Mt. Tambora, Napoleon and Waterloo

Mt. Tambora, Napoleon and Waterloo

LONDON (Reuter): Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815 may have been aided by the eruption of a volcano in Indonesia, a British magazine said on Monday.

The Geographical Magazine said unusually heavy rains which made the ground between Paris and Brussels almost impassable hampered Napoleon's attempt to launch an attack on Brussels.

"With the intended use of much heavy artillery, the number of feasible routes was limited, depending on the existence of a suitable road," it quoted geologist Kenneth Spink as saying.

"Although less than 76 millimeters (3 inches) of rain would be expected in the month of June, enormous rainstorms developed before and during the battles leading to the major conflict at Waterloo."

Spink said many geologists believe the heavy rains were caused by the eruption in April 1815 of Mt. Tambora, a volcano on the island of Sumbawa in what is now Indonesia.

The eruption affected circulation patterns around the world and caused particularly bad weather over northern Europe.