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Napoleon's Defeat at Waterloo Caused in Part by Indonesian Volcanic Eruption:
Electrically charged volcanic ash short-circuited Earth's atmosphere in 1815, causing global poor weather and Napoleon's defeat, says new research.
Historians know that rainy and muddy conditions helped the Allied army defeat the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Waterloo. The June 1815 event changed the course of European history.
Two months prior, a volcano named Mount Tambora erupted on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa, killing 100,000 people and plunging the Earth into a 'year without a summer' in 1816.
Now, Dr Matthew Genge from Imperial College London has discovered that electrified volcanic ash from eruptions can 'short-circuit' the electrical current of the ionosphere -- the upper level of the atmosphere that is responsible for cloud formation.
The findings, published today in Geology, could confirm the suggested link between the eruption and Napoleon's defeat.
Dr Genge, from Imperial's Department of Earth Science and Engineering, suggests that the Tambora eruption short-circuited the ionosphere, ultimately leading to a pulse of cloud formation. This brought heavy rain across Europe that contributed to Napoleon Bonaparte's defeat.
The paper shows that eruptions can hurl ash much higher than previously thought into the atmosphere -- up to 100 kilometres above ground.
Dr Genge said: "Previously, geologists thought that volcanic ash gets trapped in the lower atmosphere, because volcanic plumes rise buoyantly. My research, however, shows that ash can be shot into the upper atmosphere by electrical forces."
NB: Compare the height reached by the ash to the The Kármán line, or Karman line, which lies at an altitude of 100 km (62 mi; 330,000 ft) above Earth's sea level and commonly represents the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space.
Journal Reference:
Matthew J. Genge. Electrostatic levitation of volcanic ash into the ionosphere and its abrupt effect on climate. Geology, 2018; DOI: 10.1130/G45092.1
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday August 30 2018, @02:15PM (3 children)
a little bastard with a big chip on his shoulder. Short people often get their asses handed to them when they act big.
Speaking of Waterloo, I haven't seen Louise for quite a long while. She has this trick with ice water . . .
(Score: 3, Informative) by Osamabobama on Thursday August 30 2018, @04:55PM (1 child)
From howstuffworks.com [howstuffworks.com]. On the other hand, I wouldn't want to disrupt your trope just for the sake of accuracy.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @07:31PM
I heard it was because he always surrounded himself with cavalry officers (big guys who ride big horses), so he looked small by comparison.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Thexalon on Thursday August 30 2018, @08:45PM
Napoleon wasn't short.
That said, he had "acting big" down to an art form. It's a big part of what had enabled him to go from being a random minor nobleman in Corsica to Emperor of France and in charge of most of Germany, Italy, and Spain in a remarkably short amount of time. The whole Waterloo campaign came from his understanding of politics being good enough that he went from being an exile with about 2000 troops to being emperor again with 75,000 troops at his disposal in a matter of weeks.
As for his loss at Waterloo, there were lots of contributing factors:
- Napoleon's bout with illness that left him incapacitated for part of the battle. Marshal Ney was nowhere near as skillful a commander.
- Napoleon was also not as skilled a commander as he used to be. He wasn't close to as creative as he needed to be to win against superior numbers.
- The people opposing Napoleon were led by Wellington, who was just about the only person who had Napoleon figured out well enough to consistently beat him. The key concept, which was disregarded by the people who lost badly, was that if Napoleon is pushing you to do something (e.g. making an area of his forces look weak so you'll attack them), don't do that, either do nothing or do something else.
- Gerhard von Blucher (whinnying [youtube.com]) was smart enough to focus on the overall operational objectives and retreat towards Wellington after losing at Quatre Bras, rather than running back to Prussia.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.