Tambora is on Sumbawa Island along the east Sunda Arc. It lies some 300 kilometers behind the Sunda Trench, but the subduction zone in that area has a shallow dip and is less than 200 kilometers deep beneath Tambora (Alzwar and others, 1981). Tambora is a large stratovolcano composed dominantly of nepheline-normative, leucite-bearing trachybasalt and trachyandesite.Before its eruption in 1815, Tambora might have been in repose for as much as 5,000 years.At least 6 months and probably about 3 years of increased steaming and small phreatic eruptions preceded the 1815 Tambora eruption, the largest in historical time.
section taken from: http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/Indonesia/description_tambora_1815_eruption.html
This eruption was very large considering the fact that the explosion was heard from 1,400 km away. Now that's a big bang!
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