The Volcano that Changed the World

Unlike what people may think, Krakatoa was not the biggest volcanic eruption in history. Two hundred years ago, on April 10th 1815, Mount Tambora in Eastern Indonesia became a merciless killer. It unleashed the most deadly volcanic eruption in human memory, wiping out at least 117,000 people. And an entire civilization and its language disappeared But the killing didn’t stop there. It has now been proven that this eruption could have triggered an extraordinary and little known cataclysmic event: worldwide climate change. For three years, all around the planet suffered from harsh and severe weather, with many dramatic consequences and social disorder. Famine in China made people sell their children for a bowl of ice. Harvests failed in Kentucky, US, provoking riots and rise in crime. Cholera spread across India. Today volcanologist Ralf Gertisser and historian Gillen d’Arcy Wood are teaming up to reconstruct those years, search for the remains of the lost civilization and inquire into the possible climate change.