Eruption of Samalas
The Samalas volcano on the island of Lombok exploded in one of the largest eruptions of the past several thousand years: searing pyroclastic flows buried the capital of a local kingdom, and the gases blasted into the stratosphere cooled the climate of the entire planet.
- Date
- between May and October 1257exact date unknown: an interval is given
- Place
- Samalas volcano (Lombok)today: Rinjani caldera, Lombok, Indonesia · Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Threads
- Asia, Africa and the Americas in the 13th century
- Also known as
- Извержение Самаласа; Извержение 1257 года
Pyroclastic flows buried much of Lombok and crossed the sea to neighboring Sumbawa; the town of Pamatan, the capital of one of the island’s kingdoms, was destroyed. Where the volcano stood, a caldera remains, holding the lake Segara Anak. The disaster is described in the Babad Lombok, a chronicle written on palm leaves.
The sulfate trace of a huge mid-13th-century eruption was found in the ice of Greenland and Antarctica long before the volcano itself was found: only in 2013 did scientists link it to Samalas, using radiocarbon dates and the text of the chronicle. The eruption probably took place between May and October 1257 (1258 cannot be ruled out). The cooling that followed has been linked to crop failures and famine in Europe and elsewhere, although their scale is debated.
Connections
Related events
- Great Drought and the Ancestral Puebloan departure from Mesa Verde1276–1299 · North AmericaThe drought fell during the transition to the Little Ice Age, whose onset is linked in part to the Samalas eruption; no direct connection between the two has been established
- Eruption of Mount Tambora5–11 April 1815 · Southeast Asia and OceaniaThe two largest eruptions of the last millennium, on the neighboring islands of Lombok and Sumbawa
Adjacent events in the thread
- Reign of Razia Sultan in DelhiNovember 1236 – April 1240 · South Asia
- Yekuno Amlak founds the Solomonic dynasty1270 · Africa
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within 5 years of this event
Eastern Europe
Balkans and Anatolia
- Reconquest of Constantinople25 July 1261
Middle East and Egypt
- Siege of Baghdad29 January – 10 February 1258
- Battle of Ain Jalut3 September 1260
- Seventh Crusade1248–1254
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): 1257 Samalas eruption
- Wikipedia (Russian): Извержение вулкана Самалас (1257)
- Wikipedia (Russian): Самалас
- Lavigne F. et al. Source of the great A.D. 1257 mystery eruption unveiled, Samalas volcano, Rinjani Volcanic Complex, Indonesia // Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. — 2013. — Vol. 110, № 42. — P. 16742–16747.
- Wikidata: Q2535354