1257 Samalas eruption

The 1257 Samalas eruption was a major volcanic eruption of the Samalas volcano, next to Mount Rinjani on the island of Lombok, Indonesia. It left a large caldera next to Rinjani volcano, the lake Segara Anak. This volcanic eruption reached a volcanic explosivity index of 7, making it one of the largest eruptions of the Holocene. The occurrence of this eruption was originally deduced from ice core information revealing a spike in sulfate deposition around the year 1257; in 2013 the source of this eruption at Samalas was definitively proven as a result of historical records from that time.

This eruption proceeded during four distinct phases, alternately creating eruption columns reaching up for tens of kilometres and pyroclastic flows that buried large parts of Lombok, destroying human habitations including the city of Pamatan. Ash from the eruption fell as far as Java. The volume of the deposits left exceeds 10 cubic kilometres (2.4 cu mi). Later activity from the volcano created additional volcanic centres in the caldera, including the present day active Barujari cone.

The eruption was witnessed by humans on Lombok, who recorded its effects on text written on palm leaves. The aerosols injected by the volcano into the atmosphere reduced the solar radiation reaching the surface of the Earth, triggering a volcanic winter and cooling lasting for several years. It is possible that the 1257 Samalas eruption helped trigger the Little Ice Age.

Samalas and Mount Rinjani are located in the Sunda arc, a subduction zone where the Australian plate subducts beneath the Eurasian plate. The magmas feeding Samalas and Rinjani probably form from peridotites in the mantle wedge beneath Lombok. Other volcanoes in the region are Agung, Batur and Bratan on Bali, west of Lombok. Before the eruption, Samalas may have been 4,200 ± 100 metres (13,780 ± 330 ft) high based on reconstructions.

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