Who knew a volcanic eruption could cause agricultural disasters around the world? It happened on April 10, 1815, when Mount Tambora, on the island of Sumbawa in present-day Indonesia, erupted violently. It was the largest eruption in recorded history, and the explosion was heard as far as 1,600 miles away. The consequences were felt near and far, with harvest failures and famines occurring on a global scale.
In the Northern Hemisphere, 1816 was referred to as “the year without a summer.” Southern Germany was one of the places where famines hit.
