Eli5: I understand that 74,000 years ago a supereruption occurred in the Toba volcano that reduced the human population and many other animal species to near extinction. What exactly happened after the eruption that was so deadly for living things?

Question

A super eruption on the Toba volcano produced a bottleneck in the human and in many animal species. How could it be that the eruption of a volcano almost wiped out many animal species?

In: 249

Answer 1

I’ll do my best Eli5 by comparing to a sneeze.

when the Toba erupted, it was like a GIANT HOT sneeze.

When we sneeze, we send out lots of snot particles big and microscopic, in every which way with a human amount of force.

Now, imagine something the size of the earth sneezing. The force or power of the sneeze is greater, so all those big and small particles go flying further. It is important to mention the heat because the heat allows the rocks to become liquid. When Toba sneezes, instead of snot coming out, it is fast, hot, liquid rock that comes in all kinds of sizes, but a shocking amount is super tiny microscopic.

Just like a sneeze can be affected by a fan, this microscopic rock dust is affected by the wind and can spread a huge distance. Much of that dust was forced above the clouds. That microscopic dust can also stay aloft in the air for years because the wind will continue to carry it.

With all that dust in the sky, it blocks out a lot of sunlight. Plants require sunlight to grow. Some plants will die, and others will grow at a very, very slow pace.

Plants are also the foundation of the food chain. When you remove the foundation, everything becomes unstable. Unfortunately, just as the plants starved, as did most living creatures.