Tambora
Indonesia · Stratovolcano · -8.25, 118.00 · volcano number 264040
Nothing above background is currently reported at this system. For a volcano outside the United States and Japan that means only that it is not in the Smithsonian's weekly report, not that it is quiet.
What this system is
| Type | Stratovolcano |
|---|---|
| Country | Indonesia |
| Position | -8.25, 118.00 |
| Largest known eruption | VEI 7, about 1815 |
| Why it is on this list | vei7 holocene |
Recorded history
NOAA's hazard records hold 2 significant earthquakes and one significant eruption at or within 40 km of this volcano since 1815.
The deadliest was the 10 April 1815 VEI 7 eruption (Tambora, Lesser Sunda Is), which killed 60,000 people.
The strongest earthquake on record here was magnitude 6.5, on 25 November 2007 (Indonesia: Sumbawa Island).
The most recent entry is the 31 July 2016 magnitude 5.6 earthquake (Indonesia: Sumbawa Island: West Nusa Tenggara).
Across the entries that record a death toll, 60,003 people died.
| Date | What | Where | Toll |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 April 1815 | VEI 7 eruption | Tambora, Lesser Sunda Is | 60,000 dead, damage over $25 million |
| 25 November 2007 | magnitude 6.5 earthquake | Indonesia: Sumbawa Island | 3 dead, damage $1 to 5 million |
| 31 July 2016 | magnitude 5.6 earthquake | Indonesia: Sumbawa Island: West Nusa Tenggara | damage $1 to 5 million |
A dash means NOAA recorded no number, not that nobody died. Older entries are fewer because fewer were written down, not because less happened.
Recorded history: NOAA NCEI hazard databases, public domain, retrieved 2026-10-22.
What this rests on
The eruption of April 1815 is the largest in recorded history, 37 to 45 km3 of dense-rock equivalent, and the following year was cold enough worldwide to be remembered as the year without a summer.
That sentence is ours. A fuller account, with its own citations, is where to check it. It was a quotation from the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program until September 2026, when their terms stopped being compatible with a site carrying advertising.
Who watches it
Pusat Vulkanologi dan Mitigasi Bencana Geologi (PVMBG) monitors this system and publishes its alert level. https://magma.esdm.go.id/v1
In an eruption, that observatory is the authority. This page follows it; it does not compete with it.
Other systems tracked
Where these numbers come from
National Geophysical Data Center / World Data Service (NGDC/WDS): NCEI/WDS Global Significant Volcanic Eruptions Database. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. doi:10.7289/V5JW8BSH Licence: NOAA NCEI: access to this dataset is unrestricted (US federal work, public domain). Positions and eruption records come from that database; the sentence above is ours. Alert levels come from the publishing observatory.