Mount Toba Eruption

The massive volcanic eruption that resulted in Lake Toba (100 x 30 km) 74,000 years ago, is known to have been by far the biggest eruption of the last 2 million years.

This mega-bang caused a prolonged world-wide nuclear winter and released ash in a huge plume that spread to the north-west and covered India, Pakistan, and the Gulf region in a blanket 1 to 5 metres deep. The Mount Toba eruption is the most accurately dated, dramatic, and unambiguous event before the last ice age.

Toba is also regarded by some as having caused worldwide population extinctions as a result of the "long winter" that followed.

Updated On: 12.09.04