tambora

Tambora refers to more than one thing, including a stratovolcano in Indonesia and a traditional drum used in Caribbean music.

Mount Tambora is a stratovolcano located on the island of Sumbawa in West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. Its 1815 eruption was one of the most powerful in recorded history, rated VEI-7, and produced a vast eruption column, pyroclastic flows, and tsunamis that affected surrounding regions. The eruption expelled enormous volumes of ash and pumice, causing a dramatic global climatic anomaly known as the year without a summer in 1816, with crop failures and food shortages in parts of Europe and North America. The climax of the eruption formed a caldera and left a new volcanic cone within its crater. Since 1815, Mount Tambora has shown continuing, though largely non-eruptive, activity such as fumarolic vents and periodic minor explosions, and it remains closely monitored by Indonesian authorities.

Tambora is also the name of a traditional percussion instrument central to Dominican merengue tipico. The tambora is a large, usually barrel-shaped drum with two heads and a wooden shell, constructed to produce a deep rhythmic pulse. It is commonly played with sticks or mallets and functions as the principal rhythm keeper in many ensembles, often in tandem with a smaller drum called the primo or other percussion and with the güira, a metal scraper that adds high-pitched texture. The instrument is deeply rooted in Dominican music culture and various regional styles of merengue tipico.