Mount Tambora Erupts

April 10, 1815

Tambora, on the island of Sumbawa in the Dutch East Indies, exploded with a force that dwarfed any eruption in recorded history. Seventy thousand people died immediately from pyroclastic flows and tsunamis. The ash veil circled the globe, producing the 'Year Without a Summer' in 1816 - crop failures from New England to Yunnan, famine, and cholera.