Why a volcanic eruption caused a "year without summer" in 1816

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In April 1815, Mount Tambora exploded during a powerful eruption that killed tens of thousands of people on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa. The following year became "the year without summer", when exceptionally cold and wet conditions swept across Europe and North America.

Since 1913, researchers have suggested that both events were linked. Now, a new study shows that the low summer temperatures of 1816 would not have been possible without the volcanic eruption. Research published Tuesday in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

The immediate effects of the volcano resulted in massive destruction. The eruption, the resulting flows and subsequent tsunamis destroyed houses and killed 10,000 people. 80,000 more died as a result of an illness that spread later.

"The eruption of Mount Tambora in April 1815 was one of the most explosive of the last millennium," said Andrew Schurer, lead author of the study and research associate at the School of Geosciences of the University of Edinburgh. "This has had a huge impact at the local level, devastating the island of Sumbawa."

The huge amount of material ejected by the volcano contributed to the global impact that followed.

Water was found for the first time on Kilauea volcano in Hawaii and could cause explosive eruptions.

"The blowout injected a huge amount of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere, which would have spread rapidly around the world, oxidizing it to form sulfate aerosols," Schurer said. "These volcanic aerosols reduce the net radiation of shortwave waves, resulting in widespread and long-lasting surface cooling, as well as reducing global precipitation, while moistening some dry areas and causing dynamic changes in the large-scale circulation of the surface. the ocean and the atmosphere. "

The global temperature has dropped between one and three degrees Celsius. According to the study, it was the coldest year of the last 250 years. Each season had temperature anomalies, but summer was the most drastic change, the coldest summer temperature recorded for Europe between 1766 and 2000.

In the summer of 1816, cold and wet conditions of central and western Europe and even North America resulted in crop failures, livestock deaths and famine. New England saw the snow and "kill the frost". The cloud cover kept the skies gloomy. It was called "the last major subsistence crisis in the western world".

Previous research has even suggested that heavy clouds and eruptive precipitation contributed to Napoleon's defeat in Waterloo three months later in Belgium.

Schurer and his colleagues used early data and climate models to determine the effect of the volcanic eruption. They compared the data with other years with similar pressure models at sea level.

In similar years, rainfall was comparable, but not cold temperatures. When the volcano was introduced into the scenario, a stage called volcanic forcing, scientists were able to replicate the summer of 1816.

"The inclusion of volcanic forcing in climate models can explain cooling, and we estimate that it increases the probabilities of extremely cold temperatures up to 100 times," Schurer said. "The simulations of the model clearly show that the volcanic eruption increases from about 1.5 to three times the odds of a summer as humid in central Europe.And without volcanic forcing, it is less likely that It has been so humid and very improbable been so cold. "

Agricultural failure was widespread during this period and the price of food jumped. This also increased the price of oats for horses, which were the main source of transportation at the time, according to the National Center for Atmospheric Research. This was credited with helping to inspire the invention of the bike by Karl Drais in 1817.

The summer or the absence of this event in 1816 also inspired something else: Gothic tales.

Lord Byron, Claire Clairmont, John William Polidori, Percy Shelley and Mary Godwin (before her wedding with Shelley) stayed in a villa overlooking Lake Geneva in Switzerland. But the weather in their idyllic setting was dark.

During one of their discussions, Byron suggested each member of the group worried about writing a ghost story to share. In a few weeks, Godwin had written "Frankenstein", Byron had written his poem "Darkness" and Polidori had written his short story, "The Vampyre".

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