1257 Samalas eruption

1257 Samalas eruption
View of Mount Samalas along with Mount Rinjani
Volcano	Samalas
Date	1257
Type	Ultra-Plinian
Location	Lombok, Indonesia 8°24′36″S 116°24′30″E / 8.41000°S 116.40833°E / -8.41000; 116.40833
VEI	7[1]
The volcano-caldera complex in the north of Lombok

In 1257, a catastrophic eruption occurred at Samalas, a volcano on the Indonesian island of Lombok. The event had a probable Volcanic Explosivity Index of 7,^[a] making it one of the largest volcanic eruptions during the Holocene epoch. It left behind a large caldera that contains Lake Segara Anak. Later volcanic activity created more volcanic centres in the caldera, including the Barujari cone, which remains active.

The event created eruption columns reaching tens of kilometres into the atmosphere and pyroclastic flows that buried much of Lombok and crossed the sea to reach the neighbouring island of Sumbawa. The flows destroyed human habitations, including the city of Pamatan, which was the capital of a kingdom on Lombok. Ash from the eruption fell as far as 340 kilometres (210 mi) away in Java; the volcano deposited more than 10 cubic kilometres (2.4 cu mi) of rocks and ash.

The aerosols injected into the atmosphere reduced the solar radiation reaching the Earth's surface, causing a volcanic winter and cooling the atmosphere for several years. This led to famines and crop failures in Europe and elsewhere, although the exact scale of the temperature anomalies and their consequences is still debated. The eruption may have helped trigger the Little Ice Age, a centuries-long cold period during the last thousand years.

Before the site of the eruption was known, an examination of ice cores around the world had detected a large spike in sulfate deposition from around 1257 providing strong evidence of a large volcanic eruption occurring at that time. In 2013, scientists linked the historical records about Mount Samalas to these spikes. These records were written by people who witnessed the event and recorded it on the Babad Lombok, a document written on palm leaves.

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