Towering inferno: How volcanoes could trigger a year without SUMMER

IF you are concerned that you have never visited an active volcano, don’t worry; history teaches us that before long one could be on its way to you.

Volcano ALAMY

Two hundred years ago the colossal Tambora eruption in Indonesia killed more than 70,000 people

This month marks the 200th anniversary of the greatest known volcanic explosion in the historical record, and brings a warning that another huge blast could be imminent.

In April 1815, the Tambora volcano, on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa, tore itself apart in a cataclysmic eruption that loaded the atmosphere with sun-shielding sulphur gases and brought bitterly cold weather to the UK and Europe, half a world away.

Now scientists are keeping a careful eye on a clutch of long dormant but restless volcanoes across the planet that may present a similar threat, to provide us with advance warning of the next big bang.

Most volcanologists would agree with the maxim “the longer the wait, the bigger the bang”.

In other words, volcanoes that have been quiet for centuries, or even millennia, often announce their emergence from slumber with a huge explosion.

Of the 20 biggest eruptions since 1800, half occurred at volcanoes that had lain dormant throughout the historical period.

Prior to its climactic blast two centuries ago, Tambora itself had only erupted once in the previous 5,000 years or so, and had lain silent for close on a millennium.

Before the 1815 eruption sliced off its top 1,805ft, Tambora was the highest peak in the East Indies, towering 2.7 miles above the Java Sea.

While it was impossible to miss, it is possible that those living in the mountain’s shadow did not even know that the peak was a volcano, such was the absence of any sign that magma lurked within.

This all changed in 1812, when swarms of small earthquakes heralded its awakening.

Minor activity continued for three years, probably lulling the inhabitants into a false sense of security.

Then on April 5 a colossal explosion blasted a column of ash 19 miles high, bringing hours of pitch darkness.

Sir Stamford Raffles, at the time British Lieutenant Governor of Java, wrote that the detonation was mistaken for cannon fire by the British garrison on Java.

There could, however, be no misinterpreting Tambora’s next move.

After five days of relative calm, the volcano blew itself apart in a climactic blast that sent a great tower of ash to the edge of space and obliterated all life from the surrounding area, as hurricane force flows of scalding gas and burning ash scoured its flanks.

When the sun finally broke through the ashy blackness weeks later, it revealed a blasted landscape above which loomed a decapitated peak topped by a gigantic crater into which the City of London would fit with room to spare.

About 12,000 men, women and children were incinerated but in the following months a further 60,000 or so residents of Sumbawa and neighbouring islands succumbed to starvation and disease, their crops buried under ash and their water contaminated.

Eruptions on this scale are also capable of affecting lands much further afield.

While the ash and debris confined itself to the islands of the East Indies, the 200 million tonnes of sulphur particles injected into the stratosphere by the blast bloomed outwards to enclose the planet in a sun-blocking shield that sent temperatures tumbling.

In Europe, crops failed as the Year Without A Summer brought the second coldest summer in six centuries.

Two hundred years on and Tambora continues to behave itself.

Eruptions on this scale, however, appear to happen every few hundred years, so it would be no great surprise if another climate altering blast exploded on to the scene in the near-to-medium term.

Certainly, there are plenty of potential future Tamboras. In Chile, there is the Laguna del Maule volcano, in neighbouring Bolivia the Uturuncu volcano, and nearer to home the Alban Hills volcano, just 19 miles east of Rome, has recently shown the first signs of restlessness for more than 30,000 years.

Perhaps future volcano weather will send food prices through the roof and restrict availability, or perhaps we might struggle to maintain sufficient supplies for the country.

Maybe now is as good a time as any to splash out on that job lot of cheap baked beans.

Bill McGuire is Professor Emeritus of Geophysical & Climate Hazards at UCL.

His latest book is Waking the Giant: How A Changing Climate Triggers Earthquakes, Tsunamis and Volcanoes (OUP).

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