On January 15, meteorological satellites captured a violent volcanic eruption in the Tonga Archipelago in the South Pacific, a thrilling scene that was clearly visible on the cloud map animation – the most intense eruption, a large amount of gas wrapped in smoke and dust to form a huge cloud visible in space, even overshadowing the momentum of the tropical cyclone that was active in the south. Some analysts believe that this eruption is likely to reach the level of VEI6 in the volcanic eruption index, which means that it may be one of the strongest volcanic eruptions in the world since Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991.
The Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) is a scale proposed in 1982 by Professor Chris Newhall of the United States Geological Survey and Stephen Cerf of the University of Hawaii at Manoa to measure the intensity of eruptions by volume, volcanic clouds, and qualitative observations. The volcanic eruption index uses an open scale, with the largest volcanic eruption in history having a magnitude of 8 and a non-explosive eruption of magnitude 0, with each increase of 1 magnitude in the index indicating that the eruption is 10 times more powerful. According to the Volcanic Eruption Intensity Index (VEI), the eruption of Iceland in 2010, which paralyzed flights in many parts of Europe with a large amount of volcanic ash, was only level 4; it is conceivable how much impact volcanic eruptions of level 5 and above will cause. Fortunately, strong volcanic eruptions of magnitude 5 and above are rare on Earth, with a total of 11 since the 19th century, including 6 at level 5, 4 at level 6, and once at level 7.
On April 5, 1815, a huge rumbling sound resounded through the sky in Jakarta, Indonesia, and a few days later, a column of volcanic ash smoke obscured the sky in the east, which was the awakening of Mount Tambora on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa, and this eruption was the most powerful volcanic eruption since the 19th century, with a volcanic eruption index of up to 7, which belonged to the super pliny eruption, releasing more than 100 billion cubic meters of material.
This ferocious volcanic eruption, which sent a large amount of aerosol into the stratosphere of the earth, spread rapidly across the globe, even as far as the north and south poles, leaving traces of sulfates in the ice layer of the Antarctic, and even the volcanic particles in the high atmosphere also created a spectacular sunset scene, and in many paintings at that time, the artists vividly described the amazing red sky in the evening with paintbrushes.
But the effects of the strongest volcanic eruption since the 19th century went far beyond that, with volcanic particles eventually obscuring sunlight in the stratosphere, causing a global cooling and a host of climatic anomalies — in June 1816, when a snowstorm struck upstate New York at what was supposed to begin early summer. In July and August of that year, farms in New England were fatally damaged by frost. In China, when it was the Jiaqing period, the county history of Pengze County, Jiangxi Province, recorded that "the north wind was cold in late June, especially on the night of the twenty-ninth day, and the snow was seen in Jiudu and Haoshan in the next morning", that is to say, the north wind was still cold in late June of the lunar calendar, and even snow was seen in some parts of the next day. Therefore, this phenomenon is called the "year without summer", in this year without summer, abnormal weather, crop yield reduction, famine, plague ravaged in many parts of the world, New England said that 1816 was the "year of freezing to death", germans said that 1817 was "the year of the beggar".
The anomalies caused by the volcanoes that year also had a profound impact on culture —not only countless paintings on the subject of eerie sunsets, scorching suns, and blizzards, but also two broad categories of gothic novels: Frankenstein's monsters and humanoid vampires, which still play an important role in the world of art and literature today. It can be said that an Asian volcano near the equator, more than thousands of kilometers away from other continents, has brought cold, hunger and chaos to the world.
Today, Tambora Volcano Park has been built here, which can be used for hiking and camping. Of course, today's Mount Tambora is still closely monitored for volcanic activity because it did not completely lose its vitality after the destructive eruption of 1815, and if there were another powerful eruption, it might at least endanger millions of Indonesians.