Tambora Volcano

Updated: Apr 13, 2025 10:46 GMT - refresh

stratovolcano

Sumbawa (Indonesia), -8.25°S / 118°E

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Summit height: 2850 m / 9,350 ft

Current status: normal or dormant (1 out of 5)

Last update: 14 Dec 2021

The large caldera of Tambora volcano seen from the air

On 10 April 1815, Tambora produced the largest eruption known on the planet during the past 10,000 years. The volcano erupted more than 50 cubic kilometers of magma. Caldera collapse at the end of the eruption destroyed 30 km3 of the mountain and formed a 6 km wide and 1250 m deep caldera.
FLoating islands of pumice 3 miles long were observed in April 1815, and even 4 years later, these islands still hindered navigation.
The eruption produced global climatic effects and killed more than 100,000 people, directly and indirectly. Minor lava domes and flows have been extruded on the caldera floor at Tambora during the 19th and 20th centuries.

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News/Updates | Earthquakes | Images

Typical eruption style: Explosive
Tambora volcano eruptions: 1967, 1880, 1812-15 (largest known eruption in historic times, VEI 7)

Latest nearby earthquakes

Date and Time	Mag / Depth	Distance / Location
Apr 11, 11:29 pm (GMT +8)	2.6 11 km	16 km (9.8 mi) to the N	Bima Regency, 68 km northwest of Dompu, Indonesia I FELT IT	Info
Thursday, April 10, 2025 GMT (1 quake)
Apr 11, 06:39 am (Makassar)	3.4 29 km	26 km (16 mi) to the W	Dompu Regency, 51 km northeast of Sumbawa Besar, Indonesia I FELT IT	Info
Friday, April 4, 2025 GMT (2 quakes)
Apr 4, 04:50 pm (Universal Time)	2.0 15 km	30 km (18 mi) to the NW	Flores Sea, 63 km northeast of Sumbawa Besar, Indonesia	Info
Apr 4, 06:02 am (Universal Time)	2.1 20 km	16 km (9.8 mi) to the S	51 km west of Dompu, Dompu Regency, West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia	Info
Thursday, April 3, 2025 GMT (1 quake)
Apr 4, 03:56 am (Makassar)	3.8 19 km	29 km (18 mi) to the W	Flores Sea, 40 km northeast of Sumbawa Besar, Indonesia	Info
Tuesday, April 1, 2025 GMT (4 quakes)
Apr 1, 11:25 pm (Universal Time)	2.3 10 km	27 km (17 mi) to the SW	Flores Sea, 42 km east of Sumbawa Besar, Indonesia	Info
Apr 2, 05:25 am (Makassar)	4.0 10 km	26 km (16 mi) to the W	Dompu Regency, 44 km northeast of Sumbawa Besar, Indonesia	Info
Apr 1, 04:59 pm (Makassar)	3.7 10 km	27 km (16 mi) to the W	Dompu Regency, 45 km northeast of Sumbawa Besar, Indonesia	Info
Apr 1, 10:16 am (Makassar)	4.8 10 km	26 km (16 mi) to the W	Dompu Regency, 44 km northeast of Sumbawa Besar, Indonesia 2 reports	Info

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Background

The massive Tambora stratovolcano forms the entire 60-km-wide Sanggar Peninsula on northern Sumbawa Island. The volcano originally grew to about 4000 m elevation before a major explosion destroyed its summit and left a pre-1815 caldera more than 43,000 years ago. Lava flows had largely filled the early caldera by about 10,000 years ago, before its activity changed to dominantly explosive eruptions, culminating in the 1815 eruption.

The eruption in 1815 emptied about 50-150 cubic km of magma and measures 7 on the VEI scale. It produced a giant plinian eruption column, which is estimated to have reached more 40-50 km altitude, ejecting large amounts of ash and aerosols into the stratosphere.
Pyroclastic flows reached the sea on all sides of the peninsula, and heavy tephra fall devastated croplands, causing an estimated 60,000 fatalities. Entire villages were buried under thick pumice deposits. Some of the settlements have recently been brought back to light by archaeological excavations, making the site a "Pompeii of Indonesia". Large tsunamis with wave heights of 10 or more meters might have occurred.
While the death toll of people living on Sumbawa and surrounding coastal areas was high enough, even more fatalities can be attributed to the indirect effect of global climate deterioration after the eruption. These changes turned 1816 into the "year without a summer" for much of Europe, causing widespread famine. It is estimated that it caused the death of over 100,000 people.
The reason for the climatic changes was increased absorption of sunlight due to a veil of aerosols (consisting mostly of tiny droplets of H2SO3 acid, formed by SO2 release) that were dispersed around both hemispheres by stratospheric currents from the tall eruption column. Global temperatures dropped by as much as 3 deg C in 1816 and recovered during the following years.
It is also believed that the eruption produced tsunamis with waves possibly as high as 10 meters.

Tambora Volcano Photos

The summit caldera of Tambora volcano (Sumbawa Island, Indonesia), formed during the 1815 eruption (Photo: ThomasH)

The mightly caldera of Tambora volcano - the site of the largest known historic volcanic explosion in the world: the volcano was decapitated during its violent explosion ...

The summit caldera of Tambora volcano (Sumbawa Island, Indonesia), formed during the 1815 eruption (Photo: ThomasH)

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Significant volcanic eruptions: Tambora volcano

In the past 10,000 years, Tambora has had at least 7 confirmed volcanic eruptions, out of which 4 are documented by historical records, while the others can be inferred from geological evidence.

The table below lists all known eruptions (date in bold face) of Tambora volcano in historic times and during the past 10,000 years. Updates on the most recent volcanic activity of Tambora can be found on the news page of Tambora volcano.

Date	Note	VEI	Deaths	Damage
1967 ±20 y.	NE part of caldera floor Historical obs./docs.	0
1880 ±30 y.	SW part of caldera (Doro Afi Toi) Historical obs./docs.	2
1819 Aug	Historical obs./docs.	2
1812 - 1815 Jul 15 ?	Historical obs./docs.	7
1815 Apr 10 (eruption 1812 - 1815 Jul 15 ?)	Tsunami recorded Historical obs./docs.	7	60,000	very heavy	Info
1815 Apr 10: Reference #2990, p. 10-11, p. 933: In Sumbawa, 10,000 people were killed in the pyroclastic flows. The ashfall was focused on the west coast and in Lombok and Bali, the ash was so thick that many people were killed immediately when the roofs of their homes collapsed due to the weight of the ash. The blanket of ash fallout on Sumbawa destroyed all crops, resulting in famine immediately after the eruption. These effects were not restricted to Sumbawa as famine and disease brought about by the eruption was severe on distant islands as well. On Lombok, estimates of the death toll ranged from 44,000 to 100,000 and on Bali at least 25,000. A conservative number of deaths from the eruption and subsequent famine and disease is 117,000. The eruption emitted large quantities of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere which caused 1816 to be termed "the year without summer." As average temperatures fell 1 to 2.5 degrees C below normal throughout New England and western Europe. News of this distant eruption in Indonesia did not reach the Western world for some time, but unusual atmospheric phenomena and climate deterioration set in during 1816"the year without summer." ...Tambora-size (ca 100 km3 of magna) explosive volcanic eruptions emit large quantities of sulfur dioxide gas into the stratosphere, where it is converted into a sulfuric acid aerosol dust veil that encircles the Earth. The aerosol has the effect of reducing solar heat reaching the surface of the planet, leading to global cooling. Strange atmospheric phenomena had been observed in Europe before the summer of 1816. In May 1815 the sunsets in England were exceptionally colorful, and by September the sky seemed to be on fire every evening. But the spectacular skies brought bad weather the following year, and the year 1816 is the worst on record in Europe, with the mean temperature about 3 deg C below average across the entire continent from Britain in the north to Tunisia in the south. In England the summer was miserable, with the mean temperature for June the lowest on record, or 12.9 deg C. In France it was so cold that the wine harvest was later than at any time since record keeping began--delayed until November in those districts where the grapes were not already frozen on the vine. In Germany crops failed, a situation exacerbated by the war with Napoleon, and famine and price inflation were widespread. Conditions in Germany became so intolerable that people in many districts rioted and set off in search of better living conditions, starting the great migration from northern Europe east to Russia and west to America. The severe weather in fact led to crop failure of all the major crops in Europe and doubling of the price of wheat from 1815 to 1817. When we consider than in the early part of the 19th century agriculture was the mainstay of society, it is clear that the climate change had a strong impact on the economy of the western world. Reference #2432: VEI 7, Tephra Volume: 1.6x 10¹¹ m³. Reference #9675 Approximately 11,000 direct deaths from bomb impacts, tephra falls, and tsunamis; recent work indicates pyroclastic flows reached all but W coast and probably caused most direct fatalities on Sumbawa. Indirect effects: An estimated 49,000 persons died of famine and disease on Sumbawa and Lombok islands following the eruption. This replaces an earlier estimate of 82,000. Cited references #132 Heck, N.H. (1947): List of seismic sea waves. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, vol. 37, no. 4, p. 269-286. #1412 Simkin, Tom, and Lee Siebert with the collaboration of Russell Blong, Jonathan Dehn, Christopher Newhall, Roland Pool, and Thomas C. Stein (1994): Volcanoes of the World, Second Edition, A Regional Directory, Gazetteer, and Chronology of Volcanism During the Last 10,000 Years, Geoscience Press, Inc., Tucson, Arizona, in association with Smithsonian Institution, Global Volcanism Program, Washington, D.C., p. 164-176. #1686 Latter, J.H. (1981): Tsunamis of volcanic origin; summary of causes with particular reference to Krakatoa, 1883, Bulletin Volcanologique, Vol. 44, p. 467-490. #2432 Venzke, E., R.W. Wunderman, L. McClelland, T. Simkin, J.F. Luhr, L. Siebert, and G. Mayberry (eds.) (2002-): Global Volcanism, 1968 to the Present. Smithsonian Institution, Global Volcanism Program Digital Information Series, GVP-4 (http://www.volcano.si.edu/reports/). #2990 Sigurdsson, H. (2000): Encyclopedia of Volcanoes, Academic Press, San Diego, 1415 pp. #9675 Siebert, Lee, Tom Simkin, Paul Kimberly (2010): Fatalities & Evacuations, Volcanoes of the World, Third Edition, Geoscience Press, Inc., University of California Press, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., p. 329-347. #12827 Stothers, R.B. (1984): The great Tambora eruption in 1815 and its aftermath. Science 224:1191-1198. Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), Global Significant Earthquake Database. doi:10.7289/V5TD9V7K
740 ±150 y. AD		?
3050 ? BC		?
3910 ±200 y. BC		?

Remark:

Our list of volcanic eruptions closely follows the database of eruptions of the Smithsonian's Global Volcanism Project (GVP), the internationally most recognized data source for volcanic eruptions, but also includes significant eruptive episodes or related volcano events. "Volcanic eruptions" are usually to be understood as sequences of individual eruptive episodes that can follow each other, or even overlap (if several vents are involved), and can last many years, decades or even longer. For example, the current activity of Stromboli volcano is understood as a single eruption that has been ongoing since 1934.

Sources: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), Global Significant Volcanic Eruptions Database. doi:10.7289/V5TD9V7K | Global Volcanism Project / Smithsonian Institution

Tambora Volcano FAQ

+When was the last eruption of Tambora volcano?

The last confirmed eruption of Tambora occurred around 1967.

+How often does Tambora volcano erupt?

Since 1812, Tambora volcano has had at least 4 historically documented eruptions. This means that it erupts on average every 53 years.
Many eruptions of Tambora have lasted more than one year. In total, the volcano has been in eruption during 7 out of 213 years until now. In other words, Tambora has been active at least one in 30.4 years on average. Note that this value is likely an underestimate, because the known history of eruptions from Tambora is likely incomplete, especially further back in time.

+How active is Tambora volcano at present?

Tambora volcano is occasionally active: Since 1900, it has had one eruption, which occurred around 1967.

+When was the largest eruption of Tambora volcano?

The largest eruption of Tambora volcano in historic times occurred during 1812 - 1815. It ranks as a very large plinian eruption with a magnitude 7 on the VEI (Volcanic Explosivity Index) scale. Eruption of this size can have catastrophic regional, or sometimes global consequences by disrupting climate globally over a few years. Eruption of this size are often catastrophic on a regional scale.

Latest satellite images

See also: Sentinel hub | Landsat 8 | NASA FIRMS

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Tambora Volcano Maps

Below is a selection of maps showing the location and surroundings of the volcano at various resolutions based on aerial-imagery / terrain maps. Feel free to use them for non-commercial purposes on your blog or website as long as you credit them with a link back to this page (click to copy it).