The Toba eruption (sometimes called the Toba supereruption or the Youngest Toba eruption) was a supervolcano eruption that occurred around 74,000 years ago at the site of present-day Lake Toba in Sumatra, Indonesia. It is one of Earth’s largest known explosive eruptions. 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…

  • theinspectorst@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    If it wasn’t for the Toba eruption, there would be vastly more genetic diversity among the human population and we might have evolved X-Men by now.

    • fred-kowalski@kbin.sh
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      1 year ago

      X-Men: Emo fictional characters driven by the need for episodic sales with scientifically impossible abilities. Sure!

      Sorry. Traumatized by my childhood best friend’s Marvel obsession.