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The Volcano That Changed the World

Two hundred years ago, an unknown volcano caused death and destruction around the world

By Lauren Tarshis

Learning Objective: Students will explore cause-and-effect relationships as they learn about a little-known volcano that erupted in 1815 and its shocking impacts around the world.

Lexile: 900L-1000L, 700L-800L
Guided Reading Level: U
DRA Level: 50
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Cause and Effect

In 1815, a volcano’s massive eruption caused many different effects around the world. Look for these as you read.

Ten-year-old John Hoisington stared in shock out the window of his family’s Vermont farmhouse. It was June 8, 1816. Summer was just two weeks away. Yet outside, a wild winter snowstorm was raging.

Nearly a foot of snow covered the fields the family had planted only weeks before. The family’s vegetable garden was buried. The apple and pear trees shivered in the freezing wind, their delicate buds coated with ice.

Ten-year-old John Hoisington stared out the window of his family’s Vermont farmhouse. He was in shock. It was June 8, 1816. Summer was just two weeks away. Yet outside, a wild winter snowstorm was raging.

Nearly a foot of snow covered the fields. The family had planted them only weeks before. The vegetable garden was buried. The apple and pear trees shivered in the freezing wind. Their soft buds were coated with ice.

RON AND PATTY THOMAS/GETTY IMAGES

Vermont, USA

Why did it snow in Vermont in July? The answer was 10,000 miles away.

Like most people in 1816, the Hoisingtons grew almost everything they ate. Practically every bite of the family’s food came from the farm, from the corn in their morning porridge to the chicken and potatoes in the suppertime stew. John saw the look of fear in his father’s eyes as they watched the snow swirling outside. This storm would kill all of their crops. There would be little food for the family or their animals. 

How would they survive?

What John and his family didn’t know was that during that strange summer of 1816, similar weather disasters were unfolding throughout New England—and the world. Snow destroyed thousands of other East Coast farms, from Virginia up to Maine. Snowstorms and floods struck France, England, Ireland, and Switzerland. There were droughts and floods in India and killing frosts across northern China. 

At the time, people struggled to understand what had caused the weather to change so wildly. Were witches to blame? 

It is only now, more than 200 years later, that scientists have finally solved the mystery. Very likely John Hoisington and his family would have been astonished to learn the truth: The cause of their family’s suffering was an event that took place a year earlier and 10,000 miles away from their farm. It all started with a volcano called Mount Tambora. 

Like most people in 1816, the Hoisingtons grew almost everything they ate. Almost every bite of the family’s food came from the farm. John saw the look of fear in his father’s eyes. This storm would kill all of their crops. There would be little food for the family or their animals.

How would they survive?

There was something John and his family didn’t know. During that strange summer of 1816, similar weather disasters were happening throughout New England—and the world. Snow destroyed thousands of other farms on the East Coast. Snowstorms and floods struck France, England, Ireland, and Switzerland. There were droughts and floods in India. There were killing frosts across northern China.

At the time, people couldn’t understand what had caused this wild weather. Were witches to blame?

It is only now, more than 200 years later, that scientists have finally solved the mystery. John Hoisington and his family would likely have been surprised to learn the truth. The cause of their family’s suffering was an event that took place a year earlier. It happened 10,000 miles away.

It all started with a volcano called Mount Tambora.

A Ruined Land

WESTEND61/GETTY IMAGES

Sumbawa, Indonesia

Mount Tambora sits on the island of Sumbawa, which today is part of the nation of Indonesia. In 1815, perhaps 50,000 people lived on Sumbawa, a beautiful land of rushing streams, gentle hills, and thick jungles. Looming over the northern side of the island was Mount Tambora, a quiet mountain dotted with villages and rice farms. Nobody had any reason to suspect that the peaceful mountain was in fact a volcano, that underneath its velvety green slopes were snaking tunnels filled with lava and explosive gases. Like many volcanoes, Tambora looked like an ordinary mountain and had been dormant—asleep—for centuries. But on April 5, 1815, Tambora woke up. 

The first eruption shook the island and sent up great plumes of fire and ash. But that was nothing compared with what would come five days later, on April 10. 

Kaboom!

The volcano exploded with terrible fury, spewing out great towers of fire. A tremendous cloud of gas and ash shot high into the sky. The day turned midnight black, but the mountain glowed red as rivers of lava gushed down the slopes. The eruption went on for more than three days, a deadly storm of fire, gas, ash, and rock. In the eruption’s terrifying final stage, a wave of flames and gases swept down the mountain at speeds of 400 miles per hour. This pyroclastic surge devastated everything in its path.

Mount Tambora sits on the island of Sumbawa. Today the island is part of a country called Indonesia. In 1815, perhaps 50,000 people lived on Sumbawa. Looming over the northern side of the island was Mount Tambora. It seemed like a quiet mountain dotted with villages and rice farms. Nobody had any reason to think that the peaceful mountain was in fact a volcano. Underneath its velvety green slopes were snaking tunnels filled with lava and explosive gases. Like many volcanoes, Tambora looked like an ordinary mountain. It had been dormant––asleep––for centuries. But on April 5, 1815, Tambora woke up.

The first eruption shook the island. It sent up great plumes of fire and ash. But that was nothing compared with what would come five days later.

Kaboom!

The volcano exploded with terrible fury, spewing out great towers of fire. A huge cloud of gas and ash shot high into the sky. The day turned midnight black. But the mountain glowed red as rivers of lava gushed down the slopes. The eruption went on for more than three days. It was a deadly storm of fire, gas, ash, and rock. Finally, a wave of flames and gases swept down the mountain at speeds of 400 miles per hour. This pyroclastic surge devastated everything in its path.

Ignored and Forgotten

The eruption instantly killed at least 12,000 people living on and around Mount Tambora. Ash and lava ruined the island’s soil and poisoned its rivers and streams. Rice paddies were destroyed. No fruits or vegetables would grow. There were no fish to catch; almost every animal had been killed. Trapped without food on their ruined lands, more than 90,000 people on Sumbawa and the nearby island of Lombok slowly starved to death. 

The eruption of Tambora in 1815 was the deadliest and most powerful volcanic eruption in human history. Its explosive energy was 10 times stronger than that of Krakatoa, history’s most famous volcano, which erupted in 1883, also in what is now Indonesia. 

And yet, incredibly, few people outside the blast zone learned about this terrible disaster. News and information traveled very slowly in 1815. The only way to get a letter (or a person) across oceans was on a sailing ship. The voyage from Sumbawa to New York or London would have taken perhaps four months.

Eventually, reports of the eruption did make it overseas, but few people paid attention. Somehow, the deadliest volcano in history was ignored by most of the world—and then forgotten. 

What people were paying attention to a year later, in 1816, was the terrible weather—snowstorms in the summer, floods that turned wheat fields into lakes, frosts that blackened millions of acres of farmland around the world. Farmers up and down the East Coast lost their crops. In Europe, farmers grew desperate. In Paris, mobs of people broke into warehouses where grain was stored, risking their lives to steal sacks of flour. In China, starving families could no longer feed their children. Floods in India triggered an outbreak of a disease called cholera, which killed millions. 

The eruption instantly killed at least 12,000 people living near Mount Tambora. Ash and lava ruined the island’s soil. It poisoned the rivers and streams. No fruits or vegetables would grow. There were no fish to catch. Almost every animal had been killed. People were trapped without food on ruined lands. More than 90,000 slowly starved to death.

The eruption of Tambora in 1815 was the deadliest and most powerful volcanic eruption in human history.

And yet, incredibly, few people outside the blast zone learned about this terrible disaster. News and information traveled very slowly in 1815. The only way to get a letter (or a person) across oceans was on a sailing ship. The voyage from Sumbawa to New York or London would have taken about four months.

Eventually, reports of the eruption did make it overseas. But few people paid attention. Somehow, the deadliest volcano in history was ignored by most of the world. And then forgotten.

What people were paying attention to a year later, in 1816, was the terrible weather. Snowstorms in the summer. Floods that turned wheat fields into lakes. Frosts that blackened millions of acres of farmland around the world. Farmers up and down the East Coast lost their crops. In Europe, farmers grew desperate. In Paris, mobs broke into warehouses. They risked their lives to steal sacks of flour. In China, starving families could no longer feed their children. Floods in India caused an outbreak of a disease called cholera. Millions died.

Solving a Mystery

In 1816, not even the most brilliant scientists would have believed that these weather problems were somehow connected—that all these disasters had been caused by the eruption of a volcano few had heard of. Little was known about climate or volcanoes. But today, scientists know that volcanoes can have a major impact on weather worldwide. They have learned by studying recent volcanic eruptions, like Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines. 

Scientists monitored every phase of Pinatubo’s eruption in June 1991. It was not as powerful as Tambora’s. But the eruption was still monstrous, one of the most powerful since Krakatoa. 

Using satellites and computers, scientists tracked the volcano’s huge eruption cloud as it rose into the sky. Most volcanic clouds quickly break apart and fade away. But in a very powerful eruption, the cloud rises so high that it mixes with water and other gases in the stratosphere. It turns into a foam and remains high in the sky. Scientists observed Pinatubo’s cloud as it spread across the world. Like a layer of sunscreen slathered across the sky, the cloud blocked out some of the sun’s heat and light. Temperatures dropped, and storms became more violent. It took three years for Pinatubo’s foamy haze to clear. Tambora’s cloud would have been even bigger, its effects more devastating. Indeed, like an invisible beast, Tambora’s cloud hovered in the sky for about three years. By the time the climate returned to normal, as many as 30 million people had died from Tambora’s effects. And many more lives—like the Hoisingtons’—had been forever changed. 

In 1816, even the most brilliant scientists would not have believed that these weather problems were connected––that all these disasters had been caused by the eruption of a volcano. Little was known about climate or volcanoes. But today, scientists know that volcanoes can have a major impact on weather worldwide. They have learned by studying recent volcanic eruptions. Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines is an example.

Scientists monitored every step of Pinatubo’s eruption in June 1991. It was not as powerful as Tambora’s. But the eruption was still monstrous.

Using satellites and computers, scientists tracked the volcano’s huge eruption cloud as it rose into the sky. Most volcanic clouds quickly break apart and fade away. But in a very powerful eruption, the cloud rises so high that it mixes with water and other gases in the stratosphere. It turns into a foam and stays high in the sky. Scientists watched Pinatubo’s cloud spread across the world. Like a layer of sunscreen slathered across the sky, the cloud blocked out some of the sun’s heat and light. Temperatures dropped, and storms became more violent. It took three years for Pinatubo’s haze to clear. Tambora’s cloud would have been even bigger, its effects even worse. Like an invisible beast, Tambora’s cloud hung in the sky for about three years. By the time the climate returned to normal, as many as 30 million people had died from Tambora’s effects. And many more lives had been forever changed. Like the Hoisingtons’.

Iwan Setiyawan/KOMPAS Images/AP Images

Tambora is quiet today, but its crater shows the damage from the 1815 eruption. 

John and his family survived the loss of their crops. But they gave up their farm and moved west to Ohio. They started their trek in June 1817, traveling in an oxcart piled with their possessions. 

Tens of thousands of other New England farmers made similar journeys, all driven west by the hardships of 1816. It was one of the biggest migrations in U.S. history. Most migrants went to Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. 

The Hoisingtons’ 1,000-mile journey took three months. John’s older sister Sabrina recorded the trip in her diary. She described the family’s meeting with Native people, long days of slogging through mud, and some enjoyable visits with friends they met along the way. They arrived in Ohio in August and were soon settled into life on their new farm. 

Meanwhile, 10,000 miles away, the volcano that had nearly destroyed their lives went back to sleep, sitting in silence to this day—until it wakes again. 

John and his family survived the loss of their crops. But they gave up their farm and moved west to Ohio. They started their trip in June 1817. They traveled in an oxcart piled with their belongings.

Tens of thousands of other New England farmers made similar journeys after the hardships of 1816. It was one of the biggest migrations in U.S. history. Most of them went to Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.

The Hoisingtons’ 1,000-mile journey took three months. John’s older sister Sabrina recorded the trip in her diary. She described the family’s meeting with Native people and long days of slogging through mud. They arrived in Ohio in August and were soon settled into life on their new farm.

Meanwhile, 10,000 miles away, the volcano that had nearly destroyed their lives went back to sleep, sitting in silence to this day. Until it wakes again.

This article was originally published in the December 2020 / January 2021 issue.

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Can't-Miss Teaching Extras
Visit a volcano

In 1980, Mt. St. Helens erupted in Washington state. It was the deadliest volcanic eruption in U.S. history. Check out footage from Storyworks author Lauren Tarshis’s trip to the volcano in this three-minute video

Make a science connection.

Investigate this story’s connections with environmental science with this fact-packed web page on volcanoes from DKfindout.

 

Explore a volcano map.

This interactive map from the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History lets you explore every volcanic event around the globe since 1960. You can click on any volcano to learn more about it!

Fun fact

The eruption of Mount Tambora was so powerful that it destroyed the top of the mountain! The eruption turned the 13,000-foot tall mountain into a 3,640-foot deep caldera, or volcanic crater. 

More About the Story

Skills

author’s craft, figurative language, text evidence, text structure, key idea, drawing conclusions, evaluating,  explanatory writing

Complexity Factors

Purpose

The article aims to illustrate, through one striking example, the profound effects that a volcanic eruption can have on climate worldwide, and how this, in turn, can have many unexpected and harmful effects.

Structure

The structure is nonlinear; the text includes narrative and informational passages.

Language

The article contains similes, personification, and rhetorical questions, as well as challenging domain-specific vocabulary, such as pyroclastic surge and stratosphere.

Knowledge Demands 

Some knowledge of global geography will help readers comprehend the scope of the volcano’s effects. The text mentions a number of geographic locations, including the East Coast, Indonesia, Europe, China, India, and the Phillipines.

Step-by-Step Lesson Plan

1. Preparing to Read

Build Knowledge, Preview Text Features, and Watch a Video

  • This story takes students from Vermont to the Indonesian island of Sumbawa. Point out the pictures of these places in the middle of the article. Before reading, have students find both places on a map (you can also do this together).
  • Invite students to browse through the rest of the article in print or online. Have them look at the pictures, captions, map, and sidebar. Ask: Based on what you saw, what do you think the article will be about? When did this event take place? How long ago was that? 
  • Show or assign the video “Behind the Scenes: The Volcano That Changed the World” to prepare for reading. Students can complete the Video Discussion Questions (available in your Resources tab) on their own or in groups in your classroom or in virtual breakout rooms.

Introduce Vocabulary

  • Show or assign the Vocabulary Slideshow (available in your Resources tab) to preview domain-specific words having to do with volcanoes and climate. Reinforce learning before or after reading with the Vocabulary Skill Builder.  Highlighted terms: droughts, dormant, eruption, plumes, spewing, pyroclastic surge, climate, monitored, stratosphere, migrations

*New for Remote Learners!

  • We created a Tambora Learning Journey Slide Deck (available in your Resources tab) that bundles the article, video, and close-reading questions together into a highly engaging learning journey.
  • Our Cause and Effect Skill Builder (available in your Resources tab) is available as a slide deck specifically designed for students to do on their own. 

2. Reading and Discussing

  • Have students read the article in the magazine or digitally. They can also listen to the Author Read-Aloud (available in your Resources tab), which now includes some additional questions and prompts from the author. 
  • Put students in groups, either in your classroom or in virtual breakout rooms. Ask them to read the article a second time and discuss or write their answers to the close-reading questions and critical-thinking questions.

Close-Reading Questions

  • Reread the first section of the article. Describe what John Hoisington and his family saw in June 1816. Why was this terrifying? (cause and effect) John and his family saw that an unusual snowstorm had buried their new crops under a foot of snow. This was terrifying because the family depended on their crops for everything they ate and fed to their animals. If the snow destroyed their food, they would struggle to survive.
  • In the middle of the first section of the article, the author describes weather disasters that happened around the world in 1816. Why does she ask, “Were witches to blame?” (author’s craft) The question shows that people didn’t understand weather science in 1816. To explain the unusual weather, they came up with supernatural explanations. 
  • Reread the section “A Ruined Land.” What does the author mean when she writes “Tambora woke up”? (figurative language) She means that the volcano became active and erupted. She uses personification, speaking of the volcano as if it were a person who woke up.
  • What happened to the people of Sumbawa and the island as a result of the eruption? (cause and effect) At least 12,000 people died instantly. Ash and lava destroyed the soil and poisoned the waters, so people could no longer fish or grow crops for food. Almost all the animals were killed as well. With no food sources, more than 90,000 people starved to death. 
  • Why didn’t people around the world know about the eruption? (text evidence) Mount Tambora was far away, and news traveled slowly at that time.
  • Reread the section “Solving a Mystery.” Why does the author explain what happened when Mount Pinatubo erupted? What is the main idea of the section? (text structure) The author compares what happened at Pinatubo with what happened at Tambora. The main idea of the section is that a volcano’s eruption cloud can change Earth’s climate by blocking the sun’s light.
  • What happened to the Hoisingtons in the end? How is this similar to what happened to many others? (key idea) The Hoisingtons moved to Ohio, like tens of thousands of others who migrated to Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana after their farms were destroyed by the strange weather.

Critical-Thinking Question

  • What can you conclude from this article about how a change in the climate can affect the planet? Use text evidence in your answer. (drawing conclusions) You can conclude that a change in the climate can cause a variety of unexpected consequences. The drop in Earth’s temperature caused snowstorms, monsoons, floods, and Arctic melting, which in turn caused crop failure, famine, disease. These things led to migration. Some students might extrapolate that the changes in 1816 suggest that current climate change could also have severe and unexpected consequences. 
  • Scientists have only recently discovered that disasters around the world were caused by one event—Tambora’s eruption. What do you think is one reason this discovery is important? (evaluating) Answers may include that it shows how different parts of the world are connected and can affect one another, even if the connections are hard to see at first.

3. SEL Focus

Modeling Resilience 

The Hoisingtons faced a crisis during the summer of the unexpected snowstorm. They wound up leaving their home and taking a long journey to an area they knew little about. We know from historical records that they settled in Ohio, built a new farm, and went on with their lives. Explain this to students and then ask: What do you think it was like for John to have to leave Vermont and start a new life in Ohio? What do you think helped him along the way? Answers will vary. Students might say that it was very hard and frightening to leave, but that John and his family helped each other as they faced doubts and worries. Encourage students to make connections between the Hoisingtons’ challenges and challenges they might have faced in their own lives. 

4. Skill Building and Writing

  • Distribute or assign the Cause and Effect Skill Builder (available in your Resources tab), which will prepare students to respond to the writing prompt at the end of the article. 
  • Have students complete the Research Kit for this article (available in your Resources tab), which can be done independently or in pairs. 

Great Ideas for Remote Learning

Create a “Learn More” Collaborative Slideshow
 

Explain to kids that one of the exciting parts of reading nonfiction is that it sparks curiosity. At the end of every nonfiction article or book they read, they should ask themselves, “What do I want to learn next?” Prompt students to ask themselves that question about the Tambora article and then research the answer. This will be the basis for your collaborative slideshow. Create a Google slide deck or PowerPoint with one slide for each child, and assign each child a slide number. Have students create their slide with facts they uncover in their research. Encourage them to use both text and images. 

Differentiate and Customize
For Struggling Readers

This story has a challenging text structure in that it switches between many different geographic settings around the world. To help struggling readers understand the places the article takes them and grasp how they are connected, gather them in a group and project the presentation view, or share your screen for them to see it. Invite students to point out place names they see in each section and highlight them using the highlighter tool. For each section, discuss what happened in the place(s) mentioned and why the author is telling them about these events. 

For Advanced Readers

Have students read “Mountain of Fire,” from our January 2016 issue, about the eruption of Mount St. Helens, or “The Eruption of Mt. Vesuvius,” from our December 2019/January 2020 issue. Then have them synthesize information from both (or all three!) articles to write an encyclopedia entry about the possible effects of a volcanic eruption. 

For ELL Students

Have students read or listen to the lower-Lexile version of the article. Then assign the Questions for English Language Learners, which is now student-facing! You can share it with students digitally as an interactive activity or print out a pdf to distribute or include in a packet. The first page has yes/no questions, the second has either/or questions, and the third has short-answer questions; assign the questions that fit your students’ level.

Text-to-Speech