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Tying down eruption risk

Nature Geoscience volume 8, pages 248–250 (2015)Cite this article

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200 years after the eruption of Mount Tambora, the eruption volume remains poorly known, as is true for other volcanic eruptions over past millennia. We need better records of size and occurrence if we are to predict future large eruptions more accurately.

On 10 April 1815, the volcano Mount Tambora, on Sumbawa Island in Indonesia, erupted violently. The event was the most disastrous volcanic eruption in recent history. More than 60,000 deaths on Sumbawa and neighbouring islands alone are attributed to the eruption1. But the worldwide suffering and deaths (caused indirectly) continued into the following year as a result of volcanic-induced cooling. This fatality approximation must therefore be an underestimate.

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Figure 1: The Tambora caldera.

R. GERTISSER

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stephen Self is in the Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA,

    Stephen Self

  2. Ralf Gertisser is in the School of Physical and Geographical Sciences, Keele University, Keele ST5 5BG, UK,

    Ralf Gertisser

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  2. Ralf Gertisser
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Correspondence to Stephen Self.

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Self, S., Gertisser, R. Tying down eruption risk. Nature Geosci 8, 248–250 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2403

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