00:00The latest super eruption of Yellowstone occurred 640,000 years ago, and it was long before Homo sapiens saw the light of day.
00:10But we were around, during another, no less devastating natural disaster.
00:15This super eruption took place on the island of Sumatra around 74,000 years ago.
00:21That's when an erupting super volcano wreaked havoc on huge territories,
00:25sending up plumes of debris and ash that spread for thousands of miles and caused temperatures on the planet to plummet.
00:34The effects of this super eruption were visible as far away as southern Africa.
00:40Experts believe they could have impacted early humans there.
00:43By the time the volcano erupted, our ancestors had already been using stone tools and had likely known how to produce yarn.
00:50And some specialists even think that the Toba super eruption was so powerful,
00:56it could push our ancestors to the brink of extinction.
01:00They claim that Toba might be the largest volcanic eruption to occur on Earth within the last 2 million years.
01:08The eruption disgorged so much pyroclastic rock,
01:11it would be enough to cover the entire United States to the depth of a one-story house.
01:16About a third of that deposit piled up on northern Sumatra,
01:20while a lot more ended up beneath the floor of the Indian Ocean.
01:25The super eruption left an elliptical crater lake around 60 miles long.
01:30The caldera is so large, it's hard to feel that you're indeed in a volcano.
01:36Pumace deposits from the eruption remain in the canyon walls and go deep below the ground.
01:41There aren't many arguments about the amount of pumice and ash involved in this disaster.
01:48At the same time, experts aren't sure how much sulfur ended up in the atmosphere.
01:52Even some sulfur layers in the polar ice could be potential candidates.
01:57But so far, scientists haven't found any connection between them and Toba.
02:02But let's get back to the dramatic impact the super eruption had on early humans.
02:08It turns out, some not only survived, but even thrived after this natural catastrophe,
02:14at least judging by the artifacts they made during and after the eruption.
02:19The disaster might not have posed a serious threat to those of our ancestors who took refuge along the coast.
02:25Genetic evidence hints that modern humans descend from a few thousand people that ventured out of Africa around 60,000 years ago.
02:35Why just a few thousand?
02:37According to some experts, the rest of our ancestors could have been devastated by the Toba eruption.
02:44After all, the super volcano spewed out a thousand cubic miles of dust and rock in a flash,
02:51leaving a scar in the ground that was dozens of miles wide.
02:54All that dust and sulfur Toba sent into the atmosphere potentially cooled the surface of our planet,
03:00which led to the appearance of glaciers and the lowering of Earth's sea levels.
03:06And since Toba might have had an important role in shaping humankind,
03:10scientists have been working hard trying to understand precisely how early humans reacted to this disaster.
03:17In 2011, several researchers found an enigmatic soil sample in South Africa's Pinnacle Point,
03:25an archaeological site overlooking the Indian Ocean.
03:28This sample contained some volcanic ash.
03:32After examining the layer, they found more than 400,000 artifacts left by early humans.
03:38Based on this finding, the team suggested that early humans on the South African coast thrived after the eruption,
03:51living in that area for thousands of years and improving their tools.
03:56The region might have served as a refuge during and after the Toba eruption.
04:01A 2009 study suggested that the eruption could have lowered global temperatures by 14 degrees Fahrenheit.
04:09It would have made survival tough elsewhere in Africa.
04:12If there had been a volcanic winter, it wouldn't have been as cold along the coastline.
04:17On the other hand, newer studies claim that Toba spewed out so much sulfur into the atmosphere
04:23that the resulting aerosols could have stuck together,
04:26which would have limited their cooling effect in the long term.
04:30In other words, right after the eruption, temperatures would have plummeted, but only in some regions.
04:37And after three years or so, the effects of the eruptions would have calmed down altogether,
04:41becoming not dangerous to humans.
04:44Well, apparently, more research is needed.
04:46Meanwhile, let's figure out if we should watch out for any volcanoes these days.
04:53Last year, thousands of small earthquakes shook the ground near Iceland's Fartsangi geothermal power plant.
05:00Magma rose to the surface there, and now it has opened wide fractures slicing through the small town of Grindavík.
05:08The ground there is still swelling, and an eruption might happen with little notice.
05:13But of course, that's not all.
05:15Over the planet, 45 other volcanoes keep rumbling.
05:20For example, Italy's Vesuvius, that infamous thing that finished the city of Pompeii in 79 CE.
05:27Over the last 17,000 years, the volcano has experienced eight explosive eruptions, followed by powerful pyroclastic flows,
05:36dense masses of super-hot ash, lava fragments, and gases flowing at high speeds.
05:42The volcano's last eruption happened in 1944.
05:46Mount Rainier is one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the USA.
05:51Its high elevation, chemical composition, and proximity to Washington's Seattle and Tacoma suburbs and the volcano's ability to produce massive pyroclastic flows make Mount Rainier a threat to consider.
06:04The heat from this volcano could potentially melt the ice and snow covering it, leading to rapid downstream flows of debris, mud, and rocks.
06:13The Novorupta volcano in Alaska's Katmai National Park and Reserve formed in a 1912 eruption, which was the world's largest in the 20th century.
06:24The volcano sent almost 7 cubic miles of ash and debris into the air.
06:30It also produced such a powerful ash flow that it created the Valley of 10,000 Smokes.
06:37Mount Pinatubo is located in a populated region in the Philippines.
06:42It became notorious after a 1991 massive eruption, which was the second-largest eruption of the 20th century.
06:49More than 700 people lost their lives during that natural disaster.
06:55Today, more than 21 million people live within 62 miles of Pinatubo.
07:01Mount Agan, a continuously erupting volcano in Indonesia, had its last major eruption in 1963.
07:09It was one of the most tragic eruptions in the country's history.
07:12It lasted for 11 months, producing ashfall and pyroplastic flows that led to the loss of more than 1,000 lives and serious property damage.
07:24People saw ash plumes above the volcano throughout 2018, following the eruption in November 2017.
07:33Japan's Mount Fuji hasn't erupted since 1707.
07:37That year, a massive earthquake likely set it off.
07:40In 2014, experts warned that Fuji could be at risk of another eruption, following the 9-magnitude earthquake that shook Japan in 2011.
07:50Experts believed the earthquake had raised pressure below Fuji.
07:55The eruption in 1707 sent so much ash and debris into the air that all this mass even reached Tokyo.
08:02Should Fuji erupt again, it would affect more than 25 million people in the surrounding areas.
08:08The eruption of Washington's Mount St. Helen in 1980 was one of the most destructive volcanic events in U.S. history.
08:1857 people, as well as thousands of animals, lost their lives during that natural disaster.
08:25The eruption also destroyed around 200 square miles of forest.
08:29Experts think that Mount St. Helen's history of massive eruptions means that future catastrophes are bound to happen.
08:37The next explosive eruption might send large amounts of ash all over the Pacific Northwest.
08:43No wonder the volcano is under close monitoring.
08:45One of Indonesia's most active volcanoes, Mount Merupi, has been erupting for centuries.
08:53NASA claims that the biggest risk of this volcano is pyroclastic flows, which can spread over vast areas and harm loads of people.
09:02For the last time, Merupi erupted in January 2024, sending plumes of smoke into the air.
09:09These days, more than 24 million people live in the area surrounding this volcano.
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