Thank-You for posting the article. It explained a lot: earth science, art, literature, and a study of the human condition. Well done!
Well, not so much. The writer’s opening statement is hugely misleading to wit: “... the greatest eruption in Earth’s recorded history ...” The key here is to make the reader believe that “recorded history” is the same thing as in human history.
Tambora was only a large eruption VEI of 8, but not the largest in human history. That was the Mt Toba eruption 74,000 years ago which made Tambora look like Mt St Helens in comparison. Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) = each number is greater by a factor of 10.
The Toba eruption was off the scale at VEI of 9 or super volcanic, and likely killed most of the human race then living. Largest volcanic eruption in 400 million years, producing 2.500-3.000 cu. kilometers of ash, and 1 trillion tons of aerosols (including 200,000,000 tons of sulfur dioxide - SO2). Cloud was more than 34 kilometers high. Ash covers India between 1 and 6 meters deep. (May have started following cooling period). 6 year period during which the largest amount of volcanic sulfur was deposited in the past 110,000 years, followed by 1000 years of the lowest ice core oxygen isotope ratios, temperatures were colder than during the Last Glacial Maximum at 18 - 21,000 years ago. Sea level was 160 feet below current.
Global temperature drops average of 21 degrees. Volcanic Winter lasted about six years. It was followed by 1,000 years of the coldest Ice Age on record. Warming begins again 1,000 years later.
It is believed that the 1% human genetic variation stems from this time. No other species shows such a small variation. Genetic evidence suggests only 10,000 adults survived world wide. May be event which caused rise in modern racial differences - Professor Stanley Ambrose of the University of Illinois.
The Toba event was like the projections for Yellowstone, pretty near an ELE (Extinction Level Event).
Once we get to the super volcano level all bets are off as to the extent of the destruction - you can make guesses based of the geology of past events, but that’s all they are - guesses.
One of these super eruptions could be like the Deccan Traps (512,000 cubic kilometers of magma, more than 2,000 meters deep, covering an area as high as 1.5 million square kilometers) or the Siberian Traps (between 1 and 4 million cubic kilometers magma covering 7 million kilometers) eruptions. These last types of eruption aren’t just a blast or two lasting a few days or weeks, rather duration is measured in years or centuries ... Fortunately, as far as we know no human was around then, but that does no lessen the possibility of such events happening again.