The 1257 Samalas Eruption (Mount Rinjani, Lombok)
- Date
- 1257 CE
- Category
- Environment & climate
- Region
- Southeast Asia (Lombok, Indonesia)
- Era
- Post-Classical / Medieval
- Significance
In 1257 CE, the Samalas volcano within the Mount Rinjani volcanic complex on the island of Lombok, Indonesia, produced one of the largest volcanic eruptions of the Holocene, rated VEI 7 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index.
The four-phase Plinian eruption ejected roughly 40 cubic kilometres of trachydacitic magma, sent ash columns up to 43 km into the stratosphere, and collapsed the mountain to form the Segara Anak caldera that now holds a crater lake. Local chronicles such as the Babad Lombok record the destruction of Pamatan, capital of a Lombok kingdom, and the deaths of many inhabitants. The eruption released the single greatest sulphur load to the stratosphere of the Common Era, leaving the largest sulphate spikes of the past two millennia in both Arctic and Antarctic ice cores; long known as the 'mystery eruption of 1257,' its source was finally identified in 2013. The resulting volcanic winter cooled global climate by an estimated 0.7-1.2 degrees Celsius, contributing to crop failures, famine, and disease across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, including the 'year without a summer' of 1258 and mass burials of famine victims in medieval London.
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Empires active in 1257 CE
- Mongol Empire1206 CE – 1368 CE
- Kanem-Bornu Empire700 CE – 1900 CE
- Song Dynasty960 CE – 1279 CE
- Abbasid Caliphate750 CE – 1258 CE
- Byzantine Empire330 CE – 1453 CE
- Kilwa Sultanate957 CE – 1505 CE
Related environment & climate events
- The Great Famine devastates northern Europe1315–1317 CE
- Kuwae Eruption (Vanuatu)c. 1452 CE
- The Medieval Warm Period (Medieval Climate Anomaly)c. 950–1250 CE
- Eldgjá Eruption in Iceland939-940 CE
- Volcanic Winter of 536 and Onset of the Late Antique Little Ice Age536–537 CE
- 1556 Shaanxi EarthquakeJanuary 23, 1556
Further reading
The wider story
A New Green History of the World
The classic accessible account of how environment and climate have shaped human history.
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