About 74,000 years ago, the Toba volcano in what is today Sumatra, exploded in a violent eruption. It was by all measurements a horrific explosion, spewing over 600 cubic miles of magma, and pouring at least 200 cubic miles of volcanic gases and ash into the atmosphere. It was the largest volcanic eruption in the last two million years. But did it affect human evolution?
Toba Ash Deposit Excavated at Jwalapuram in Southern India, © Science
A May 2012 issue of the journal Quaternary International features 17 articles on Toba, including archaeological investigations in the Jurreru and Middle Son valleys of India, where ash fall from the Toba eruption has been revealed. Scholars have debated whether the explosive effects of the eruption might have caused massive climate change, and killed off many of us humans as we were just leaving Africa.
But, one of the complex of sites called Jwalapuram in southern India seems to show reoccupation of the valley fairly soon after the explosion, and by people continuing the same lithic tradition. Leading scholars to wonder: how destructive was the "super eruption"?
- Toba Volcano
- Jwalapuram, Jurreru Valley, India
- Special Issue in Quaternary International on The Toba Volcanic Super-eruption of 74,000 Years Ago
Comments
From Wikipedia : “For further comparison, the largest volcanic eruption in historic times, in 1815 at Mount Tambora (Indonesia), ejected the equivalent of around 100 km3 (24 cu mi) of dense rock and made 1816 the “Year Without a Summer” in the whole northern hemisphere”
If an eruption with 24 cu mi of ejected ash could cause a “year without summer”, what would be the effect of 600 cu mi of ejected ash (25X) cause? Maybe 25 years without a summer? And some pretty cold winters?