Mount Tambora

In April 1815, this volcano erased summer from the planet. The eruption of Tambora was the most powerful in recorded human history — 100 cubic kilometres of rock ejected into the atmosphere, 71,000 people killed, and a volcanic winter that caused crop failures across Europe and North America. The caldera left behind is seven kilometres wide and 1,100 metres deep. Today, the three-day trek to the rim passes through forest reclaiming the devastation, and at the top, you stand on the edge of the hole that changed global climate. The scale is numbing.

Mount Tambora is an active stratovolcano on Sumbawa island, West Nusa Tenggara. The April 1815 eruption — rated VEI-7 (Volcanic Explosivity Index) — was the largest volcanic event in recorded history, ejecting approximately 100 cubic kilometres of material. The eruption column reached 43 kilometres into the atmosphere, causing a global volcanic winter that produced 'the Year Without a Summer' in 1816, with widespread crop failures across the Northern Hemisphere. The volcano was reduced from approximately 4,300 metres to its current 2,850 metres, leaving a caldera 7 kilometres in diameter and 1,100 metres deep. The standard trek begins from Doro Mboha village on the south side (2-3 days round trip) or Pancasila village on the north (shorter but steeper). The caldera rim offers views into the crater and across the Flores Sea. The former kingdom of Tambora, buried by pyroclastic flows, is occasionally excavated (sometimes called the 'Pompeii of the East'). Access is from Dompu or Bima on Sumbawa, reached by flights from Bali or Lombok.