Welcome to the third part of our series on volcanoes. In 1815, Mt. Tambora, located in Indonesia, erupted, causing a significant drop in global temperatures. This event had far-reaching consequences that affected people all over the world. Join us as we delve into the fascinating stories of Mary Shelley, Thomas Jefferson, John Smith, and others who lived through the consequences of this event, known as The Year Without a Summer. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doomedtofailpod/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/doomedtofailpod Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@doomedtofailpod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@doomed.to.fail.pod Email: doomedtofailpod@gmail.com
Welcome to the third part of our series on volcanoes. In 1815, Mt. Tambora, located in Indonesia, erupted, causing a significant drop in global temperatures. This event had far-reaching consequences that affected people all over the world. Join us as we delve into the fascinating stories of Mary Shelley, Thomas Jefferson, John Smith, and others who lived through the consequences of this event, known as The Year Without a Summer.
Photos via Midjourney AI
The Year Without Summer: 1816 and the Volcano That Darkened the World and Changed History
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doomedtofailpod/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/doomedtofailpod
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@doomedtofailpod
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@doomed.to.fail.pod
Email: doomedtofailpod@gmail.com
Hi Friends! Our transcripts aren't perfect, but I wanted to make sure you had something - if you'd like an edited transcript, I'd be happy to prioritize one for you - please email doomedtofailpod@gmail.com - Thanks! - Taylor
we just did a true crime slash sort of
History Podcast and now we're doing the
history only one with Taylor who if I
had to yes given that she chose coconut
water is going to cover a volcano today
I am going to cover a volcano today good
guess
it's a lot of them are in Indonesia so
this one's from Indonesia is that called
fire
no I think that well yes yes it is yes
the ring of fire is like Indonesia and
like kind of up by like Hawaii and stuff
yes it is called the ring of fire which
is also an Octonauts episode so I feel
like I've learned a lot the last week we
talked about how I learned about Cenote
days from the Octonauts and I also
learned about volcanoes and the ring of
fire from the boxing months sweet so
definitely recommend
um yes as far as you're correct um oh
you want to do an intro
yeah I did this is them to fail
oh you did okay
um so I am this is gonna be shorter than
usual for me because I could not finish
reading the book I was reading I have
like an hour left we are gonna go back
into volcanoes and
this is gonna be pretty quick I wasn't
able to finish the book I was reading
but like the book I was reading is kind
of about this Global impact so I have
some fun stories that are affected by
the fact that the weather across the
whole entire Globe was affected during
this one so today is volcanoes part
three the eruption of Mount Tambora and
The Year Without a summer in 1816.
so there's because there was no summer
there was also no food it was like a
very very bad year for the entire planet
um all affected by this eruption in 1815
in Indonesia
um Mount Tambora is a strata volcano
which means if you cut it up it looks
like a cake it's like layers of land
just has been like growing for you know
for millions of years
um it's on the island of sembawa in
Indonesia it was part of the Dutch East
Indies at that point so it's like where
the Dutch were like doing their their
slave trade and all that
um the 1815 eruption was the most
powerful volcanic eruption in human
history
so in recorded history
um obviously like the other ones are
talking about like um don't talk about
was more but this was the biggest one
that we've ever like been around for and
have written down it had a vei which is
a volcanic explosivity index of seven so
I think we talked about that a little
bit that like it's like the Richter
Scale where every one is times ten yeah
you know so just to look at like it's
way worse so a little table
like when a volcano erupts at a zero
it's a it's technically classified as a
Hawaiian eruption so that's when like
you see videos of like in Hawaii where
it's a little bit of smoke but it's like
lava very very slowly right you know
like people don't really die because of
lava because they it can burn down
houses for sure but it doesn't like Rush
at you right
yeah
and then then there's a strombolian a
Volcanion a bunch of them and then
um
a five on the volcanic explosivity index
scale is a plinian and plinian is named
after
plenty of uh
younger because he had the
um firsthand account of Mount Vesuvius
so a number five is is Mount Vesuvius
and then a number six is
um some other ones that we'll talk about
in the future so Krakatoa and Mount St
Helens I think was a sex I'm looking at
no no it was out of six that would have
been way bigger Krakatoa was a six and
then
um
obviously gets worse and worse an Ultra
plinian Mega colossal end of the world
volcano is what tobo was that's an eight
so topaz and eight a six is like
Krakatoa so look obviously still like
huge we've heard about it Vesuvius is a
five
um and then
the um
an ultra Pliny and super colossal is a
seven and that's what tempura was so
um which means that like the ash plume
um can be about 20 kilometers in the air
and it um it makes a substantial change
on the um atmosphere in the whole world
it was a big one so
there are 11 strata volcanoes in
California I was looking up there's not
in Texas
are here
there's a lot in like the obviously in
like Washington State and like Oregon
area they have a lot of them as well
um
so the main eruption of Mount Tambora
was on April 10th 1815. it continued to
put Ash into the air for months and it
was like the lava was like low and slow
but it was the ash that is is a problem
the explosion Was Heard up to 1600 miles
away and Ash fell at least 800 miles
away so just like layers and layers of
Ash
um the explosion this this is this is
the one because the next one
um I think index one will do is Krakatoa
and Krakatoa was later in the 1800s when
that one erupted they had telegraphs and
they were able to tell people what was
going on like over the airwaves but in
1815 they did not so
kind of fun kind of awful
um people on all these islands around
went outside because they thought they
were being attacked so like native
tribes Dutch people everyone like went
to the beaches because they were sure
that someone was shooting a cannon onto
their Shore like that's what that's the
sound that they heard yeah these things
exactly because they're so they don't
happen frequently enough for your body
and brain to register what the hell is
going on like I'm like the first person
exactly and L.A I was like it's like
somebody drove into the house so there's
no other explanation did you buy your
brain can't even process it
exactly it's so confusing so people
thought they were being attacked and
they didn't know what was happening
because you just didn't know and then
like the explosions continued for days
and then the ash started to
um started to fall kind of all over
um there was a village of tembora that
had like a native population that was
destroyed by the pyroclastic flow
they've done a little bit of Excavating
there they found like a house and a
couple bodies
um but there are people who who died you
know kind of immediately because of that
um there were small tsunamis that
happened along all the Islands nearby
and
people for months like the Dutch who
were doing their trading and their in
their ships like around these islands
saw like huge like
Iceberg sized piles of Ash you know like
in the ocean they're just like huge Ash
piles everywhere
we heard the explosions until July it
just kind of kept going
um it's estimated that there were 11 000
deaths from the volcano itself and then
49 000 from post-eruption famine but
that all that number actually also goes
up to 121 000 people dying from famine
all over the world because of this
um another kind of table that I have
like Mount vesufius killed about 2 000
people
um because not a lot of people were
there people had already started to
leave but um and it didn't have that
like climate effect that
that Tambora did so the timber eruption
definitely is anywhere from 71 000
people
221 000 people die from the effects of
it
so the one of the first things that
happened so what happened in April 19 or
1815 but the year without a summer is
1816. because it took a while for like
the actual full
um environmental impact to happen
um but in 1815
all over Europe the snow started falling
and it was yellow and it was like brick
red in the Alps isn't that crazy why
because of the Ash and like the um and
the the stuff from the volcano Ash and
particles that were still up in the
atmosphere they became they like joined
in with the clouds became the snow and
so it snowed these like crazy uh yellow
and red colors in in Europe
um the and you don't know why also you
know you don't have any concept that
there was this volcano exploded in in
Indonesia you just know that all of a
sudden
um you know the air is crazy and things
are like the snow's weird and there's no
it's just continuous rain so over a year
later 1816 is a year without a summer
um and it's your thoughts number in
Europe and North America and this is
kind of before we started studying the
weather which is crazy because it's not
too long ago it's like 200 years ago but
no one studied the weather before then
because
it's hard to predict the weather even
now you know like happens that you
don't expect so you know there could be
you know we don't
we can't 100 with certainly certainty
predict the weather and people just
thought that God controlled it
so they were like
yeah if God wants it to be sunny it'll
be sunny and yeah Pray For Rain by
research they didn't think that there
was anything more to it than that like
God controls the weather so there's no
reason to study it
um and so
there were there wasn't anything about
it so our founding fathers
um actually of course it was like
because they did a whole bunch of
um stuff in like many many many many
fields but like Benjamin Franklin
actually was the first person to like
write down that he thought a volcano
could affect weather across the world
um so he was like this is something that
could happen but he you know didn't have
any proof that it could happen and then
Thomas Jefferson he wrote down the um
the weather every day and no one else
did so we I mean if they did we don't
have it so we have a record of the
weather in 1816 and really Thomas
Jefferson's whole adult life
um that's invaluable because we don't
have weather records from that far back
you know that people made fun of it was
like what a nerd he's running down the
weather now it's like invaluable
information
exactly I don't think anyone called you
janard but yes
um
so in 18
16 TJ and John Adams are both still
alive
um they they don't die until 1826 so
they're both like they're not president
anymore James armor was president but
they're like you know thinking about it
and writing about the weather because
that's the kind of they're wrote to
each other about they hated each other
but they were still in contact and did
you know that they both died on July 4th
1827 like two hours apart yeah so fun
so
um
what else not a lot of people did that
one thing that they would do that is so
funny and they say this several several
times in the book that I read oh it's
just called Mount tempora and The Year
Without a summer I'll put it in um in
the notes but
um they talk a lot about in the book you
know the effects that were happening on
the whole world and I'll talk about some
of the things that culturally that
happened but um
one thing that they would do often is
just ask the oldest person that they
know do you remember anything like this
before like because they didn't have any
records so they'd be like oh well my
grandpa is 70. let's ask him has he ever
seen snow in June and he'd be like never
and he'd be like this is crazy you know
like that's the only way do you remember
rain this much do you remember this like
you just asked the oldest person they
know to see what they remember because
the thing was really written down
so what was happening in 1816 is the
particles from the volcanic ash from
Tambora were up in the atmosphere and
they were reflecting the Sun and causing
the temperature to drop
so if the eruption had been less bad but
gone like higher it could have been
worse on the weather because the
particles would have would be smaller
then they'd have more surface area does
that kind of make sense so because the
eruption was so huge the particles were
bigger so they had a little bit like
less surface area because the combined
some yeah so it's the reflection that
that created some reflecting the sun
back to the Sun that made it so cold
down on Earth
um people didn't know what was happening
so they thought that it was because of
sun spots and I looked up sun spots and
oh my God looking at close-up pictures
of the Sun is terrifying it's
crazy it's like it's a giant it's like
it's like fire
there's like Inferno that we have that
gives a light it's so scary so I was
looking at sunspots and like we don't
even 100 know what they are now we think
it has to do with the magnetic fields in
the sun which also is what happened in
the movie 2012 right I was um I was on
the way
it was in Uber yesterday and I looked
over and there was like a kind of the
core I was in was like super tinted so I
kind of look at the Sun and I was like I
was thinking about Oppenheimer and I was
like one of these things just opened up
in the middle of a city like which crazy
to think about soon yeah yeah
so scary it sounded like a fireball it's
like it's it's a nuclear reaction that
just never ends
no totally no it's scary and the whole I
don't understand what sunspots are
magnetic field all of that but that's
what they thought it was it's not it
wasn't that it was a volcano but they
could see sunspots in 1816 they thought
that was part of it
um they also thought maybe it was the
trade winds they really didn't know
but in
um
in Europe during 1816 here's what
happens this summer people leave England
in droves because England is soaking wet
it rains constantly there are no days
without rain in England for that summer
the Harvest is totally destroyed corn
doesn't grow wheat doesn't grow people
have to decide do we feed our animals do
we feed ourselves you know how do we
survive during this time
um the price of meat actually went down
because people were selling their
animals quickly because they couldn't
afford to feed them anymore so they
would like sell their cows rather than
rather than have them
um continue to eat
there were riots all over the big major
cities some rioters carried Flags
reading bread or blood because they were
starving people were starving all over
um they were the the food Riots of 1816
and 1817 were the highest levels of
violence is the French Revolution in
France it's the worst Famine of 19 19th
century Europe it's like a couple years
before The Great Potato fam in Ireland
but it definitely decimates the potato
crops in Ireland as well
um other things in Europe that are going
on as we also know Mary Shelley is this
is when she writes Frankenstein and
um because they were stuck inside in
Geneva it rained constantly they had
absolute miserable time
um and they were
um they were just like writing scary
stories because they were absolutely
miserable
um Napoleon is still alive which is fun
he's been to Elba and been back and now
he's um on his second Exile I don't know
why they don't just kill him but he's
still around
so France is also dealing yeah me too I
can't wait so I also heard my friend
Karen told me there's a
movie about Napoleon that's old that's
like seven hours long that's like great
someday
um so Napoleon is still around kind of
talking to people talking about the
weather talking about God talking about
being an emperor
um in England Jane Austen writes
persuasion so a lot of good like art
came out of this because people were
stuck inside you know and had to go back
to reading and writing and painting and
such
um the um German inventor Carl dryas he
is trying to find new ways to get around
without horses because people don't have
any food to feed their horses so he
invites invents the
philosophy velocity anyway it's the
first bike he invented the first bicycle
during this time
um because
um he wants to get people to be able to
transport themselves without needing
animals essentially because of us yeah
so
um there were in North America it snowed
All Summer in Massachusetts in like
Boston it snowed in June in summer and
and it like that's never happened before
craps failed all over the Northeast so
these towns and people who were like
living in towns and had businesses or
businesses closed their crops failed
people moved out of towns there were
also like it's also a huge um you know
we're obviously like religious thing
happening people think you know that God
did it so another thing that happened is
a man who had a business in a town
um in Vermont that had
um ended up being like shut down because
of the economy and because all the crops
were failing he moved to a town in New
York where people were very very very
religious and um he started to talk to
them about religion and that was John
Smith so that's when he started the
Mormon church and he had moved there and
people were like really riled up about
God because of this time because the
weather was so bad it's like all
connected history is crazy yeah it's all
connected it's crazy
um that's like the context it's super
fun so um yeah that is honestly all that
I have I know this is not my longest one
but
um you know it was
a volcano in Indonesia and you didn't
know what was happening yet because you
didn't you didn't have the communication
yet but you could see things in the sky
like the sky turned orange and they do a
little bit of like
um a back dating of like art and people
who painted Landscapes and like the
Landscapes that they showed during this
time much more orange much more yellow
than they'd ever been before and this is
when people start to really like start
thinking about the weather and like
writing down pieces of the weather and
that will continue
um just to get better and better but
before then like
you knew basically you know this is when
we Harvest this is and this but you
didn't have any idea that like
a hurricane could come or a tornado or
any of these like big weather events you
just didn't know yet which I think is
really interesting and scary to be like
oh here's something new I've never seen
before or I mean it helps it's snowing
the snow is red I'd be like
the devil is here yeah I don't know what
else you could possibly think if it
started snowing like bright red you'd be
like well this is it it's been great but
now it snows like blood and I'm gonna
leave like I don't know it reminded me
of um you and Juan's packed with each
other where you're like one if I ever
tell you that it's raining teeth in the
backyard you just have to see me and
like that's what this was 100
yeah if I'm like babe it's it rained
teeth all day he'll be like great let's
move I'll be great thank you for leaving
me and understanding that I saw teeth
fall from the sky
um and that yeah so
um yeah it's an interestingly creative
year and when the next one we talk about
we'll talk about Krakatoa that was in
1883.
um and that's when the world knew a
little bit more about it that's when
Munch Paints the scream like that's when
we like start seeing um more in art
around
um around the world but
um Tambora is I think the most recent
huge one that had like those global
effects that people heard for like you
know thousands of miles and all of that
like Mount St Helens
is nothing compared to this you know
this one is that was a really really
huge one yeah it's 1980
is this the um context podcast we're
doing historical context on things
I think that's all we've been doing
I think every story is is context so yes
it is we didn't discuss our topics and
we kind of both said well it was Dan
Carlin's fault
[Music]
it's all Dan Carlin's faults
um another oh another thing so the last
this is number three a volcano is the
last volcano that I I will do is the
future and what we think might happen if
Yellowstone actually does uh erupt but
if Yellowstone erupts it will be an
eight similar to Mount Toba that
destroyed a lot of humanity I mean
Miracle will be gone well we'll die it
will happen right it's just a matter of
like when it happens
it
yeah
yeah
um
yeah the the Yellowstone super volcano I
mean it'll happen someday hopefully
we'll be long gone or maybe we'll be
here maybe it'll be fun we don't have to
work anymore
yeah I'll be like it'll be like Woody
Harrelson
yes look like Woody Harrelson in 2012.
that's exactly what it would be like
watch it watch it coming
or did you mean Woody Woody Harrelson
just like today
no no 2012. got it got it got it
um yeah yeah crazy it's cool also that
when people are stuck inside they create
some cool art at least like the Richer
people do
which is you know a whole thing that um
you know when rich people are unemployed
they get to create art or when they get
to choose what they do they create art I
get it I get it I get it I get it but
um but yeah that's it that's why that's
my quick story on on Tambora more
volcanoes in the future
um but yeah more volcanoes more context
um more contacts it's all connected it's
all connected highly recommend please do
go listen to Dan Carlin as well
um and
support all of things write to us follow
us
tell us what you think
yeah give us ideas
um and if you see me walking around a
coffee shop with a bunch of stickers
just take one
take one get a sticker send us an email
to developod gmail.com I'll literally
just send you a sticker
um I want more people to have a look I
have one on my phone and then I thought
is it bad that I'll be taking pictures
at a wedding from my phone with this
Doom to fail sticker on it that is so
fun that is so funny I love it
it's awesome it is what it is yes
thanks Taylor we'll have fun have fun
there have fun in New York have fun at
the wedding and have a safe trip back
home and I'm gonna go see if I have
stickers
okay