Global Impacts of the 1600 Eruption of Peru's Huaynaputina Volcano

The human impacts of the 1815 eruption of Tambora volcano in eastern Indonesia are well known. The sulfur injected into the stratosphere by that eruption produced a veil of sunlight-reflecting sulfate aerosols. The following year, often called the “year without a summer,” was marked by significant global cooling, resulting in crop failures, famine, and social unrest as well as by a broad array of climatic impacts [Oppenheimer, 2003]. Over the past 10,000 years, there have been many other volcanic eruptions of comparable (and greater) magnitude than Tambora, and at least some of these must have had similar effects. However, Tambora is the only major eruption whose global climatic and human impacts have been comprehensively documented.