Transcript Tambora presentation

Mount Tambora Explosion
By Nathan Walker Group 84
When and Where?
• The eruption of Mount Tambora happened
in Indonesia in 1815. The volcano, one of
Indonesia’s largest, is located on the
island of Sumbawa, near Bali and
Lombak.
Where do Volcanoes Form?
• Volcanoes almost always form on plate
boundaries. With a few exceptions, like
Hawaii, most volcanoes are along a plate
boundary of continental and oceanic crust.
The red dots on the diagram below show
where volcanoes are located.
What kind of volcano?
• Mount Tambora is a composite volcano or
stratovolcano. It consists of rock layers
such as hardened lava, pumice, and ash.
The volcano was 13,000 feet tall before
the devastating explosion, but only 9,000
feet of it was left after the eruption.
How Are They Formed?
Volcanoes are formed when oceanic crust
collides with continental crust, causing an
event scientists call subduction (below).
Subduction is the melting of the oceanic
plate, and having that melted crust vent
through the earth’s surface, forming a
volcano.
The Eruption
• There were very few signs that the
volcano was about to erupt.
• Flames of about 40 km tall were seen
being spewed into the atmosphere.
• A huge column of wind carried people and
their houses out to sea, where there were
5m high tsunamis.
Deaths
• A final death toll for the eruption was over
92,000. 10,000 people died from direct
burns, which is similar to what happened
in Pompeii. Another 82,000 people in
Indonesia died, the people of Tambora
made extinct, and 25,000 more dead in
nearby Bali, a total of about 117,000
deceased.
Year Without Summer
• The devastating eruption caused a “year
without summer” due to climate changes
in the Northern Hemisphere. It affected so
many countries, sending some to states of
national emergency. The next few slides
tell how countries were affected.
Switzerland, 1816
In Switzerland in 1816, the effects of the
volcanic eruption all the way in Indonesia
a year before caused plants to become
poisonous. The government issued a
lesson on how to tell poisonous plants
from safe plants, and the Swiss eventually
resorted to eating plain moss.
Sumbawa, Indonesia
• Sumbawa was covered by a 60 cm thick
coat of fallen ash, leading to massive
famine. Bali, Lombak, and South Sulawesi
were covered in a 30 cm coat of ash. This
completely submerged the plants, leading
to the fatal famine.
Citations
•33ff.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2011.
<http://www.33ff.com/flags/XL_flags/Switzerland_flag.gif>.
•The World According to Google. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2011.
<http://maps.pomocnik.com/img/photos/Tambora1.jpg>.
•“Year Without Summer.” Discovery Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2011.
<http://www.yourdiscovery.com/earth/year_without_summer/pre_eruption/index
•http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_w5VUS6vQlII/S7HWdwp94I/AAAAAAAAACw/UNRnYhcGbjs/s1600/darkness.jpg
•http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/infopage/ringfire.gif
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