Phenomena

1257 Samalas Eruption

Volcanic Eruption

Citation Formats

General Reference

Earth and Environment Atlas. "1257 Samalas Eruption." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://earth.interactiveatlas.org/phenomena/1257-samalas-eruption.

APA Style

Earth and Environment Atlas. (n.d.). 1257 Samalas Eruption. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://earth.interactiveatlas.org/phenomena/1257-samalas-eruption

BibTeX

@misc{earthandenvironmentatlas-1257-samalas-eruption,
  author = {Earth and Environment Atlas},
  title = {1257 Samalas Eruption},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://earth.interactiveatlas.org/phenomena/1257-samalas-eruption},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

A catastrophic eruption of the Samalas volcano on the Indonesian island of Lombok, with a probable Volcanic Explosivity Index of 7, one of the largest eruptions of the Holocene epoch. It destroyed the city of Pamatan and buried much of Lombok under pyroclastic flows that reached the neighboring island of Sumbawa, and it injected enough sulfate aerosols into the atmosphere to cause a volcanic winter, contributing to famines in Europe and, by some accounts, helping trigger the multi-century Little Ice Age, a link that remains debated among researchers.

Facts

Disputed

Magnitude or Scale

Probable Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) 7, one of the largest eruptions of the Holocene 1

Death Toll

Unknown at Lombok itself, though the eruption is linked to famines and crop failures abroad; the city of Pamatan was destroyed 1

Location

Samalas volcano, Lombok, Indonesia 1

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Volcanic Explosivity Index

Rated a probable Volcanic Explosivity Index of 7; the value is a reconstruction from tephra volume and ice-core sulfate signals rather than a direct historical observation, since no eyewitness account of the eruption survives.

Source Volcanic Explosivity Index (Wikipedia)