A bit over 200 years ago, the Tambora volcano in Indonesia erupted in the greatest cataclysm in the last 10,000 years. It spewed so much ash and gook into the air, and it stayed there so long, there was essentially no summer the next winter. But the tendrils of that eruption lasted far longer than that. Read my anniversary story at Smithsonian: 200 Years After Tambora, Some Unusual Effects Linger.