"Hard to See and No Less Difficult to Imagine"

"The countless victims and occasional beneficiaries of Tambora's fury were oblivious to the volcanic roots of their circumstances, Dr. Wood noted, making the challenge of writing about it formidable and 'occasionally mind-bending.'

"More generally, he said, the revelation of global volcanic ruin—a portrait 200 years in the making—offers a kind of meditation on the difficulty of uncovering the subtle effects of climate change, whether its origins lie in nature's fury or the invisible byproducts of human civilization."

William J. Broad in The New York Times discusses the worldwide impact of the 1815 eruption of Mt. Tambora, "the most powerful volcanic blast in recorded history."