The following is an encore presentation of Everything Everywhere Daily.

In 1815, one of the most catastrophic and deadly events in recorded human history occurred in Indonesia.

A volcanic explosion took place, which was larger than anything

any human had ever witnessed in over 10,000 years.

The total global death toll from the event may have been as high as the tens of millions.

Learn more about the Mount Tambora explosion on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. rare daily. Mount Ambora is located 175 miles east of the island of Bali in Indonesia.

Prior to the 1815 explosion, it was one of the tallest mountains in Indonesia at approximately 4,300 meters or 14,100 feet high.

For centuries prior, the mountain had been dormant.

However, there's a big difference between a dormant volcano and an extinct volcano.

It can be very difficult to tell the difference between the two, as a dormant volcano can

be inactive for thousands of years before coming back to life.

The volcano on the island of Moncerat was considered to be extinct before erupting in 1995,

and the four peaked mountain in Alaska hadn't been active for 10,000 years before it erupted in 2006.

Geology was still in its infancy in 1815, so no one was prepared or expected what was about to happen.

What was happening is that deep below Mount Tambor,

a magma chamber had been slowly filling over centuries

miles below the surface.

The magma chamber was emptied at some point in the

distant past and slowly began to refill. When the chamber filled, the pressure

inside began to drastically increase. The first signs that the volcano was coming back to life

occurred three years earlier in 1812. The volcano began to rumble and steam

started to rise. Things remained at this low level of activity for about three years until April 5, 1815.

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