The 10 Biggest Explosions in the History of the World (4 of 6)

6. Mount Tambora

In 1815, Indonesia’s Mount Tambora erupted with the force of around 1,000 million tons of TNT, making it the biggest volcanic eruption in recorded history. It blasted out around 140 billion tons of magma and killed over 70,000 people. The eruption spewed so much ash into the atmosphere that it affected not only local but also global weather as well. The following year became known as the “Year Without a Summer.” Snow fell in June in New York, rivers froze in July in Pennsylvania, and famine swept across continents. A single, massive eruption caused all this.

7. Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9

In 1994, space watchers were treated to an extraordinary cosmic show when fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 slammed into Jupiter. Torn apart by the planet’s gravity, the pieces struck Jupiter at speeds of about 37 miles per second. The impacts produced fireballs towering up to 2,000 miles high and left dark scars on Jupiter’s clouds as wide as our lovely planet Earth. The biggest of these explosions equaled about 6,000 billion tons of TNT!