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Concept
Toba catastrophe theory
Summary
The Toba eruption (sometimes called the Toba supereruption or the Youngest Toba eruption) was a supervolcano eruption that occurred around 74,000 years ago during the Late Pleistocene at the site of present-day Lake Toba in Sumatra, Indonesia. It is one of the largest known explosive eruptions in the Earth's history. The Toba catastrophe theory holds that this event caused a severe global volcanic winter of six to ten years and contributed to a 1,000-year-long cooling episode, leading to a genetic bottleneck in humans.
A number of genetic studies have revealed that 50,000 years ago, the human ancestor population greatly expanded from only a few thousand individuals. Science journalist Ann Gibbons has posited that the low population size was caused by the Toba eruption. Geologist Michael R. Rampino of New York University and volcanologist Stephen Self of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa have supported her suggestion. In 1998, the bottleneck theory was further developed by anthropologist Stanley H. Ambrose of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. However, some physical evidence disputes the links with the millennium-long cold event and genetic bottleneck, and some consider the theory disproven.
List of large volcanic eruptions
The Toba eruption occurred at the present location of Lake Toba in Indonesia and was dated to 73,880 ± 320 years ago through high-precision potassium argon dating. This eruption was the last and largest of four eruptions of the Toba Caldera Complex during the Quaternary period, and is also recognized from its diagnostic horizon of ashfall, the Toba tuff. It had an estimated Volcanic explosivity index (VEI) of 8 (the highest rating on the scale); it made a sizable contribution to the caldera complex.
Based on known distribution of ash fall and pyroclastic flows, eruptive volume was estimated to be at least dense-rock equivalent (DRE), of which was deposited as ash fall. Computational ash dispersal models suggested possibly as much as DRE was erupted.
Official source
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