In the evening of 5 April 1815 the lieutenant governor of Java, Sir Stamford Raffles, instructed two boats in Batavia (the present Jakarta) to go to the Java sea because incredible explosions were heard (they thought a ship was in danger).
Later on it became clear that the eruption of Mount Tambora had caused the loud noise.
A total of 10,000 people on Sumbawa and the islands around it were killed. Thereafter 82,000 people died from starvation and diseases (a cholera epidemic broke out). A big part of Sumbawa was covered with a 1.5 m deep layer of ash. The sea around the island was strewn with dead trees and big pumice stones (a light, brittle and spongy volcanian stone) were floating around. A week later when the heavy eruption had come to an end, Tambora was no longer 4,500 m high but only 2,850.
So....Imagine a thriving island community of 10,000 or more people and on the outskirts, another 70,000 people. Then imagine that wondrous mountain outside your front door that you have looked at lovingly for so many years.
Now imagine in one instant that mountain exploding with the fury of the Gods and in another few minutes those 80,000 lives with their histories and stories and their very souls....All destroyed.
How awful.
Buried since the early 1800s, scientists and explorers believe they have found such a place that was indeed buried by a volcanic eruption back then.
Mount Tambora was supposedly the biggest volcanic eruption in recorded history and far outweighs even the historically massive volcano that destroyed Pompeii.
The story below even tells how this eruption affected the world for a time with some people calling that summer "The year without a summer".
Click on the link for more on this story....
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