T A M B O R A

"Then the dark turns more than that night, then it sounds like the sound of a war cannon, then it goes down the grit of stone and ashes in the pour, the duration of three days and two nights" Bo'Sangajai Kai, The Broken Address of Mount Tambora, April 1815.

It's different from the spring of 1815 in the sky of Europe. Weather unnatural happened, marked by heavy rain accompanied by storm. Typically, the rain let alone accompanied by a storm is not encountered again when going into the spring-rich spring.

At the same time, on 18 June 1815, was an important battle for Napoleon who represented the French Empire against five European imperial coalitions. The fierce battle that is located in Waterloo is then so the final round of Napoleon Bonaparte's gait. His troops were defeated. Among a series of war losing analyzes, one of the culprits was the extreme weather sticking out.

John Tarttelin's "Napoleon, The Tambora Eruption and Waterloo" note also called Napoleon's troops portrayed as deeply distracted by the torrential rains, and they were forced to postpone the trip to Waterloo. Meanwhile, the Prussian army continues to hit the storm to reach Waterloo first.

Regardless of Napoleon's defeat, the extreme weather that is engulfing the earth is the result of the eruption of a volcano that now lies part of Sumbawa Island, Mount Tambora.

Thomas Stamford Raffles who had ruled Java since 1811 recorded the events of such devastating eruptions in his memory.

He recorded the first eruption sounded until Java on the afternoon of April 5 and every 15 minutes continued to be heard until the following days. At first, this sound was considered the sound of a cannon until a detachment of soldiers moved from Yogyakarta, assuming the nearest post was being attacked.

Boats on the coast were also mobilized by local officials. They interpreted the sound of the thump as a signal for help from a partner ship at sea and needed to be rescued immediately. This rumbling sound is not only heard up to Java, but also up to Ternate and Maluku. This eruption continues to occur and increasingly larger.

The most devastating thing happened at seven o'clock on the morning of 10 April. The report compiled by William & Nicholas Klingaman titled "Tambora Erupts in 1815 and Changes World History" mentions almost all of the mountain's abdominal contents spewed up, magma, ashes emitting, and molten rocks shooting in all directions. Lasting approximately an hour, so much ash and dust is thrown in the uadara to cover the view of the mountain.

Referring back to the records of Thomas Stamford Raffles, the powerful eruption of 10 April 1815 was heard all the way to Sumatra.

On the scale of volcanic eruption, Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI), the Tambora eruption occupies the VEI 7 or the second highest of the VEI 8 peak. According to Volcano Discovery, about 50 to 150 cubic kilometers of magma exit from the earth's belly through Tambora which produces a colossal dome nearly 40 to 50 kilometers of it brings a lot of ash in the sky.

Due to the eruption of this eruption, Tambora mountain which was originally towering as high as 4300 mdpl become trimmed until remaining as high as 21772 mdpl. The explosion was heard up to 2,600 kilometers away, and the ashes fell at least as far as 1,300 kilometers.

On the slopes of Tambora, there are three kingdoms listed: Tambora Kingdom, Sanggar Kingdom, and the Concrete Kingdom that are all destroyed by the Tambora eruption. The kingdom of Bima itself recorded the events of this mahadahsyat as embodied in the ancient manuscripts Bo Sangaji Kai.

On the peak of the eruption that occurred on April 10, the tsunami also hit various islands in Indonesia as a result of the eruption of Tambora. Recorded, in the Sanggar tsunami area struck as high as 4 meters, in Besuki East Java tsunami as high as 2 meters occurred before midnight, also in the Maluku Islands. U.S. Geological Survey recorded an estimated death toll of as many as 4600 inhabitants.

For Earth, Tambora eruption impacts global climate change due to sulfur dioxide which also releases into the stratosphere layer. The spring of 1815 was disturbed by the dust and womb brought by the wind to shift into the skies of Europe, America, and others.

Clive Oppenheimer in his article entitled "Climatic, Environmental and Human Consequences of the Largest known Historic Eruption: Tambora Volcano (Indonesia) 1815" called the dry haze seen from the northeastern United States. This continued until the summer of 1815. In the northern hemisphere, extreme weather events occurred until the so-called "Year Without Summer" in 1816, as Europe became dark.

Global temperatures decreased by about 0.4 to 0.7 degrees Celsius due to the dry haze that enveloped the earth. Agriculture that should have sun exposure in the spring to crop failures in India and an outbreak of cholera in Bengal in 1816. Typhus invaded the eastern and southeastern Mediterranean between 1816 and 1819.

Failed to harvest because of the cold temperatures and heavy rains hit the UK and Ireland. Famine is evenly distributed in northern and southwest Ireland due to crop failure of wheat, oats, and potatoes. Germany hit by crisis: food prices rise due to scarcity. Demonstrations became a common sight in front of markets and bakeries, followed by riots, arsons, and looting that made Europe the worst hunger of the 19th century.

Referring to Oppenheimer's research, the number of direct deaths in the region around Tambora as well as indirectly as a widespread impact worldwide reaches 71,000 inhabitants. Anthony Reid's report on the 200th anniversary of the eruption of Tambora shows the death toll to even 100,000.

Of the greatest recorded eruptions throughout modern history, many world historical events were born. Including the invention of bicycles in America and France due to the death of the horses, to the iconic Austrian Nights of Austria by Christmas Eve.

Today, the caldera formed in Mount Tambora is the largest active caldera in the world. The area around the slopes of Tambora also became the center of archaeological research related to the burial of three kingdoms at once and now Mount Tambora is prescribed as NATIONAL PARK since 11 April 2015.