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<br /><ul><li>Ancient tools discovered in northern India provide new evidence that humans were able to survive one of the largest volcanic events in human history — the <keyword id="8833232" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="toba-supervolcano">Toba supervolcano</keyword> eruption.<br /></li><li>The <keyword id="8833230" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="toba-catastrophe-theory">Toba catastrophe theory</keyword> states that the eruption covered South Asia in ash and blackened out the skies triggering an ice age, leaving only a dwindling human population in its wake.<br /></li><li>However, mounting archaeological evidence suggests that humans may have persevered.<br /></li></ul>When the Toba supervolcano erupted 74,000 years ago, it was one of the most devastating events to ever hit the planet, thought to have brought humanity on the brink of extinction — or so we thought. <br /><br />Ancient tools discovered in Dhaba northern India punch another hole Toba catastrophe theory and add to the piling evidence that the event wasn’t as extreme as scientists previously assumed.<br /><br /><div type="image" title="tools2" msid="74313943" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Stone tools found at the Dhaba site corresponding with the Toba volcanic super-eruption levels. Pictured here are diagnostic Middle Palaeolithic core types.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>

<br />The Toba catastrophe theory states that the massive eruption — 100 times greater than the biggest explosion in recent history, the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora — only left a few thousand survivors in its wake. The fall-out triggered a decade of volcanic winter and an ice-age that lasted a millennium.<br /><br />However, the study of stone tools published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-14668-4">Nature Communications</a> suggests that humans were present in the Middle Son Valley 80,000 years before and after the volcano erupted.<br /><br /><div type="image" title="tools3" msid="74313987" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Key artefact types at Dhaba&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>

<br />"Although Toba ash was first identified in the Son Valley back in the 1980s until now we did not have associated archaeological evidence, so the Dhaba site fills in a major chronological gap," said principal investigator <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-02/mpif-hps022020.php">J.N. Pal</a>.<br /><br /><strong>Ashes to ashes, dust to dust — the Toba catastrophe theory<br /></strong>The Toba catastrophe theory is one of correlation. Around the same time as the eruption in present-day Indonesia, humanity was in a bit of rut with respect to evolution.<br /><br /><div type="image" title="tools4" msid="74314035" hostid="261"></div>

<br />The sky was blacked out, most of South Asia and the Indian Ocean was covered in 15 centimetres-thick layer of ash, and humanity was dying out.<br /><br />Since both events seem to coincide, scientists theorised that the supervolcano was a plausible reason for the sudden drop in diversity. However, with new data coming into the picture, the pieces are no longer adding up.<br /><br /><b>Reasonable doubt<br /></b>The first evidence to refute the theory came to light in 2007. Evidence of stone tools in southern India suggested that humans existed during the time period. However, according to the Toba catastrophe theory the only surviving humans were in Africa — who later populated Asia 60,000 years ago.<br /><br />A fossil found in South Africa cast further doubt. Discovered in 2018, the archaeological evidence suggested that the global human not only survived the eruption but thrived.<br /><br /><strong>Human resilience<br /></strong>Scientists still agree that there was a drop in diversity around 70,000 years ago. However, some no longer believe it was due to the supervolcano triggering climate change. <br /><br />A few theorise that it’s simply the founder effect — the loss of genetic variation when small groups break off from a large population, but they’re not genetically representative. As a result, the population is vulnerable to genetic drift and inbreeding.<br /><br />More data is needed to fill the gaps of Earth’s timeline, but these new ancient tools suggest that humans were able to survive one of the largest volcanic events in human history.<br /><br /><strong>See also:<br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/the-weathering-himalayas-might-not-be-behind-earths-cooling-over-the-past-15-million-years/articleshow/71271248.cms">The weathering Himalayas might not be behind Earth's cooling over the past 15 million years</a><br /><br /></strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/nasa-has-a-3-5-billion-idea-to-save-earth-from-a-supervolcano-apocalypse/articleshow/67649185.cms"><strong>NASA has a $3.5 billion idea to save Earth from a supervolcano apocalypse</strong></a><br />

Ancient tools found in India suggest the Toba supervolcano eruption didn't leave humanity on the brink of extinction

<ul class="summary-list"><li><strong>There are about a dozen supervolcanoes on Earth - each one at least seven times larger than Mount Tambora, which had the biggest eruption in recorded history.</strong></li><li>If all of these supervolcanoes erupted at once, they'd likely pour thousands of tons of volcanic ash and toxic gases into the atmosphere.</li><li>This ash would linger for months, blocking sunlight and setting off a volcanic winter. The gas would also likely fall back down to Earth as acid rain, devastating agriculture and leading to global famine.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.</a></li></ul><p><em>Following is a transcript of the video.</em></p><p>In 1815, Mount Tambora erupted in Indonesia, killing an estimated 92,000 people. It was the biggest eruption in recorded history. And yet, Tambora was about one-seventh the size of the smallest supervolcano. There are about a dozen of these monsters worldwide, and the last one went off 26,500 years ago in New Zealand, blanketing most of its island in a layer of thick ash. Now, it's extremely unlikely that one of these supervolcanoes would go off anytime soon, let alone multiple eruptions at once. But, for curiosity's sake, what would happen if all the world's supervolcanoes erupted at once?</p><p>If every supervolcano went off, you'd have a hard time finding a safe place to flee to, because almost every continent is home to at least one supervolcano. For example, there's Yellowstone in the US, Ngorongoro in Tanzania, and Toba in Indonesia. So, basically, no matter where you are, you're out of luck. But at least you'll have a warning, because weeks or months beforehand, the ground will tremble with earthquakes. Then, when E-Day arrives, the earth-shattering sound would be a dead giveaway that something wasn't right.</p><p>When Krakatoa, which wasn't even close to the size of a supervolcano, erupted in 1883, it released a roar so loud the sound traveled nearly 4,800 kilometers across the Indian Ocean, shattering windows and deafening people in its path. And since even the smallest supereruption would dwarf Krakatoa's eruption, there is really no telling how much damage this would cause, but it would be epically catastrophic.</p><p>And let's say you were lucky enough to survive this first wave of destruction. After that, it would be time to find a fallout shelter, because these supereruptions spew billions of tons of ash, volcanic glass, and rock thousands of meters into the air. Not something you want to inhale or be in the path of, since this cloud of ash doesn't just travel up; it also expands out, crashing across the landscape at jet-fighter speeds. It would collapse buildings, contaminate water supplies, and bring down any power grids in its path. And the fallout would extend for hundreds of kilometers, so any cities nearby a supervolcano are immediately toast. As are any planes that attempt to fly people away from the danger.</p><p>And keep in mind that ash travels. When Toba erupted 74,000 years ago, winds blew ash all the way to India. So if all the supervolcanoes go off at once, volcanic debris would spread across the globe. When the eruption ends, the disaster will have only just started. Because for the next six months, much of that supervolcanic ash would linger in the stratosphere and block sunlight, causing global temperatures to plunge by as much as 15 degrees Celsius. That's close to the difference between summer in Rio versus Anchorage, Alaska. In fact, just "little" Mount Tambora's eruption alone set off the "Year Without a Summer," where frost and blizzards plagued much of the Northern Hemisphere. So, multiply that by the 12 or so supervolcanoes all spewing thick black dust, and you've got a worldwide volcanic winter for the next few years. Tropical forests, which can't handle cold weather, would wither and die, bringing down the millions of animal species that live there.</p><p>And it's about to get even bleaker. You know that saying "out of the frying pan and into the fire"? Well, in addition to ash, those volcanoes also belch toxic gasses, like sulfur dioxide, into the atmosphere. And after a few years, just after the winter finally ends, those gasses would start to fall from the sky as acid rain. When the Laki volcano erupted in 1783 in Iceland, it rained down so much sulfuric acid that it devastated farmland and wiped out half of all livestock. The next year, a full quarter of Iceland's population died in the resulting famine. So imagine that, but everywhere. And since Laki wasn't even a supervolcano, we're looking at acid rain for the next decade. Say goodbye to civilization, because it probably can't survive a decade-long global famine.</p><p>Now, there are a few places on Earth that, while still suffering from cold and acid rain and famine, would at least be free from the actual explosions themselves. Like volcanic islands such as the Galapagos, or even Hawaii, which ironically is famous for its volcanoes. But the thing is, these volcanoes slowly release flows of lava rather than violently exploding. So, you could at least enjoy a nice view as civilization implodes.</p>

What if all the world's supervolcanoes erupted at once

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?id=tag%3Areuters.com%2C2018%3Anewsml_RC13CC42A460&amp;share=true">Vincent Kessler/Reuters</a></span></p><p class="caption">Raphael Manet checks the growth of oyster mushrooms at the "Bunker Comestible," (the "edible bunker") in Strasbourg, France, on February 19, 2018. The organic farm was established in a former gunpowder warehouse bunker used during the Franco-German 1870 war.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>In a new book, writer Bryan Walsh describes strategies that might keep people alive after a disaster like an asteroid impact, supervolcano eruption, or nuclear war.</li><li>Walsh suggests that because mushrooms, rats, and some insects can thrive without sunlight, humans could start farming them with the remains of dead trees after an apocalyptic event.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>About 66 million years ago, an asteroid plummeted through Earth's atmosphere and crashed into the sea floor, creating an explosion over 6,500 times more powerful than the nuclear bomb the US dropped on Hiroshima.</p><p>The impact sent clouds of debris and sulfur into Earth's atmosphere, blocking the sun's light and warmth for about two years. Photosynthesis ground to a halt, which meant no more plant growth. The surviving dinosaurs starved to extinction.</p><p>But fossil records show that fungi thrived in the aftermath.</p><p>According to <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> journalist and TIME editor <a href="https://time.com/author/bryan-walsh/">Bryan Walsh</a>, that makes mushrooms crucial for human survival if such an apocalyptic event were to occur in the future.  </p><p>Walsh's new book ,"<a href="https://www.hachettebooks.com/titles/bryan-walsh/end-times/9780316449618/">End Times,</a>" examines how catastrophic events, both natural and human-made, threaten our existence. In it, he points out that three types of potential catastrophes - asteroid impacts, supervolcano eruptions, and nuclear war - all have one thing in common: they could wind up blocking the sunlight needed to feed plants. </p><p>"Blot out the sun, and even the best-prepared survivalist, a master of the wilderness, will starve to death along with everyone else," Walsh writes in the book. </p><p>In order to survive, he says, people would need to adopt sunlight-free agriculture - cultivating mushrooms, rats, and insects.</p><h2>Asteroids, supervolcanoes, and nuclear wars could block the sun </h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://coralreef.noaa.gov/aboutcrcp/news/featuredstories/2016aug/welcome.html">NOAA</a></span></p><p class="caption">The mushroom cloud of the Castle Bravo nuclear test on March 1, 1954.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Research suggests the consequences of supervolcano eruptions and nuclear bombs could be similar to the aftermath of the asteroid that doomed the dinosaurs.</p><p>About 74,000 years ago, for example, the Toba supervolcano eruption sent clouds of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, cutting  sunlight by as much as 90%. That volcanic winter might have reduced the global human population to just 3,000 people, based on one <a href="https://nyuscholars.nyu.edu/en/publications/volcanic-winter-in-the-garden-of-eden-the-toba-supereruption-and-">analysis</a>.</p><p>If enough nuclear bombs (thousands of them) were to explode, that could also bring on a nuclear winter that would reduce sunlight levels by more than 90%, according to a 1983 paper co-authored by Carl Sagan. Global temperatures could drop up to 45 degrees Fahrenheit in that scenario.</p><p>"Such rapid and drastic cooling could make farming impossible, even in those regions spared by the missiles," Walsh writes.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>AP</span></p><p class="caption">The Mount St. Helens eruption in 1980 killed 57 people and caused billions of dollars in damage. The Toba supereruption was equivalent to 2,800 Mount St. Helens eruptions.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Without sunlight, in other words, our food system would break down.</p><p>The mushroom cultivation solution in Walsh's book comes from David Denkenberger, a civil engineer who suggested it in a 2014 book about post-apocalyptic agriculture, called "<a href="https://www.elsevier.com/books/feeding-everyone-no-matter-what/denkenberger/978-0-12-802150-7">Feeding Everyone No Matter What</a>."</p><p>"Maybe when humans go extinct the world will be ruled by fungi again," Denkenberger told Walsh. "Why don't we just eat the mushrooms and not go extinct?"</p><h2>Mushrooms do grow on trees, with or without the sun</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Lucy Nicholson/REUTERS</span></p><p class="caption">A field of dead almond trees after a drought is seen in California's Central Valley, May 6, 2015.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>If clouds of debris or ash were to blot out the sun and lead the climate to cool rapidly, trillions of trees would die. Humans wouldn't be able to digest that dead wood, of course, but mushrooms could - no photosynthesis required.</p><p>Walsh does the math: A 3-foot-long, 4-inch-wide log should produce 2.2 pounds of mushrooms in four years, by his calculations. </p><p>That doesn't sound like a lot, but with a small post-disaster population and efficient fungus production, Denkenberger thinks it might work.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?id=tag%3Areuters.com%2C2018%3Anewsml_RC12D222E240&amp;share=true">Vincent Kessler/Reuters</a></span></p><p class="caption">Oyster mushrooms grow from a substrate bloc at the "Bunker Comestible" (the "edible bunker") in Strasbourg, France, February 19, 2018.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>While we're using the wood to grow mushrooms, we could use the dead trees' leaves, too, he said.</p><p>"The ground-up leaves could be made into tea to provide missing nutrients like vitamin C, or fed to ruminant animals like cows or rats," Denkenberger told Walsh.</p><h2>Dead trees can feed other life forms, like rats and insects</h2><p>Rats, much like mushrooms, can digest cellulose, the sugar that makes up 50% of wood. So anything the mushrooms leave behind could be fed to the rats, Walsh suggests. That way, any human survivors could eat meat.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?id=tag%3Areuters.com%2C2019%3Anewsml_RC142BDCB5D0&amp;share=true">Stephane Mahe/Reuters</a></span></p><p class="caption">Rats are trapped in a cage in Vertou near Nantes, France, June 5, 2019.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>What's more, rats reproduce quickly and they probably don't need sunlight to do it, Walsh adds. It takes a rat just six weeks to reach sexual maturity, and from there only 70 days to produce seven to nine babies. In Denkenberger's calculations, all of humanity could be eating rats after just two years. </p><p>Insects could also provide protein, and many of them would survive a sun-blotting catastrophe. </p><p>"The same qualities that make insects so abundant and so persistent would allow many species to weather even the most extensive, climate-changing existential catastrophes," Walsh writes. "Beetles can feast on dead wood, and humans can feast on beetles."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Jerry Lampen</span></p><p class="caption">People sample mealworm pralines.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Insects are already a staple food in some parts of the world, and they're <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/eating-insects-set-to-become-8-billion-business-barclays-2019-6">starting to gain traction elsewhere</a>. Walsh describes an insect food fair in Richmond, Virginia, where he tasted a pasta dish with ground cricket meatballs, called "Orthopteran Orzo," and deep-fried mealworm larvae. </p><p>"They were both passable," he writes. "If I were starving, though, I'd manage."</p><h2>Survivors would band together</h2><p>Walsh's book debunks another popular idea about how to feed ourselves during an apocalypse: cannibalism. </p><p>That would not help in the aftermath of a catastrophe that puts humans at risk of extinction, he says, because other people are simply not a sustainable food source. Walsh points to a 2017 study in which a group of undergraduate students calculated how long the human species would last if we subsisted on cannibalism alone. They found that only one person would remain after 1,149 days (about 3 years).</p><p>He adds, however, that building a new agricultural system would require working together. He thinks such collaboration would be likely in a disaster scenario.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Women work in a cabbage field at the expropriated Fundo Aracal in the state of Yaracuy, Venezuela, August 27, 2007.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>"For all our fear of what would come after, for all our bleak stories, collapse and conflict aren't givens after a disaster," Walsh writes. "Human beings help each other, including in those times when it doesn't seem to be in their interest. That's likely how Homo sapiens survived its closest brush with extinction - the Toba supereruption - and it's the only way we would survive the next one."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/deadly-death-cap-mushroom-2016-4">How to spot the world's deadliest mushroom that foragers across the world are eating by mistake </a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

In the event of a killer asteroid, volcanic apocalypse, or nuclear holocaust, mushrooms could save humanity from extinction

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catastrophe_theory#/media/File:Toba_zoom.jpg">NASA Landsat</a></span></p><p class="caption">A satellite image of Lake Toba in Indonesia.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Indonesian volcano Toba produced a cataclysmic eruption that devastated the region 73,000 years ago. Monstrous volcanoes like this are called supervolcanoes, and sometimes their impacts are so huge, they can cause global climate change.</p><p>Now, scientists may have worked out what triggers them to blow in a new study <a href="http://www.nature.com/articles/srep40624" target="_blank">published in the journal Scientific Reports</a>. </p><p>The Toba eruption was the largest volcanic eruption witnessed in history, which covered 2,800 cubic kilometers of the surrounding area in volcanic ash, causing enormous amounts of rain in Indonesia and India.</p><p>How exactly these huge amounts of magma are created (and why they erupt so violently) has been a cause of debate between scientists for a long time. It has been known that volcanoes erupt because of density and pressure, and generally it is a way that Earth can release excess heat and pressure. Still, the precise trigger has remained a mystery.</p><p>A group of researchers at Uppsala University and their international colleagues may have found some answers lying in millimeter-sized crystals called quartz crystals embedded in the volcanic ash and rock.</p><p>Quartz crystals grow in magma, and register chemical and thermodynamical changes before an eruption, which is similar to <a href="http://www.priweb.org/globalchange/climatechange/studyingcc/scc_01.html" target="_blank">how tree rings record climate change</a>, according to Dr David Budd, lead author of the study from the Department of Earth Sciences at Uppsala University.</p><p>"When the conditions in the magma change, the crystals respond and produce distinct growth zones that record these changes," <a href="https://phys.org/news/2017-01-triggered-largest-volcanic-eruption-witnessed.html" target="_blank">he said in a statement</a>. "The problem is that each 'tree ring'-analogue is only a few micrometers across, which is why they are extremely challenging to analyse in detail."</p><p>While studying the quartz from Toba, the researchers found that there was a difference in the composition and weight of the outer part of the crystals compared to the inside. Around the outside the crystals were heavier and contained a form of oxygen called <sup>18</sup>O. On the inside, however, there was a lighter form called <sup>16</sup>O. </p><p>According to the study authors, the ratio suggests that something in the magmatic system had changed drastically just before the big eruption. So what happened? The researchers think that when the magma melted, it took along with it a large volume of a nearby rock which contained the same ratio. </p><p>"This rock type also often contains a lot of water, which may be released into the magma, producing steam, and thereby an increased gas pressure inside the magma chamber," said Dr Frances Deegan, another author of the study. "This rapidly increased gas pressure and eventually allowed the magma to rupture the overlying crust, and send thousands of cubic kilometres of magma into the atmosphere."</p><h2>How often do supervolcanoes erupt?</h2><h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcano#/media/File:Lava_Lake_Nyiragongo_2.jpg">Cai Tjeenk Willink / Wikimedia Commons</a></span></p><p class="caption">The Nyiragongo Volcano in Virunga National Park.</p></div><p></p></div></div></h2><p>Luckily, supervolcanoes like these erupt very infrequently. Volcanic eruptions are measured by the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI,) with VEI 7 and VEI 8 eruptions being the most powerful. </p><p>Other than Toba, these are some of the most massive supervolcano eruptions in history: </p><ul><li>La Garita Caldera erupted approximately 27,800,000 years ago, and released 5,000 cubic kilometers of magma.</li><li>Huckleberry Ridge in Yellowstone had a bulk ejection of 2,500 cubic kilometers about 2,100,000 years ago.</li><li>Atana Ignimbrite in Chile erupted about 4,000,000 years ago, also ejecting 2,500 cubic kilometers.</li><li>In 1815, the Tambora volcano on Sumbawa Island in Indonesia erupted in what is considered the largest ever eruption in recorded history. It was a VEI 7 on the VEI scale, but an estimated 100,000 people died from the effects, and it <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/1816-the-year-without-summer-excerpt/" target="_blank">caused a global volcanic winter</a>. </li><li>Although famous, eruptions such as Mount Vesuvius (Pompeii in 79 AD) and Mount St. Helens in 1980 <a href="http://geology.com/stories/13/volcanic-explosivity-index/" target="_blank">were very small in comparison</a> to these supervolcanic ones.</li></ul><p>Researchers say that Toga's eruption in particular was so colossal it came close to wiping out humanity entirely. It's a matter of when, not if, supervolcanoes erupt again. Here's to hoping that <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/what-would-happen-if-yellowstone-supervolcano-erupted-2016-7" target="_blank">we're better prepared when the next one happens</a>!</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mount-st-helens-lava-2016-11">Mount St. Helens isn't like other volcanoes and scientists are just starting to understand why</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="xmZzdmNzE6pWcvm3CfDu2Hf4o951dTDc" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

You Searched For "toba supervolcano" and got 4 results

Ancient tools found in India suggest the Toba supervolcano eruption didn't leave humanity on the brink of extinction

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What if all the world's supervolcanoes erupted at once

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In the event of a killer asteroid, volcanic apocalypse, or nuclear holocaust, mushrooms could save humanity from extinction

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Scientists have finally figured out what caused the largest volcanic eruption in human history

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