Toba Supervolcano Eruption Triggers Global Volcanic Winter

The Toba caldera in Sumatra, Indonesia erupted approximately 74,000 years ago, ejecting an estimated 2,800 cubic kilometers of material in one of the largest explosive volcanic events of the past two million years. The eruption produced stratospheric sulfate aerosols causing regional to global cooling, with severe effects in the Northern Hemisphere. The Toba catastrophe theory proposed this triggered a human genetic bottleneck, though subsequent genomic and archaeological evidence — including continuity of human activity in Africa and India — has challenged this hypothesis. The eruption's precise demographic impact on hominin populations remains debated.