The 1815 eruption of the Tambora volcano is generally considered as the largest and most violent volcanic event in recorded history. An estimated 150 km3 of volcanic material was released (the approximate equivalent to 16,000 Hiroshima bombs or eight times greater than the 1883 Krakatau eruption). The magnitude was seven on the VEI scale. It was an explosive central vent eruption with pyroclastic flows and a caldera collapse, causing tsunamis, and extensive land and property damage. It had a long-term effect on global climate. The eruption shot 400 million tons of sulfuric gases into the atmosphere, causing global cooling and creating what historians call ... \"The Year Without a Summer” The explosions killed 92,000 people on Sumbawa and Lombok island, now part of Indonesia, and wiped out the kingdom of Tambora (The Pompeii of the East).

1. Geographical setting and Geological history

2. Sumbawa Island
Sumbawa Island is composed of Early Miocene volcanics, Middle Miocene (20-
15 Ma) reef limestones and sandstones (Takada et al., 2000), Pliocene
volcanoes (5-3 Ma), Early Pleistocene volcanoes (1.7-1.1 Ma) and coral reef
li t to Holocene volcanoes (B b i et al.,
d Middle Pleistocene t H l
limestones, and Middl Pl i t l (Barberi t l
1983). Tambora volcano, which is younger than 200 ka, overlies coral reef
limestone on its western foot, and cover an older volcano, here called Kawinda
Toi volcano (410 ka) on the northern foot (Takada et al., 2000).