intent of this posting is to synthesize and integrate what is available and hopefully inspire further investigation.
Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, later founder of
Singapore, was at the time of the eruption serving as Lt. Governor of Java,
based at his capital in Batavia. He had occupied this post since September 1911,
a month after the British had wrested Batavia from control of Napoleon's France.
Having heard of the great human distress and disastrous phenomena accompanying
the outbreak, he gave orders that British residents gather information and
report if possible to him on the effects of the eruption On April 18, Lt. Owen
Phillips was dispatched with a shipload of rice for relief to the disaster zone.
It is from Phillips' findings, and Raffles subsequent submission of his report
to the Natural Historical Society of Batavia in September 1815 that we learn
after-the-fact of the details of the eruption. It is important to note that no
native accounts save one are known to survive, and the character and form of the
eruption must be reconstructed "retroactively" working backwards from the
Raffles report and the physical aftermath on the islands. With this challenge in
mind, we proceed.
The eruption Even allowing for the scant documention, the
characteristic about the eruption that immediately jumps out at the researcher
is its terrifying speed and brevity. When this is contrasted with its stupendous
scale and effects, the event becomes a singularly sobering and daunting one.
Perhaps only the Mt. Tarawera eruption of 1886 in New Zealand compares in modern
times for sheer suddenness and destructive force of eruption. A word of
explanation is in order here. Though such celebrated eruptions as Krakatau, Mt.
St. Helens, Mt. Pelee, and more recently El Chichon and Pinatubo, capture the
public eye and respect, all of those powerful eruptions had fairly lengthy
eruptive sequences. In short, for those with mind to do so, there was ample time
if not always means to vacate the danger zone. With Tarawera it was
different---in 1886 in the space of one night a triple peak mountain range near
Lake Rotomahana suddenly split open and erupted. Literally some 4,000 people who
had gone to their beds that evening would never again wake up. Such a disastrous
and only slightly less deadly suddenness accompanied the Tambora
eruption.
The Setting Almost nothing is reliably known about the form and
history of Mt. Tambora prior to the 1815 eruption. (Some indication of the lack
of exploration of the region is gained by noting that the famous Komodo Dragons
on the adjacent island of Komodos were only discovered in 1911!). However,
mountains being what they are, the remnants tell a great deal to the expert eye.
Although the top of the mountain collapsed in 1815, what still stands is unusual
and provocative in its features. According to the best available evidence,
before the eruption Mt. Tambora was a volcanic cone 4,000 meters high and 60
kilometers in diameter at sea level; densely blanketed in forest. It is reported
to have originally had two summits, and there were several parasitic cones on
the east and northeast slopes. What is unusual is that studies indicate that in
its first phase of activity Tambora was a shield volcano, not unlike those of
Iceland or Hawaii. Later, a bedded cone was built up on top of this, possibly
the result of a change in the composition of the magma. The mountain, which may
well have begun life as an island separate from Sumbawa, in time rose to
dominate a peninsula joining it to Sumbawa on the southwest flank. By the time
the Europeans came to occupy Sumbawa in the 18th century Mt. Tambora had lapsed
into a deep dormancy. This state of affairs continued for a decade more into the
19th century. Then the volcanic energies once again burst forth.
At the time of the Tambora eruption, some
140,000 natives were reported to be living on Sumbawa. Sumbawa is long vaguely
rectangular island running nearly from west to east. About a third the way from
the eastern end, on the north side, a large peninsula projects northwestward
like the trigger of a gun. But this trigger belonged to a cannon capable of
force like no general of the age could ever have imagined. For it is on this
penninsula, the Sanggar Peninsula, that Mt. Tambora stands. Scattered around in
1815 some 12, 000 people lived in a handful of villages and towns clustered on
the peninsula of Tambora. Forty miles to the eastward, a small British
contingent headed by a Resident resided at the village port of Bima, the capital
of the European colonists. Bima was located beside Bima Bay, a deep indentation
in the northern side of the east end of Sumbawa, and about 40 miles east of
Tambora's peninsula.
Though some mild spewings of ash were alleged to have occurred at the summit in the spring of 1814, the first real and almost only warnings were a rolling succession of deep shocks through the Dutch East Indies on the evening of April 5. In Dutch Macassar the warship Benares of the East India Company lay at anchor, the officers and crew perturbed by what seemed to be a naval battle taking place just over the horizon to the south. As dusk neared, the barrage seemed closer, with heavy artillery seemingly sprinkled with intermitent rifle volleys; just then a detachment of troops arrived aboard, and the Benares was ordered to put to sea to investigate. But they found nothing nor the source of the "cannonade", although they remained at sea for three days. In the words of a modern author, "that was just as well. For if they had, there was nothing they, nor all the troops and ships in the world, could have done about it." Indeed, for their quarry was no pirate over the horizon: but more than 200 miles south, and what was fast becoming the most explosive eruption of recorded history.
With sunrise on April 6 light ashes began falling on Batavia. The sun became obscured in the skies over Java, "having the appearance of being enveloped in a fog. The weather was sultry and the atmosphere close, and still the sun seemed shorn of its rays, and the general stillness and pressure of the atmosphere seemed to forebode an earthquake. This lasted several days." Oddly enough, the rumblings and explosions – though they continued – now seemed to come less frequently and with less noise. The Europeans were perplexed and concerned, but some of the Java natives, however, were delighted: priests declared with confidence and satisfaction that the thunder and dark was the sign that the gods of the mountains were coming forth to free the island from foreign rule. However as the ash fall grew and persisted, while the rumblings and explosions continued, all those in-the-know now realized it must be a volcanic outbreak, and the speculation was that Merapi, Kelut, or Bromo was the likely culprit. With the cause if not the source of the disturbance identified, the Europeans at least became less concerned and ceased to pay much attention to it, for this volcanic outbreak was not yet "considered of greater importance than those which have occasionally burst forth in Java".
I,M SUNNY RED JACKET WE ARE AT SUMMIT OF Mt TAMBORA, i DO GUIDE TO Mt TAMBORA FOR Mr ,Alex Cohan USA and Ms,Natalie at mt Tambora on April 2007 Great Mountain
This educated complacency abruptly shattered on
April 10. As if rebuking their hubris, as the afternoon came, suddenly the roar
and detonations like blasting gravel and cannon renwed, even stronger than
before, and this time a truly menacing and darkened cloud of ash billowed over
from the east. This time it was even greater than before, so that the sun was
almost blotted out. In the eastern part of Java, the situation was even more
severe. At Solo and Rembang some reported small and continuous earthquakes, and
the explosions were tremendous, booming frequently through the 11th with such
violence as to shake the houses noticeably. And still the might of the
detonations only increased, and the . Once again the priests sang with joy that
liberation was at hand, and even some of the Europeans now felt fear and
concern. What was happening? None of the suspected volcanoes were known to be in
eruption, and yet almost 2,500 miles of island chain was being rocked by
cataclysmic quakes. Not a few must have contemplated the fate of Pompeii and
Herculaneum---buried by Vesuvius in AD. 79 – but there was little anyone could
do but wait. These were the conditions on Java and neighboring islands as dusk
approached on April 10. But for those living on the peninsula upon which Tambora
stood, matters would grow much worse this night. For in the late afternoon of
the 10th Mt. Tambora in fact entered paroxysmal eruption and would inflict a
devastation that would leave precious few survivors to tell the tale.
| Route | Duration | What We'll Found There |
| Pancasila Village - Pos I | 1 Hours | At Pos I, there are basecamp and spring water |
| Pos I - Pos II | 1 Hours | Pos II, there we'll found a small river |
| Pos II - Pos III | 3 Hours | Accross tropical forest straight to Pos II, there we'll found spring water |
| Pos III - Pos IV | 1 Hours | Tropical Forest |
| Pos IV - Pos V | 30 min | Tropical Forest |
| Pos V - Crater Rim | 2 Hours | Accros tropical forest to Edelweis vegetation and desert. |
| Crater Rim - Peak | 1,5 Hours | Accross desert |
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