Pāhonoa te oro

In 1816, summer never came. Snow fell in June. Crops failed across Europe and North America. People were starving. The cause wasn’t war or politics. It was a volcano. One year earlier, Mount Tambora erupted in Indonesia. It was the most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded history. Ash filled the atmosphere and blocked sunlight worldwide. Temperatures dropped. Harvests collapsed. Even Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein during that cold, dark year. A single eruption changed the world’s climate.