Current summit elevation2,850 m
176Tractor trailer lengths
8.4 hundredthsBermuda lengths
Reduced from about 4,300 m pre-eruption
Photo from Wikimedia Commons
Mount Tambora
The volcano that erased summer from 1816/Volcanoes
Mount Tambora's 1815 eruption on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa was the most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded history, rated VEI-7. It ejected roughly 160 cubic kilometers of material and killed an estimated 71,000 people. The ash and sulfur cloud caused the 'Year Without a Summer' in 1816, which at least inspired Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein while stuck indoors.
Measurements
1815 eruption volume160 billion m^3
61,538Great Pyramid volumes
533 trillionPool noodle hollows
338 trillionRed Solo cups
About 160 km^3 of material ejected
Eruption energy33 quintillion J
7.9 trillionSticks of dynamite
330 septillionFalling snowflakes
About 4 times the 1883 Krakatoa eruption
Caldera diameter6,000 m
5,000Coffee table lengths
12.8 billionBlue light wavelengths
7,895Cello lengths
6 km wide caldera created by eruption
Eruption column height43,000 m
860Olympic pool lengths
4,410Squash court lengths
43 km into the atmosphere
Global cooling effect7 tenths K
2.3 thousandthsBody temperatures
2.2 thousandthsLive chickens
2.2 thousandthsHuman fevers
Average Northern Hemisphere cooling in 1816