The eruption Samalas 8 times larger than the eruption of Krakatoa

During the eruption of the volcano Krakatau in 1883 is regarded as one of the most powerful of Indonesia. Similarly, the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815 that fall into the category of "the biggest eruption".

But it turns out Samalas in Lombok volcano eruptions produce eight times more powerful than Krakatoa and two times larger than Tambora. Samalas erupted between May and October 1257 and caused ash spread to the two poles of the Earth.

segara anak crater

Thanks to the eruption also occur significant climate change. Mentioned in some texts the Middle Ages, in the summer of 1258, instead of cold and rainy weather did not stop until the cause of flooding. Archaeologists also determine the precise death in 1258 for the thousands of bones were found in a mass tomb in London.

This explosion was recorded history of about 800 years ago, but for whatever reason, the record was forgotten. Thus the results of the research contained in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reported on Monday (30/9).

Samalas heritage trail "hunted" by researchers and thought "perpetrators" a major eruption in 1257 is Okataina volcano in New Zealand and El Chichón in Mexico. However, both candidates have failed in the calendar or geochemical trace.

The experts then succeeded in linking traces of sulfur and dust from the poles to the data obtained from Lombok. Including radiocarbon dating to the type of rock and ash were ejected. According to them, only Samalas "that meets all of a tick in the box".

"The evidence is very strong and interesting," said Clive Oppenheimer from Cambridge University, UK, told the BBC. Added Franck Lavigne, from Pantheon-Sorbonne University, France, initially they were puzzled to find "actors" were responsible for climate change.

magma out of the crater rinjani

But thanks to "fingerprint" in the form of geochemistry in ice cores, finally made the researchers managed to find the volcano. After the eruption, the caldera formed Segara Anak. The mountain itself had collapsed.

Chronicle Lombok

Notes about this eruption in Indonesia tells greater destruction. A text in the language Java, Lombok Chronicle, which is found in palm fronds, tells of a huge volcanic eruption which formed the caldera of Mount Samalas, Lombok.

This text tells the deaths of thousands of people because of ash and pyroclastic flows that destroyed Pamatan, the capital of the local kingdom. Although not mentioned the exact date, experts suspect that to happen before the end of the 13th century, according to the scientific evidence of the eruption.

It says Ben Andrews of the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program, the eruption of this kind happens only once every 600 years. And, added to the study in the journal, that Pamatan be one example of events "Pompeii of the East" --merujuk on a volcano that erupted in Italy in 79 AD by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.