283: The Year Without a Summer. Mount Tambora National Park.

National Park After Dark

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True Crime, Places & Travel, Wilderness, Society & Culture, Sports

4.8 • 4.6K Ratings

🗓️ 24 February 2025

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On April 10, 1815 the most powerful volcanic eruption in human history was recorded on an island in Indonesia. The ash cloud that formed with its explosion was as large and the entire country of the United States and hovered close to 12 miles above the earth, reaching the stratosphere. The results were catastrophic. It resulted in major climate changes, where in most of the world, summer never came. Wildlife and humans alike were left without sources of food while the landscapes changed around them. Roughly 100,000 people died in the immediately aftermath, but the death toll is estimated to be closer to 1 million around the globe. The time following the eruption has now been remembered in history as, The Year Without a Summer.

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Sources:
1816 - The Year Without Summer (U.S. National Park Service)

Taman Nasional Gunung Tambora

https://www.history.com/news/the-deadliest-volcanic-eruption-in-history#

https://www.history.com/news/the-deadliest-volcanic-eruption-in-history#

Mount Tambora and the Year Without a Summer | Center for Science Education .

Book:Tambora: The Eruption that Changed the World. by Gillen D’Arcy Wood

Transcript

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0:00.0	It is easy to feel that your small corner of the planet is not connected to a place that is thousands of miles away.
0:11.2	Across oceans, vast deserts, and through mountainous landscapes, you might feel like a small blip in the world.
0:19.7	In Disney's Pocahontas, she sings the lyrics,
0:22.6	and we are all connected to each other,
0:25.4	in a circle, in a hoop, that never ends.
0:28.6	While catchy and easy to sing along with,
0:31.5	that statement couldn't hold more true.
0:34.6	How else do you explain that when an earthquake happens in Argentina,
0:38.5	Death Valley National Park Stevel's Hole creates waves? If we were not connected,
0:44.3	why are the mountains of Vermont hidden by smoke when Oregon is raging with wildfires?
0:51.3	In the Pacific Ocean, a garbage patch the size of Texas sits between California and Hawaii,
0:58.7	but can be traced back to places in Asia, along with North, South, and Central America. If these
1:06.1	events are so interconnected between thousands and thousands of miles, what does that mean about the fragility
1:12.9	of Earth? If the reverberations of small happenings extend across landscapes and oceans,
1:19.4	what else is Earth capable of? Could one single event devastate the entire planet?
1:58.3	The answer to that is yes. Welcome to National Park After Dark.
2:00.4	I'm Danielle. And I'm Cassie. I'm Ron Burgundy. Question. I'm Danielle.
2:01.7	And I'm Cassie. I'm Ron Burgundy.
2:03.3	I'm Ron Burgundy.
2:04.7	Who am I?
2:06.0	That is the question.
2:08.0	We're trying to do introductions and it feels weird and embarrassing.
	...

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