Toba Volcano Eruption Reveals the Mystery of Human Evolution

JAKARTA – Eruption Toba Super Volcano in Indonesia is believed to be the largest eruption in the history of the human species, changing the planet’s climate for some time.

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Now, the discovery in Ethiopia opens up a new possibility: Toba may hold the key to the mystery of human evolution, specifically humans’ final expansion out of Africa.

The genus Homo is thought to have left Africa nearly a million years ago as H. erectus, or perhaps earlier. However, modern humans seem to have difficulty doing this. Whether this was due to changes in conditions or competition with close relatives remains unknown.

H. sapiens apparently migrated to West Asia and Europe several times, but was unable to survive. So, what made subsequent migrations so successful, taking humans throughout Eurasia, Australia, the Americas and the Pacific Islands?

A large team of scientists consider the Toba eruption, which occurred thousands of kilometers from the nearest Homo sapiens population in Indonesia, as the answer.

The Toba eruption was powerful, releasing a minimum of 2,000 cubic kilometers of material. Compared to the Tambora eruption which was much smaller and produced a “year without a summer” due to dust and ash, Toba likely caused several years of cooling.

Estimates suggest a temperature drop of up to 5°C (9°F), returning the planet to ice age conditions in a short time.

Even if the climate recovers within a few years, our ancestors’ food sources are likely threatened with extinction.

This gave birth to the Toba disaster theory, which states that the conditions following the volcanic eruption were able to reduce the human population to less than 10,000 people, creating a genetic bottleneck.