# 1815--Mt Tambora Eruption & the Global Cooling--Fatalities From Famine? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 9, 2017, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1815-mt-tambora-eruption-the-global-cooling-fatalities-from-famine/798403 "2017-10-09T20:39:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2017, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1815-mt-tambora-eruption-the-global-cooling-fatalities-from-famine/798403/1 "2017-10-09T20:39:48Z")
The 1815 volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora caused three years of global cooling, year-round Winter, & World-wide famine. How many died in that famine? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2017, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1815-mt-tambora-eruption-the-global-cooling-fatalities-from-famine/798403/2 "2017-10-09T20:48:41Z")
Wiki says at least 10,000. I’m quite sure the real answer is several times larger than that. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2017, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1815-mt-tambora-eruption-the-global-cooling-fatalities-from-famine/798403/3 "2017-10-09T21:08:00Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Wiki says at least 10,000. I’m quite sure the real answer is several times larger than that. That’s from the post-blast freeze & famine? You’re right–too low. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2017, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1815-mt-tambora-eruption-the-global-cooling-fatalities-from-famine/798403/4 "2017-10-09T22:09:01Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Wiki says at least 10,000. I’m quite sure the real answer is several times larger than that. I guess it’s been updated: > [@Wikipedia](#): > > The estimated number of deaths varies depending on the source. Zollinger (1855) puts the number of direct deaths at 10,000, probably caused by pyroclastic flows. On Sumbawa island, 38,000 deaths were due to starvation, and another 10,000 deaths occurred due to disease and hunger on Lombok island.[12] Petroeschevsky (1949) estimated that about 48,000 and 44,000 people were killed on Sumbawa and Lombok, respectively.[13] Several authors use Petroeschevsky’s figures, such as Stothers (1984), who cites 88,000 deaths in total.[6] However, Tanguy et al… (1998) claimed Petroeschevsky’s figures to be unfounded and based on untraceable references.[14] Tanguy revised the number based on Zollinger, who spent several months on Sumbawa after the eruption, and Sir Thomas Raffles’s notes.[7] Tanguy pointed out that there may have been additional victims on Bali and East Java because of famine and disease. Their estimate was 11,000 deaths from direct volcanic effects and 49,000 by post-eruption famine and epidemic diseases.[14] Oppenheimer (2003) stated a modified number of at least 71,000 deaths in total.[1] Reid takes note of the total direct and indirect deaths caused beyond Sumbawa, in Bali and elsewhere, and suggests that a figure of perhaps 100,000 deaths is an appropriate estimate.[15] However, ice cores indicate that there was another big eruption several years earlier (around 1810) and also there was the Dalton Minimum so Tambora may not be the sole cause of the poor weather following its eruption. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2017, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1815-mt-tambora-eruption-the-global-cooling-fatalities-from-famine/798403/5 "2017-10-09T23:41:26Z")
The year 1816 was referred to as “Eighteen hundred and starve to death”, presumably related. Cite: [Rockland County Times 10 August 1901 — HRVH Historical Newspapers](https://news.hrvh.org/veridian/cgi-bin/senylrc?a=d&d=rocklandctytimes19010810.2.46) ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1815-mt-tambora-eruption-the-global-cooling-fatalities-from-famine/798403/6 "2017-10-10T14:26:41Z")
More commonly, as [Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer). It’s important to note that there were several other major eruptions in the years prior to Tambora, and the “volcano winter” and ensuing famine are likely attributable to a combination of them. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1815-mt-tambora-eruption-the-global-cooling-fatalities-from-famine/798403/7 "2017-10-10T14:42:08Z")
So with modern agriculture and transport, how well set are we to fend off another 3 year winter? Do we have the type of food reserves to feed those in need? I know in 1816 a big part of the issue would be getting excess food grown in warmer regions to colder regions. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1815-mt-tambora-eruption-the-global-cooling-fatalities-from-famine/798403/8 "2017-10-10T15:14:22Z")
The 1816 winter had effects in Europe and North America, as noted. It caused famine in both those places, but I don’t know if anyone ever tried to count or estimate the fatalities that resulted from this. certainly it had effects visible by indirect events. It was because of the famine in the hills of Vermont that the Smith family had to move out, settling ultimately in ustate New York, where young Joseph had his visions that lead to the founding of Mormonism. If not for the Year Without a Summer, is it possible that he wouldn’t have done this? Or would he have founded it in Vermont, far from Hill Cumorah/ The cold and rainy weather in Europe also kept the party of Lord Byron, John polidori, Percy helley, Mary Wolestonecraft Godwin, and the rest of them huddled up in their rented villas on the shores of Lake Geneva, reading a French translation of a German book of ghost stories and making fun of them. This got them started in a horror story contest, which resulted in the writing of Frankenstein and Polidori’s _The Vampyre_, the story that gave us the aristocratic, titled vampire whop could “pass” for human, thus giving us the Modern Vampire. (It also arguably inspired some of the bleak and depressing poetry written by Byron and Shelley while there)