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Ancient Toba Mega-Eruption Not So Catastrophic
Washington (AFP) Jul 05, 2007 One of the biggest eruptions in Earth's history some 70,000 years ago, the Toba volcano in Indonesia, was not as much a world climate catastrophe as first thought, a study said Thursday. The Toba eruption, in northern Sumatra, was the strongest felt by the planet in the last two million years, said an international team of scientists. However, the hypothesis that it may have drastically cooled the Earth, killing off most of the human population living at the time, has only been supported by flimsy evidence, they said in a study published Thursday in Science magazine. A series of stone artifacts unearthed in southern India now suggest that local human populations remained in the region after the Toba eruption, the scientists said. The prehistoric tools were found in sedimentary layers sandwiching a layer of ash produced by the Toba eruption. The tools above were essentially at the same level of evolution as those below, the scientists said. The little difference between the two indicates that the impact of the Toba eruption was not as significant as earlier thought. The sophistication of the tools suggests they were made by modern humans rather than earlier relatives. The scientists said that while more research was needed, the finding could clarify some aspects of human migration during the time period. The team of scientists was led by Michael Petraglia of Britain's University of Cambridge, and included experts from Britain's University of Reading, the US Smithsonian Institution, India's Karnatak University, and Australia's University of Queensland and University of Wollongong.
Source: Agence France-Presse Related Links Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters When the Earth Quakes A world of storm and tempest
Mudflow Warning For Volatile Philippines Volcano
Manila (AFP) May 21, 2007Residents living along river channels emanating from Mount Bulusan were warned Monday they could be hit by deadly mudflows from the restive central Philippines volcano. Less than a month before the onset of the wet season, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) expanded its eruption warnings to those living beyond the traditional four-kilometre (2.48-mile) permanent danger zone around Bulusan's crater. |
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