TOBA: Ancient Volcano's Devastating Effects Confirmed

[L. Coyote]

Ancient Volcano's Devastating Effects Confirmed
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20091204/sc_livescience/ancientvolcanosdevastatingeffectsconfirmed
Dec 4, 10:10 am ET


A massive volcanic eruption that occurred in the distant past killed off much of central India's forests and may have pushed humans to the brink of extinction, according to a new study that adds evidence to a controversial topic.

The Toba eruption, which took place on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia about 73,000 years ago, released an estimated 800 cubic kilometers of ash into the atmosphere that blanketed the skies and blocked out sunlight for six years. In the aftermath, global temperatures dropped by as much as 16 degrees centigrade (28 degrees Fahrenheit) and life on Earth plunged deeper into an ice age that lasted around 1,800 years.

In 1998, Stanley Ambrose, an anthropology professor at the University of Illinois, proposed in the Journal of Human Evolution that the effects of the Toba eruption and the Ice Age that followed could explain the apparent bottleneck in human populations .................


............. researchers have detected increasing activity underneath a caldera at Yellowstone National Park, where some suspect another supervolcanic eruption will eventually take place. Though not expected to occur anytime soon, a Yellowstone eruption could coat half the United States in a layer of ash up to 3 feet (1 meter) deep.

[aquart]

1. Yep. Could happen again at any time.

[maxsolomon]

2. its not a supervolcano, its a jobs program

lots sweeping and dusting will need to be done. i don't know how to sweep the dust out of the atmosphere, though!