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  "publishedAt": "2026-05-13T15:48:30.766Z",
  "site": "http://rosarubicondior.blogspot.com",
  "tags": [
    "A massive eruption 74,000 years ago affected the whole planet – archaeologists use volcanic glass to figure out how people survived",
    "an article in The Conversation",
    "Jayde N. Hirniak",
    "Arizona State University",
    "Toba supereruption",
    "specializes in studying volcanic eruptions",
    "1980 Mount St. Helens eruption",
    "USGS Volcanic Hazards Program",
    "CC BY",
    "DigitalGlobe/Maxar via Getty Images",
    "Toba catastrophe hypothesis",
    "supported by genetic evidence",
    "genetic bottleneck",
    "tephra",
    "archaeological site Pinnacle Point 5-6",
    "new technological innovations",
    "Shinfa-Metema 1 in the lowlands of Ethiopia",
    "Global Volcanism Program",
    "currently erupting",
    "Lisa Faust, USGS",
    "The Conversation",
    "original article",
    "(CC BY 4.0)",
    "Click for My Books",
    "Tweet Link",
    "Oxfam"
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  "textContent": "\n\n\nToba supereruption\n\nAI-generated image (ChatGPT 5.4 Thinking)\n\n\n\n\nAn Impression of the Toba Supereruption, 74,000 Years Ago\n\n\nAI-generated image (ChatGPT 5.4 Thinking)\n\nA massive eruption 74,000 years ago affected the whole planet – archaeologists use volcanic glass to figure out how people survived\n\n\nMount Toba in the lake formed in the volcanic caldera\n\nSometimes, religion can be right, but, as Sam Harris has pointed out, when it is right, it is right by accident. Religious beliefs are not based on testable evidence, predictive models or a willingness to be corrected by facts; they amount to little more than inherited guesses, protected from scrutiny by faith. In the loosest possible sense, creationist stories of a tiny ancestral human population contain an accidental echo of a real scientific idea: human ancestry includes bottlenecks, founder effects and periods when populations were small and vulnerable.\n\nBut that is where the similarity ends. There was no global flood a few thousand years ago, no ark, no family of eight repopulating the world, and no magic reset of human history in the Bronze Age Middle East. One of the real events sometimes discussed in this context occurred about 74,000 years ago, when the Toba volcano, in what is now Sumatra, Indonesia, produced one of the largest eruptions of the last 2.5 million years. The eruption ejected an estimated 672 cubic miles, or about 2,800 cubic kilometres, of volcanic material into the atmosphere, with the potential to darken skies, cool the climate and devastate ecosystems close to the volcano. [1]\n\nFor some years, this gave rise to the Toba catastrophe hypothesis: the idea that the eruption caused a volcanic winter and drove the human population down to fewer than 10,000 individuals. That would have been a dramatic genetic bottleneck, and it is easy to see why it attracted attention. However, the link between Toba and a species-wide human near-extinction is still debated, and recent archaeological and environmental evidence has increasingly complicated, and in some cases weakened, the original claim. Human groups close to the eruption may well have been wiped out, but evidence from other regions suggests continuity, survival and adaptation rather than global extinction followed by repopulation from a tiny remnant. [2]\n\nThe more interesting scientific question, therefore, is not simply whether humanity was almost wiped out, but how different human populations coped with a major environmental shock. Like many catastrophic events, the Toba eruption would have imposed severe local and regional pressures. Those who survived would not have done so because they were specially created or divinely protected, but because some populations had the behavioural flexibility, social cooperation, tool use and ecological knowledge needed to adapt to rapidly changing conditions.\n\nThe evidence for the eruption and its possible effects on human evolution is discussed in an article in The Conversation by Jayde N. Hirniak, Ph.D. Candidate in Anthropology at the Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, USA. Her article is reproduced here under a Creative Commons licence:\n\n\nPublished: September 11, 2025 1.05pm BST\n\nA massive eruption 74,000 years ago affected the whole planet – archaeologists use volcanic glass to figure out how people survived.\n\nCollecting microscopic glass samples at Border Cave in the Lebombo Mountains in South Africa.\n\nKatherine Elmes\n\nJayde N. Hirniak, _Arizona State University_\n\nIf you were lucky 74,000 years ago, you would have survived the Toba supereruption, one of the largest catastrophic events that Earth has seen in the past 2.5 million years.\n\nWhile the volcano is located in what’s now Indonesia, living organisms across the entire globe were potentially affected. As an archaeologist who specializes in studying volcanic eruptions of the past, I often think about how incredible it is that humans survived this extinction-level event that was over 10,000 times larger than the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption.\n\n\nVolume of material ejected during key explosive eruptions. For reference, 1 cubic kilometer (km3) is roughly equivalent to 0.24 cubic miles. The largest circle depicts the Toba supereruption, with the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption denoted by the smaller green circle.\n\n\n\nUSGS Volcanic Hazards Program, CC BY\n\n\nThe Toba supereruption ejected 672 cubic miles (2,800 km³) of volcanic ash into the stratosphere, producing an enormous crater roughly 1,000 football fields in length (62 x 18 miles, or 100 x 30 kilometers). An eruption this size would have produced black skies blocking most of the sunlight, potentially causing years of global cooling. Closer to the volcano, acid rain would have contaminated water supplies, and thick layers of ash would have buried animals and vegetation.\n\nWith all those odds stacked against _Homo sapiens_ as a species, how did we survive to piece together the story today?\n\n\nWhat did a massive supereruption mean for people around the world?\n\n\nDigitalGlobe/Maxar via Getty Images\n\n\nSurvival amid the ashes\n\nHuman populations living in close proximity to the Toba volcano were probably completely wiped out. Whether people on other parts of the globe were affected is a question that scientists are still investigating.\n\nThe Toba catastrophe hypothesis was one prominent school of thought for many years. It proposes that the Toba supereruption caused a global cooling event that lasted up to six years. Its effects, according to the hypothesis, caused human population sizes to plummet to fewer than 10,000 individual people living on Earth.\n\nThis scenario is supported by genetic evidence found in the genomes of people alive today. Our DNA suggests that modern humans spread into separate regions around 100,000 years ago and then shortly after that experienced what scientists call a genetic bottleneck: an event, such as a natural disaster or disease outbreak, that leads to a large decline in population sizes. These calamities drastically reduce the genetic diversity in a group.\n\nWhether this apparent reduction in human population size resulted from the Toba supereruption or some other factor is heavily debated. As scientists collect more data from climate, environmental and archaeological records, we can begin to understand what conditions were most important for human survival.\n\nHow to study a supereruption’s impact To piece together what happened 74,000 years ago, scientists have one direct line of evidence they can use: the rock and ash ejected from the volcanic eruption itself. This material is referred to as tephra. Scientists can trace the layers of tephra across the landscape both visually and chemically.\n\n\nA backscatter image of a volcanic glass shard, taken with a microscope that uses electrons instead of light. The glass here is very small – 50-60 microns, about the diameter of a human hair – and looks light in color. It also appears to contain holes that formed from air bubbles during the time of eruption.\n\n\nJayde N. Hirniak\n\n\nMicroscopic volcanic glass called cryptotephra travels the farthest, making it important for understanding the true extent of an eruption. Because cryptotephra is not visible to the naked eye, it can be really challenging to identify. Researchers like me carefully separate out the tiny glass shards by sifting through the dirt and using a micromanipulator, a tool that can pick up and move microscopic grains. This process can feel like looking for a needle in a haystack and can take months to complete for one site.\n\nEvery volcanic eruption has a unique chemistry, which scientists can use to determine which eruption a particular sample of volcanic material originated from. For instance, tephra from one eruption might have more iron in it compared to tephra from another eruption. With this knowledge, we can begin to understand how large past eruptions were and who they directly affected.\n\nWhen I work in the field, I look for cryptotephra that settled on archaeological sites – places with traces of past human activity such as tools, art or even buried remains. I collect samples from areas of the site that have been excavated and bring them back to the lab to extract the microscopic volcanic glass out of the dirt. Then I chemically analyze the glass to figure out the volcanic fingerprint.\n\n\nAuthor sampling for cryptotephra at an archaeological site. Samples are collected in a continuous column along an exposed stratigraphic section.\n\n\nJayde N. Hirniak\n\nBut even if I determine that a certain sample from an archaeological site is from the Toba supereruption, what does that reveal about whether people survived the blast?\n\nOnce we identify a tephra or cryptotephra layer, the next step is to look closely at what’s preserved in the archaeological record before and after that eruption. In some cases, people change their behavior after an eruption, such as using a new stone tool technology or eating something different. Sometimes, people even abandon a site, leaving no trace of human activity after a catastrophic event.\n\nStudying volcanic deposits on archaeological sites fills in only one piece of the puzzle, though. Environmental and climate records preserve information on how the local vegetation or global temperatures changed at the time of the eruption. This information helps scientists understand why people made the changes they did.\n\nWhat does the archaeological evidence reveal?\n\nGiven the size and intensity of the Toba supereruption, it almost seems inevitable that humans across the globe would have suffered immensely. However, most archaeological sites tell a story of resilience.\n\nIn places such as South Africa, humans not only survived this catastrophic event but thrived. At archaeological site Pinnacle Point 5-6, evidence of cryptotephra from Toba shows that humans occupied the site before, during and after the eruption. In fact, human activity increased and new technological innovations appeared shortly after, demonstrating humans’ adaptability.\n\nThis miraculous result was not restricted to South Africa. Similar evidence is also preserved at archaeological site Shinfa-Metema 1 in the lowlands of Ethiopia, where cryptotephra from Toba was present in layers that also preserve human activity.\n\nHere, past humans adapted to changes in the local environment by following seasonal rivers and fishing in small, shallow waterholes present during long dry seasons. Around the time of the Toba supereruption, humans in this region also adopted bow-and-arrow technology. This behavioral flexibility allowed people to survive the intense arid conditions and other potential effects of the Toba supereruption.\n\nThrough the years, archaeologists have found similar results at many other sites in Indonesia, India and China. As the evidence accumulates, it appears that people were able to survive and continue to be productive after Toba blew its stack. This suggests that this eruption might not have been the main cause of the population bottleneck originally suggested in the Toba catastrophe hypothesis.\n\nWhile Toba might not help scientists understand what caused ancient human populations to plummet to 10,000 individuals, it does help us understand how humans have adapted to catastrophic events in the past and what that means for our future.\n\nWhat could a future disaster mean? The good news is that we are a lot more prepared now than people were 74,000 years ago, and even then, they were able to adapt and find new solutions in the wake of devastating events. Today, programs such as the USGS Volcanic Hazards Program and the Global Volcanism Program focus on preparation by monitoring active volcanoes through a variety of techniques. In fact, you can check out what volcanoes are currently erupting at any time.\n\n\nDifferent methods of volcanic monitoring conducted by the USGS Volcanic Hazards Program.\n\n\nLisa Faust, USGS, CC BY\n\n\nAside from our increased preparedness, humans are defined by our adaptability to almost any condition, even cataclysmic events. By studying the impact of volcanic eruptions in the archaeological record, we can better understand what conditions were key for human survival in the past and apply these lessons to the future.\nJayde N. Hirniak, Ph.D. Candidate in Anthropology, Institute of Human Origins, _Arizona State University_\n\nThis article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.\n\n\n\nPublished by _The Conversation_.\nOpen access. (CC BY 4.0)\n\nThe real story of Toba, then, is not a creationist fable about a world destroyed and repopulated by miraculous intervention, but a scientific story about survival, adaptation and evidence. Where creationism offers a mythic bottleneck caused by divine punishment, science investigates a real environmental catastrophe, measures its deposits, traces its climatic effects, and asks how human populations responded. The difference is not merely one of detail, but of method: one begins with a conclusion and protects it from evidence; the other follows the evidence wherever it leads.\n\nAnd what the evidence appears to show is not a helpless species rescued by magic, but a highly adaptable ape already equipped with the behavioural flexibility that would later allow it to spread across almost every environment on Earth. Stone tools, social learning, cooperation, ecological knowledge and the ability to exploit different food sources were not gifts handed down from above, but products of an evolutionary history in which intelligence, culture and adaptability had survival value.\n\nThat is why the Toba eruption is so much more interesting than any creationist caricature of human origins. It shows humans not as the sudden products of supernatural manufacture, but as part of the natural world, subject to the same environmental pressures as every other species. Catastrophe did not suspend evolution; it intensified it. Changing climates, damaged ecosystems and disrupted habitats became selective pressures, and the populations best able to cope were the ones most likely to leave descendants.\n\nSo, even when creationism accidentally brushes against a real scientific idea, such as a population bottleneck, it immediately gets the cause, timing, scale and meaning wrong. Science, by contrast, corrects itself. It refines its hypotheses, rejects exaggerations, and replaces simple stories with better-supported explanations. The Toba eruption is not evidence for ancient mythology. It is evidence for a deep, natural human history in which survival depended not on faith, but on adaptation.\n\n\n\n* * *\n\n\n\n\n\n**Advertisement**\n\n\n\n**Amazon** USA\n$14.20 UK\n£11.20\n\n**Amazon** USA\n$14.15 UK\n£11.20\n\n**Amazon** USA\n$12.90 UK\n£10.00\n\n**Amazon** USA\n$16.00 UK\n£12.60\n\n\n\n\n\n**Amazon** USA\n$12.50UK\n£9.30\n\n**Amazon** USA\n$12.00UK\n£9.93\n\n**Amazon** USA\n$12.50UK\n£10.00\n\n**Amazon** USA\n$10.50UK\n£8.30\n\n\n\n\n\n**Amazon** USA\n$12.00UK\n£10.00\n\n**Amazon** USA\n$15.00UK\n£12.29\n\n**Amazon** USA\n$7.50UK\n£5.75\n\n**Amazon** USA\n$10.20UK\n£8.30\n\n\n**All titles available in paperback, hardcover, ebook for Kindle and audio format.**\n\n**Prices correct at time of publication. 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  "title": "Creationism Refuted - A Possible Human Population Bottleneck - 64,000 Years Before 'Creation Week'",
  "updatedAt": "2026-05-13T15:48:30.767Z"
}