Napoleon Bonaparte did not anticipate a catastrophic volcanic eruption on the other side of the world that contributed to his defeat by the coalition at Waterloo.
A violent volcanic eruption in Indonesia led to wet and muddy conditions, contributing to the defeat of emperor Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Waterloo , according to Phys.org. The study, published in the journal Geology, links the Tambora volcanic eruption and the battle.
Historians know the wet and muddy conditions helped the British-led coalition defeat the French emperor Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. The battle on June 18, 1815 completely changed the history of Europe. Two months earlier, Mount Tambora on the island of Sumbawa, Indonesia, erupted, killing 100,000 people and causing the Earth to experience a year without a summer in 1816.
Waterloo was the last battle of the French emperor Napoleon. (Photo: Hulton Archive).
Dr Matthew Genge from the Department of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Imperial College London, discovered that charged volcanic ash from the eruption can form short circuits that conduct electric currents in the ionosphere, the upper layer of gas is responsible for cloud formation. Dr. Genge points to the eruption of Mount Tambora, which brought thunderstorms, causing heavy rains across Europe, contributing to the defeat of Emperor Napoleon.
The study found eruptions that could spew ash into the atmosphere at much higher altitudes than previously thought, 100km above the ground. “Previously, geologists thought that volcanic ash was trapped in the lower atmosphere, by floating columns of rising ash. However, my research shows that ash can be sprayed directly into the stratosphere. the upper atmosphere by the electric force,” said Dr.
A series of experiments show that electrostatic forces can lift ash much higher than floating. Dr Genge created a model to calculate how far electrically charged volcanic ash could float, and found that particles smaller than 0.2 millionths of a meter in diameter can reach the ionosphere during eruptions big. “The column of ash and volcanic ash can be negatively charged, the ash column pushes the ash away, lifting them up. The effect is very similar to two magnets being pushed apart if the two ends have the same sign,” Dr. Genge explained. .
Experimental results are consistent with historical records from other eruptions. Weather records were scant in 1815, so to test his hypothesis, Dr. Genge looked at weather records after the 1883 eruption of another Indonesian volcano, Krakatau. The data show that average temperatures and precipitation were lower almost immediately after the eruption began, and global rainfall during the eruption was lower than in the periods before and after.
Dr. Genge also found reported disturbances in the ionosphere following the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo, Philippines, possibly caused by electrically charged ash reaching this layer from the ash column. In addition, there is a special type of cloud that appears more often after the eruption of the Krakatau volcano. Noctilucent clouds are rare and form in the ionosphere. Dr Genge says these clouds provide evidence of charged ash suspended from the massive eruption.