The coldest year. The coldest year Documentary film “BBC. Time scale. A year without summer"

The Year Without Summer is a nickname for the year 1816, which saw unusually cold weather in Western Europe and North America. To this day, it remains the coldest year since meteorological records began. In the USA he was also nicknamed Eighteen hundred and frozen to death, which translates as “one thousand eight hundred frozen to death.”

In March 1816, the temperature continued to be wintry. In April and May there was an unnatural amount of rain and hail. In June and July there was frost every night in America. Up to a meter of snow fell in New York and the northeastern United States. Germany was repeatedly tormented by strong storms, many rivers (including the Rhine) overflowed their banks. In Switzerland there was snow every month. The unusual cold led to a catastrophic crop failure. In the spring of 1817, grain prices increased tenfold, and famine broke out among the population. Tens of thousands of Europeans, still suffering from the destruction of the Napoleonic Wars, emigrated to America.

It was not until 1920 that American climate researcher William Humphreys found an explanation for the “year without a summer.” He linked climate change to the eruption of Mount Tambora on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa, the most powerful volcanic eruption ever observed, directly costing the lives of 71,000 people, which is the largest number deaths from a volcanic eruption in the entire history of mankind. Its eruption in April 1815 recorded a magnitude seven on the Volcanic Eruption Index (VEI) and a massive 150 km³ of ash released into the atmosphere, causing a volcanic winter in the northern hemisphere that lasted for several years.

There is information that after the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991, the temperature dropped by 0.5 degrees, the same as after the eruption of Tambora in 1815.

We should have observed in 1992 throughout the northern hemisphere approximately the same phenomena that are described as “the year without summer.” However, there was nothing of the kind. And if you compare it with other eruptions, you will notice that they did not always coincide with climatic anomalies. The hypothesis is bursting at the seams. These are the “white threads” with which she is sewn that are spreading.

Here's another strange thing. In 1816, a climate problem occurred “throughout the entire Northern Hemisphere.” But Tambora is located in the southern hemisphere, 1000 km from the equator. The fact is that in the Earth’s atmosphere at altitudes above 20 km (in the stratosphere) there are stable air currents along parallels. Dust thrown into the stratosphere to a height of 43 km should have been distributed along the equator with a shift of the dust belt to the southern hemisphere. What do the USA and Europe have to do with it?

Egypt, Central Africa, Central America, Brazil and, finally, Indonesia itself were supposed to freeze. But the climate there was very good. Interestingly, it was at this time, in 1816, that coffee began to be grown in Costa Rica, which is located about 1000 km north of the equator. The reason for this was: “...the ideal alternation of rainy and dry seasons. And, constant temperature throughout the year, which has a beneficial effect on the development of coffee bushes..."

And their business, you know, took off. That is, there was prosperity even several thousand kilometers north of the equator. But then there is a complete “pipe”. It’s interesting to know how it is that 150 cubic kilometers of erupted soil jumped 5...8 thousand kilometers from southern hemisphere to the north, at an altitude of 43 kilometers, contrary to all longitudinal stratospheric currents, without spoiling the weather for the residents one bit Central America? But this dust brought down all its terrible photon-scattering impenetrability onto Europe and North America.

But the strangest thing in this worldwide deception is the role of Russia. Even if you live half your life in archives and libraries, you will not find a word about bad weather in the Russian Empire in 1816. We supposedly had a normal harvest, the sun was shining and the grass was green. We probably live neither in the Southern nor in the Northern Hemisphere, but in some third.

Let's test ourselves for sobriety. It's about time, because we are facing a huge optical illusion. So, there was famine and cold in Europe in 1816...1819! This is a fact confirmed by many written sources. Could this have bypassed Russia? It could, if it concerned only the western regions of Europe. But in this case, we would definitely have to forget about the volcanic hypothesis. After all, stratospheric dust is pulled along parallels around the entire planet.

And, besides, no less fully than in Europe, the tragic events are covered in North America. But they are still separated Atlantic Ocean. What kind of locality can we talk about here? The event clearly affected the entire northern hemisphere, including Russia. An option when North America and Europe froze and starved for 3 years in a row, and Russia did not even notice the difference.

Thus, from 1816 to 1819, cold really reigned throughout the entire northern hemisphere, including Russia, no matter what anyone said. Scientists confirm this and call the first half of the 19th century the “Little Ice Age.” And here’s an important question: who will suffer more from a 3-year cold, Europe or Russia? Of course, Europe will cry louder, but it will suffer stronger Russia. And that's why. In Europe (Germany, Switzerland), the summer growth time of plants reaches 9 months, and in Russia – about 4 months. This means that we were not only 2 times less likely to grow sufficient reserves for the winter, but also 2.5 times more likely to die of hunger during a longer winter. And if in Europe the population suffered, then in Russia the situation was 4 times worse, including in terms of mortality. This is if you don’t take into account any magic. Well, what if?..

I offer readers a magical scenario. Suppose there is a wizard who twirled his staff and changed the movement of high-altitude winds so that the sun would not be blocked for us. But I myself am not convinced by this option. No, I believe in good wizards, but I don’t believe in foreigners who fled tens of thousands all the way overseas, instead of calmly coming and staying in Russia, where it is so good, where they are always welcome.

Apparently, after all, in Russia it was much worse than in Europe. Moreover, it was our territory that was probably the source of climatic troubles throughout the hemisphere. And in order to hide this (someone needed it), all mentions of it were removed or reworked.

But if you think about it sensibly, how could this be? The entire northern hemisphere is suffering from climate anomalies and does not know what is wrong. The first scientific version appears only 100 years later, and it does not stand up to criticism. But the cause of events must be located precisely at our latitudes. And if this reason is not observed in America and Europe, then where could it be if not in Russia? There is nowhere else. And here it is the Russian Empire that pretends that it doesn’t know what it’s all about. We didn’t see or hear, and in general everything was fine with us. Familiar behavior, and very suspicious.

However, one must take into account the missing estimated population of 19th century Russia, numbering in the tens, perhaps hundreds of millions. They could have died both from the very unknown cause that caused climate change, and from severe consequences in the form of hunger, cold and disease. And let’s also not forget about the traces of widespread large-scale fires that destroyed our forests around that time (for more details, see the article “

We continue to discover the mysteries of our recent past, formidable and tragic. Incredible assumptions at first glance are confirmed by many facts. Let's evaluate the scale of events, the scope of forgery and concealment of evidence...

I had a dream... Not everything in it was a dream

Dark(excerpts)

I had a dream... Not everything in it was a dream.
The bright sun went out and the stars
Wandered without a goal, without rays
In eternal space; icy land
She rushed blindly in the moonless air.
The hour of morning came and went,
But he did not bring the day with him...

...People lived in front of the fires; thrones,
Palaces of crowned kings, huts,
The dwellings of all those who have dwellings -
They built fires... cities burned...

...Happy were the inhabitants of those countries
Where the torches of volcanoes blazed...
The whole world lived with one timid hope...
The forests were set on fire; but with each passing hour it faded
And the charred forest fell; trees
Suddenly, with a menacing crash, they collapsed...

...The war broke out again,
Extinguished for a while...
...Terrible hunger
Tormented people...
And people died quickly...

And the world was empty;
That crowded world, mighty world
Was a dead mass, without grass, trees
Without life, time, people, movement...
That was the chaos of death.

George Noel Gordon Byron, 1816

Translation - Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev

They say that Lord Byron put these images on paper in the summer of 1816 at the villa of the English writer Mary Shelley in Switzerland near Lake Geneva. Their friends were with them. Due to extremely bad weather, it was often impossible to leave the house. So they decided that everyone would write creepy story, which they will then read to each other. Mary Shelley wrote her famous story"Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus", Lord Byron's physician John Polidori wrote the story "Vampyr"- the first story about vampires, long before the appearance of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula.

This is the generally accepted elegant version. When describing events in Western Europe, our brains are always poured with caramel and sprinkled with icing. The writers, you know, vacationed on the lake in the summer. It was ordinary and boring, bad weather did not allow them to play badminton, and they began to tell each other stories from the crypt. That's it - the topic is closed.

But the topic is not closed! Byron had no vision problems and should have been able to see what was happening around him in 1816. And what happened, in general, was exactly what he described, adjusted for poetic imagination. And in general, Mary Shelley and her friends in their country house at that time could only hide from the disaster that befell Europe, taking with them more food supplies, salt, matches and kerosene.

1816 named "A Year Without Summer". In the USA he was also nicknamed Eighteen hundred and frozen to death, which translates to “one thousand eight hundred and frozen to death.” Scientists call this time the “Little Ice Age.”

Beginning in the spring of 1816, inexplicable phenomena were happening all over the world, especially in the northern hemisphere, where civilization was mainly concentrated. It seemed that the “plagues of Egypt” familiar from the Bible had fallen on people’s heads. In March 1816, the temperature continued to be wintry. There was an unnatural amount of rain and hail in April and May, and a sudden frost destroyed most of the crops in the United States, in June two giant snow storms led to the death of people July and in August rivers frozen with ice were noted even in Pennsylvania (south of the latitude of Sochi). During June And July in America every night freezing. Up to a meter of snow fell in New York and the northeastern United States. At the height of summer, the temperature during the day jumped from 35 degrees Celsius to almost zero.

Germany was repeatedly tormented by strong storms, many rivers (including the Rhine) overflowed their banks. In starving Switzerland, snow fell every month (to the delight of our “vacating” writers); a state of emergency was even declared there. Hunger riots swept across Europe, crowds hungry for bread destroyed grain warehouses. The unusual cold led to a catastrophic crop failure. As a result of this, in the spring of 1817, grain prices increased tenfold, and famine broke out among the population. Tens of thousands of Europeans, still suffering from the destruction of the Napoleonic Wars, emigrated to America. But even there the situation was not much better. Nobody could understand or explain anything. Hunger, cold, panic and despondency reigned throughout the “civilized” world. In a word - "Dark".

It turns out that Byron had rich practical material for his poem.

Perhaps someone will think that the poet has exaggerated his colors too much. But this is only if a person is unfamiliar with real animal hunger, when you feel that life is leaving your body drop by drop. But you really want to survive, and then your gaze begins to meticulously evaluate any surrounding objects for the possibility of somehow eating it. When you begin to feel every bone of your skeleton, and you are surprised at how light and thin they are. But all this after endless severe headaches and aches in every joint. Most often, at such moments, the lofty, moral, human falls asleep and the animal remains. Emaciated creatures, with no light of reason in their eyes, move unnaturally through the dark, dirty streets. Every hunter or hunted. The world around seems to fade and become gray. However, read Byron.

So, there was famine in Europe. That is, not just malnutrition, but real HUNGER. Were cold, which can only be defeated by food and fire, fire and food. Add to this dirt, disease and stratification of society. Most of the poor were robbed, who barely ate, and the rich, who tried to survive as long as possible on their supplies (for example, by escaping to a country house). So, judging by the generally known facts about Western Europe in 1816, the picture emerges very gloomy.

The question arises: a what actually happened? The first plausible scientific version on this matter appeared only 100 years later. American climate researcher William Humphreys found an explanation "a year without summer". He linked climate change to the eruption of Mount Tambora on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa. This hypothesis is still generally accepted in the scientific world. It's simple. A volcano explodes, throws 150 cubic kilometers of soil into the stratosphere, and, supposedly, the necessary atmospheric phenomena. Dust, the sun does not penetrate, etc. But here is an interesting table:

Table I. Comparison of individual volcanic eruptions
Eruptions		Location	Height columns (km)	Scale volcanic eruptions	Average temperature drop (°C)	Death toll
Uaynaputina		Pacific Ring of Fire
	Indonesia	Pacific Ring of Fire
Krakatoa	Indonesia	Pacific Ring of Fire
Santa Maria	Guatemala	Pacific Ring of Fire			no changes noticed
	USA, Alaska	Pacific Ring of Fire
St Helens	USA, Washington	Pacific Ring of Fire			no changes noticed
El Chichon		Pacific Ring of Fire
Nevado del Ruiz	Colombia	Pacific Ring of Fire			no changes noticed
Pinatubo	Philippines	Pacific Ring of Fire

According to this table, after the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991, the temperature dropped by the same 0.5 degrees as after the eruption of Tambora in 1815. We should have observed in 1992 throughout the northern hemisphere approximately the same phenomena that are described as "a year without summer". However, there was nothing of the kind. And if you compare it with other eruptions, you will notice that they did not always coincide with climatic anomalies. The hypothesis is bursting at the seams. These are the “white threads” with which she is sewn that are spreading.

Here's another strange thing. In 1816, the climate problem happened precisely “ throughout the Northern Hemisphere" But Tambora is located in the southern hemisphere, 1000 km from the equator. The fact is that in the Earth’s atmosphere at altitudes above 20 km (in the stratosphere) there are stable air currents along parallels. Dust thrown into the stratosphere to a height of 43 km should have been distributed along the equator with a shift of the dust belt to the southern hemisphere. What do the USA and Europe have to do with it?

Egypt, Central Africa, Central America, Brazil and, finally, Indonesia itself were supposed to freeze. But the climate there was very good. Interestingly, it was at this time, in 1816, that coffee began to be grown in Costa Rica, which is located about 1000 km north of the equator. The reason for this was: “...a perfect alternation of rainy and dry seasons. And, constant temperature throughout the year, which has a beneficial effect on the development of coffee bushes..."

And their business, you know, took off. That is, it was several thousand kilometers north of the equator prosperity. But then there is a complete “pipe”. How is it, it’s interesting to know, that 150 cubic kilometers of erupted soil jumped 5...8 thousand kilometers from the southern hemisphere to the northern, at an altitude of 43 kilometers, contrary to all longitudinal stratospheric currents, without spoiling the weather one bit for the residents of Central America? But this dust brought down all its terrible photon-scattering impenetrability onto Europe and North America.

William Humphreys, the founder of this scientific duck, probably won’t answer us anything, but modern climatologists are obliged to mumble something about this. After all, so far none of them have openly refuted gross scientific error, means we agree. Moreover, they are well aware of stratospheric currents, and even build quite reasonable development models similar situations. For example, there are ]]> forecasts of nuclear winter ]]> , where the direction of propagation of stratospheric flows is clearly visible. True, for some reason it talks about smoke thrown into the stratosphere, which is wrong. During a nuclear explosion, it is dust that is released (just like in a volcano).

Let's test ourselves for sobriety. Now is the time, for we are facing a huge optical illusion. So, there was famine and cold in Europe in 1816...1819! This fact, confirmed by many written sources. Could this have bypassed Russia? It could, if it concerned only the western regions of Europe. But in this case, we would definitely have to forget about the volcanic hypothesis. After all, stratospheric dust is pulled along parallels around the entire planet.

And, besides, no less fully than in Europe, the tragic events are covered in North America. But they are still separated by the Atlantic Ocean. What kind of locality can we talk about here? The event clearly affected the entire northern hemisphere, including Russia. The option when North America and Europe froze and starved for 3 years in a row, and Russia did not even notice the difference, is possible only under the auspices of N.V. Levashov. (see article ]]> “The Taming of the Shrew” ]]>), which we will probably see soon. But at that time there was no need to talk about Levashov.

Thus, from 1816 to 1819, cold really reigned throughout the entire northern hemisphere, including Russia, no matter what anyone said. Scientists confirm this and call the first half of the 19th century "little ice age". And here’s an important question: who will suffer more from a 3-year cold, Europe or Russia? Of course, Europe will cry louder, but Russia will suffer more. And that's why. In Europe (Germany, Switzerland), the summer growth time of plants reaches 9 months, and in Russia - about 4. This means that we were not only 2 times less likely to grow sufficient reserves for the winter, but also 2.5 times more likely to die of hunger during a longer winter. And if in Europe the population suffered, then in Russia the situation was 4 times worse, including in terms of mortality. This is if you don’t take into account any magic. Well, what if?..

I offer readers a magical scenario. Suppose there is a wizard who twirled his staff and changed the movement of high-altitude winds so that the sun would not be blocked for us. But I myself am not convinced by this option. No, I believe in good wizards, but in foreigners who scuttled overseas in the tens of thousands, instead of calmly coming and staying in Russia, where it is so good, where they are always welcome, I do not believe.

There is no doubt that on the territory of Russia in 1815-1816 there took place some events, which plunged the entire “civilized world” into darkness. But what could it be? It is not for nothing that the scientific community is inclined to the volcanic version. After all, numerous atmospheric phenomena that accompanied the “Little Ice Age” indicate that the stratosphere was polluted with large amounts of dust. And only a volcano or a powerful nuclear explosion (a series of explosions) can throw several cubic kilometers of dust to a height of more than 20 kilometers. Use of nuclear weapons before 1945 - taboo. Therefore, only the volcano remained for scientists. In the absence of a more suitable volcano location, the Indonesian Tambora was appointed to this position.

But scientists know that the processes of soil ejection accompanying ground nuclear explosion, are very close to volcanic ones, and they did not hesitate to calculate that the Tambora eruption corresponded in power explosion 800 megaton nuclear warhead.

Today we have every reason to take note of the idea that territory of Russia in 1815-1816 became a testing ground for grandiose events accompanied by the release large quantity dust into the stratosphere, plunging the entire northern hemisphere into darkness and cold for 3 years. Scientists call it "little ice age", but we can say it another way - "small nuclear winter". This caused great casualties among our population and likely severely damaged the economy. It is also important to know that someone really wanted to hide it…

Alexey Artemiev, Izhevsk

It was not until 1920 that American climate researcher William Humphreys found an explanation for the “year without a summer.” He linked climate change to the eruption of Mount Tambora on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa, the most powerful volcanic eruption ever observed, directly costing the lives of 71,000 people, the highest death toll from a volcanic eruption in recorded history. Its eruption in April 1815 recorded a magnitude seven on the Volcanic Eruption Index (VEI) and a massive 150 km³ of ash released into the atmosphere, causing a volcanic winter in the northern hemisphere that lasted for several years.

There is information that after the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991, the temperature dropped by 0.5 degrees, the same as after the eruption of Tambora in 1815.

And their business, you know, took off. That is, there was prosperity even several thousand kilometers north of the equator. But then there is a complete “pipe”. How is it, it’s interesting to know, that 150 cubic kilometers of erupted soil jumped 5...8 thousand kilometers from the southern hemisphere to the northern, at an altitude of 43 kilometers, contrary to all longitudinal stratospheric currents, without spoiling the weather one bit for the residents of Central America? But this dust brought down all its terrible photon-scattering impenetrability onto Europe and North America.

Thus, from 1816 to 1819, cold really reigned throughout the entire northern hemisphere, including Russia, no matter what anyone said. Scientists confirm this and call the first half of the 19th century the “Little Ice Age.” And here’s an important question: who will suffer more from a 3-year cold, Europe or Russia? Of course, Europe will cry louder, but Russia will suffer more. And that's why. In Europe (Germany, Switzerland), the summer growth time of plants reaches 9 months, and in Russia – about 4 months. This means that we were not only 2 times less likely to grow sufficient reserves for the winter, but also 2.5 times more likely to die of hunger during a longer winter. And if in Europe the population suffered, then in Russia the situation was 4 times worse, including in terms of mortality. This is if you don’t take into account any magic. Well, what if?..

However, one must take into account the missing estimated population of 19th century Russia, numbering in the tens, perhaps hundreds of millions. They could have died either from the very unknown cause that caused climate change, or from severe consequences in the form of hunger, cold and disease. And let’s also not forget about the traces of widespread large-scale fires that destroyed our forests around that time.

As a result, the expression “centuries-old spruce” (hundred-year-old) bears the imprint of rare antiquity, although the normal lifespan of this tree is 400...600 years. And numerous craters, identical to traces from explosions of nuclear weapons, can not be taken into account for now, since it is not possible to accurately determine their age.

Addition: Dependence of average annual temperatures on powerful eruptions:

But scientists cannot find the reason for the cold snap of 1258.

The mysterious eruption of 1258 excites volcanologists.

It is believed that air masses in different latitudinal hemispheres do not communicate with each other. Those. air from the southern hemisphere does not enter the northern and vice versa. What can you say about currents?

Questions, just questions...

In this post I want to show you all the wretchedness of traditional school education, first of all - the traditional study of history.

Because we will talk about causes and effects.

The problem with our education in general is the complete inability to explain why. Starting with why you need to know in what year Alexander the Great was born. And why can this be forgotten immediately after the exam. And why is it necessary to know in what year he made his transition from Suvorov through Kutuzov, but it is absolutely not necessary to know why he did it, and what the reasons were, and what happened as a result.

And this applies not only to history. In education in general there is darkness in terms of “why”, darkness in principle. Anyone who has studied music theory knows that major is cheerful and minor is sad. Anyone who tried to teach her at 35 knows that even under torture, teachers usually can't explain why. And if you put “Highway Star” by Deep Purple under their noses, written in G minor, and ask them to repeat it again about the sad minor, for some reason they lose their temper.

Why is that? Why is it that history, geography, music theory and even comparative linguistics are most often presented as a set of incoherent facts, dates and figures, but the presentation is completely devoid of cause and effect?

Because it's difficult.

Now I will show you with an example. There is nothing secret about it. All information was gleaned from Wikipedia, scattered throughout the pages. You could do it yourself. But they didn't. So I'll tell you.

I'll tell you the causes and effects.

Fasten seat belts. It will be dizzying.

Mount Tambora erupted in 1815, which is in Indonesia. It took place from 5 to 11 (according to other sources - until 17) April, and is one of the most powerful volcanic eruptions in documented history. This eruption is a 7 on the VEI volcanic eruption scale. For comparison, the average price of buckwheat is now about 37 hryvnia per kilogram. And an eruption of 8 points on the VEI scale will most likely throw us back into the Stone Age, where no prices for buckwheat will worry us anymore.

Therefore, 7 VEI points is quite a lot. The roar of the eruption was heard two and a half to three thousand kilometers away. Tsunami waves hit the islands of Indonesia, reaching heights of up to four meters. An estimated 4,600 people died as a result of the eruption itself.

Spoiler: the total number of deaths from the eruption and its first-order consequences is estimated at 70 thousand. This, by the way, is a conservative estimate.

Because the eruption of Mount Tambora resulted in the so-called “year without summer.” 1816 coldest year in recorded history.

(For erudite nerds: it’s actually a little more complicated than that. In 1809, there was another catastrophic volcanic eruption, which we know about only from isotope analysis of Arctic ice. It happened, but it’s unknown where and how. As a result of these two eruptions the entire decade of 1810-1820 was abnormally cold. In 1812, one of the factors of Napoleon's defeat in Russia was abnormal frosts, which most likely resulted from the first of the eruptions. Napoleon lost the war due to a volcanic eruption. Including.)

Let's return to the Tambora volcano. The colossal amount of ash emitted by the volcano into the atmosphere led to the so-called “volcanic winter” in the northern hemisphere of the planet. 1816, the so-called “year without summer,” is the result of a volcanic eruption.

The ash released into the atmosphere required time to spread across the planet and make an impact. Therefore, nothing like this happened in 1815. But a year later, in 1816, spring did not come. In March the temperature remained wintry. In April and May there was rain, hail, snow - depending on where. In Switzerland there was snow all year, for example. There were regular frosts in the United States that summer.

Abnormal cold weather led to crop failure and famine. Grain prices in Europe in the spring of 1817 increased by an average of ten times.

As a result, tens of thousands of Europeans emigrated to America. Mostly farmers, the first to suffer from crop failure. As a result of this invasion (and their own crop failure), some Americans also changed their place of residence, leaving New England for the New York area and the Midwest. As a result This led to the formation of the so-called "American Heartland" in the US Midwest. With the increase in population, the states of Indiana (December 1816) and Illinois (1818) were born.

As a result All this movement and migration has changed the demographics of New York State. In general, western New York was considered hyper-religious; after the migrations, the number of recently moved Europeans and New Englanders increased significantly.

Thus, western New York became the core of the abolitionist movement and the fight to abolish slavery. As a result of the eruption of Mount Tambora.

Let's continue with the little things.

As a result of crop failures For several years in a row, there was a massive migration from the state of Vermont - it is believed that during that period and for these reasons, from 10 to 15 thousand people left it.

Among them was the Smith family, who moved to... that's right, Western New York. Their son, Joseph Smith, would some time later become the founder of the Mormon sect - the Church of the Latter Day Saints.

As a result of the release of colossal amounts of ash into the atmosphere, the sunsets in those years were especially colorful. They are responsible for the special yellowish color palette in the paintings of that time - for example, in the German romanticist Caspar David Friedrich, and in the British romanticist William Turner, in whose work the “yellow period” would continue until the end of the 1820s.

As a result of rising food prices, including oats for horses, the German inventor Karl Dröz is thinking about replacing horses with mechanical devices. In 1818, he received a patent for the so-called. “trolley”, which is now, however, called the word “running bike”. Drez's invention became the prototype of both the modern handcar and the modern bicycle.

As a result of famine, which he experienced as a child in Darmstadt (Germany), a certain Justus von Liebig devotes himself to the study of plants and agronomy. He will become the founder of modern agrochemistry, and the first in history to synthesize mineral fertilizers.

As a result of abnormal weather conditions In India, a mutation of Vibrio cholerae occurs. Cholera wipes out a fair portion of the British army and marches briskly across the planet, reaching Russia by 1830. This is called the First Cholera Epidemic in Russia; the total number of deaths is up to 200 thousand people. Quarantine declared. A certain Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin finds himself virtually locked in his estate, where he intended to go for a very short time; he waits out the epidemic there and creates a series of works known as “Boldino Autumn” - they include “Eugene Onegin”, “Belkin’s Tales”, “Little Tragedies”, poems and poems.

As a result of bad weather in 1816, in the “year without summer,” a group of vacationers at the Villa Diodati near Lake Geneva discovers that their vacation is hopelessly ruined: the endless rain on some days does not even allow them to leave the house. Those gathered read aloud, including the work “Phantasmagorina, or Collection of Stories about Ghosts, Spirits, Phantoms, etc.” Lord Byron, who is present, invites each of the vacationers to compose their own scary story, and then read it out loud.

So a certain Mary Godwin, then not yet engaged to Percy Bysshe Shelley, known to us as Mary Shelley, writes the work “Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus.”

Byron himself also begins to write a story, but abandons it. Byron's personal physician, John William Polidori, ends the story. It would be published under Byron's name in April 1819 in The New Monthly Magazine, under the title "The Vampire", and would become the first literary work ever written about vampires.

And all this happened due to the eruption of Mount Tambora in April 1815.

Reading the article will take: 8 min.

Summer is a period of vacations, midday heat, fruit abundance, ice cream and soft drinks. Time for T-shirts, shorts, miniskirts and beach bikinis. Only in the middle of the second decade of the 19th century there was no summer. Severe winters gave way to snowy springs and turned into snowy-cold “summer” months. Three years without summer, three years without harvest, three years without hope... Three years that changed humanity forever.

Irish families try to escape flooding

It all started in 1812 - two volcanoes, La Soufriere (Saint Vincent Island, Leeward Islands) and Awu (Sangir Island, Indonesia) “turned on”. The volcanic relay was continued in 1813 by Suwanosejima (Tokara Island, Japan) and in 1814 by Mayon (Luzon Island, Philippines). Scientists estimate that the activity of four volcanoes has decreased average annual temperature on the planet by 0.5-0.7 o C and caused serious, albeit local (in the region of its location) damage to the population. However, the final cause of the mini-version of the Ice Age of 1816-1818 was the Indonesian Tambora.

Eruption of Mount Tambora 1815

On April 10, 1815, the Tambora volcano began to erupt on the island of Sumbawa (Indonesia) - within a few hours, the island with an area of 15,448 km 2 was completely covered with a layer of volcanic ash one and a half meters thick. The volcano ejected at least 100 km 3 of ash into the Earth's atmosphere. Tambor's activity (7 points out of a maximum 8 on the volcanic explosiveness index) led to a decrease in the average annual temperature by another 1-1.5 o C - the ash rose into the upper layer of the atmosphere and began to reflect the sun's rays, acting like a thick gray curtain on a window in sunny day. Modern scientists call the eruption of the Indonesian stratovolcano Tambora the largest in the last 2000 years.

However, high volcanic activity is not everything. Our star, the Sun, added fuel to the fire. The years of intense saturation of the Earth's atmosphere with volcanic ash coincided with a period of minimal solar activity(Dalton minimum), which began around 1796 and ended in 1820. At the beginning of the 19th century, our planet received less solar energy than before or later. The lack of solar heat reduced the average annual temperature on the Earth's surface by another 1-1.5 o C.

Average annual temperatures in 1816-1818 (based on materials from the website cru.uea.ac.uk)

Due to the small amount of thermal energy from the Sun, the waters of the seas and oceans cooled by about 2 o C, which completely changed the usual water cycle in nature and the wind rose on the continents of the Northern Hemisphere. Also, according to the testimony of English captains, many ice hummocks appeared off the east coast of Greenland, which had never happened before. The conclusion suggests itself - in 1816 (perhaps even earlier - in the middle of 1815) there was a deviation of the warm ocean current Gulf Stream, warming Europe.

Active volcanoes, a weakly active Sun, and cooling ocean and sea waters reduced the temperature of every month, every day in 1816 by 2.5-3 o C. It would seem - nonsense, some three degrees. But in an unindustrialized human society, these three “cold” degrees caused a terrible catastrophe on a global scale.

Flood on the outskirts of Paris

Europe. In 1816 and the two following years, European countries, still recovering from the Napoleonic Wars, became the worst place on Earth - cold, hunger, epidemics and severe fuel shortages hit them. For two years there was no harvest at all. In England, Germany and France, feverishly buying grain all over the world (mainly from the Russian Empire), hunger riots took place one after another. Crowds of French, Germans and British broke into grain warehouses and carried out all supplies. Grain prices soared tenfold. Against the backdrop of constant riots, mass arson and looting, the Swiss authorities introduced a state of emergency and a curfew in the country.

Instead of warmth, the summer months brought hurricanes, endless rain and snowstorms. Large rivers in Austria and Germany overflowed their banks and flooded large areas. A typhus epidemic broke out. In three years without a summer, over 100 thousand people died in Ireland alone. The desire to survive is the only thing that motivated the population Western Europe in 1816-1818. Tens of thousands of citizens of England, Ireland, Scotland, France and Holland sold property for next to nothing, abandoned everything that was not sold and fled across the ocean to the American continent.

Farmer in a field with dead corn in the US state of Vermont

North America. In March 1816, winter did not end, it was snowing and there were frosts. In April-May, America was covered with endless rains and hail, and in June-July - frosts. The corn harvest in the northern states of the United States was hopelessly lost, and attempts to grow at least some grain in Canada proved fruitless. Newspapers vying with each other promised famine, farmers slaughtered livestock en masse. Canadian authorities voluntarily opened grain warehouses to the population. Thousands of residents of the American northern lands moved south - for example, the state of Vermont was practically deserted.

China. The country's provinces, especially Yunnan, Heilongjiang, Anhui and Jiangxi, were hit by the powerful cyclone. It rained endlessly for weeks on end, and on summer nights the rice fields were frozen. For three years in a row, every summer in China was not summer at all - rain and frost, snow and hail. In the northern provinces, buffaloes died from hunger and cold. Unable to grow rice due to sudden harsh climate and floods in the Yangtze River valley, famine struck the country.

Famine in the provinces of the Chinese Qing Empire

India(V early XIX century - a colony of Great Britain (East India Company)). The territory of the country, for which monsoons (winds blowing from the ocean) and heavy rains are common in summer, was under the influence of severe drought - there were no monsoons. For three years in a row, drought at the end of summer was replaced by weeks of rain. A sharp change in climate contributed to the mutation of Vibrio cholerae - a severe cholera epidemic began in Bengal, covering half of India and quickly moving to the north.

Russia(Russian empire). Three devastating and difficult years for European countries, North America and Asia on the territory of Russia passed surprisingly smoothly - neither the authorities nor the population of the country simply noticed anything. On the contrary, all three years - 1816, 1817 and 1818 - the summer in Russia went much better than in other years. Warm, moderately dry weather contributed to good grain harvests, which were vying with each other for the cash-strapped countries of Europe and North America. The cooling of European seas, along with a possible change in the direction of the Gulf Stream, has only improved climatic conditions in Russia.

Emperor Nicholas I stops the cholera riot in Moscow

However, the echo of the events of three years without a summer still affected Russia. In 1830-1831, two waves of cholera epidemic swept across the Russian Empire, the new kind which arose in 1816 - in Indian Bengal. Expeditionary troops returned to Russia, having participated in the Asian wars with the Persians and Turks for several years. Along with them came cholera, from which 197,069 citizens of the Russian Empire died in two years (official data), and a total of 466,457 people fell ill.

Three years without summer and the events that developed during this period influenced many generations of earthlings, including you, readers of the swagor.com blog. See for yourself.

Dracula and Frankenstein. A holiday on Lake Geneva (Switzerland) in May-June 1816 of a group of friends, including George Gordon, Lord Byron and Mary Shelley, was completely ruined by gloomy weather and constant rain. Due to bad weather, the friends were forced to spend their evenings in the fireplace room of the Villa Diodati, rented by Lord Byron during his vacation.

Adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

They amused themselves by reading aloud stories about ghosts (the book was called “Phantasmagorina or Stories about ghosts, phantoms, spirits, etc.”). Also discussed were the experiments of the poet Erasmus Darwin, who was rumored to have studied the effects of weak electric current on the organs of a dead human body. Byron invited everyone to write short story on a supernatural theme - there was nothing to do anyway. It was then that Mary Shelley came up with the idea of a novel about Dr. Frankenstein - she later admitted that she dreamed of the plot after one of the evenings at Villa Diodati.

Lord Byron told a short "supernatural" story about Augustus Darwell, who fed on the blood of the women he loved. Doctor John Polidori, hired by the Baron to care for his health, carefully remembered the plot of the vampire story. Later, when Byron fired Polidori, he wrote a short story about Lord Ruthven, calling it "The Vampire". Polidori deceived English publishers - he stated that the vampire story was written by Byron and the lord himself asked him to bring the manuscript to England for publication. The publication of the story in 1819 became the subject of litigation between Byron, who denied the authorship of “The Vampire,” and Polidori, who argued the opposite. One way or another, it was the winter summer of 1816 that became the reason for all subsequent ones.

John Smith Jr.

Mormons. In 1816, John Smith Jr. was 11 years old. Due to summer frosts and the threat of famine, his family was forced to leave their farm in Vermont in 1817 and settled in the town of Palmyra, located in western New York. Since this region was extremely popular with various kinds preachers (mild climate, abundance of flocks and donations), young John Smith was completely immersed in the study of religion and near-religious rituals. Years later, at the age of 24, Smith published the Book of Mormon, later founding the Mormon religious sect in Illinois.

Superphosphate fertilizer. The Darmstadt pharmacist's son Justus von Liebig survived three hungry years without a summer when he was 13-16 years old. In his youth, he was interested in firecrackers and actively experimented with “fulminate” mercury (mercuric fulminate), and since 1831, remembering the harsh years of the “volcanic winter”, he began in-depth research organic chemistry. Von Liebig developed superphosphate fertilizers that significantly increased grain yields. By the way, when Indian cholera came to Europe, it happened in the 50s of the 19th century, it was Justus von Liebig who developed the first effective cure for this disease (the name of the drug is Fleischinfusum).

English fleet attacks Chinese warships

Opium Wars. Three years without a summer has hit Chinese farmers in the country's southern provinces, who traditionally grow rice, hard. Threatened by famine, farmers in southern China decided to grow opium poppies because they were unpretentious and guaranteed to generate income. Although the emperors of the Qing dynasty categorically prohibited the cultivation of opium poppies, farmers ignored this ban (they bribed officials). By 1820, the number of opium addicts in China had risen from the previous two million to seven million, and Emperor Daoguang banned the import of opium into China, smuggled in exchange for silver from the colonies of Great Britain and the United States. In response, England, France and the United States started a war in China, the goal of which was the unlimited import of opium into the Qing Empire.

Bicycle trolley by Karl von Dres

Bike. Observing the difficult situation with oats for horses in 1816, the German inventor Karl von Dres decided to build a new type of transport. In 1817, he created the first prototype of modern bicycles and motorcycles - two wheels, a frame with a seat and a T-shaped handlebar. True, von Dres's bicycle did not have pedals - the rider was asked to push off from the ground and slow down when turning with his feet. Karl von Dres is best known as the inventor of the railway handcar, which is named after him.

Boldino autumn A.S. Pushkin. Three autumn months Alexander Sergeevich spent 1830 in the village of Boldino not of his own free will - because of the cholera quarantine established in Moscow by the authorities. It was the cholera vibrio that mutated during an unusual drought, which was abruptly replaced by continuous autumn rains and caused a flood of the Ganges River, and 14 years later brought into Russian Empire, descendants are “obliged” to the appearance of Pushkin’s brightest works - “Eugene Onegin”, “The Tale of the Priest and His Worker Balda”, etc.

This is the story of the three years without summer, which occurred in the early 19th century and were caused by a number of factors, including the eruption of the Tambora stratovolcano. It remains to remind you that the seven-point Tambora is far from the most significant volcanic problem for earthlings. Unfortunately, there are much more dangerous volcanic objects on Earth -.

I suggest watching a popular science film by the Discovery Channel about the eruption of the Tambora stratovolcano and the three-year winter that followed this catastrophe, which happened at the beginning of the 19th century (the film is 46 minutes long, calculate the time for viewing and it is better without scrolling):