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

If ashes block the sun, the planet cools down, and the average global temperature decreases. The difference between today and the ice age average temperature is less than 10 degrees. That’s why scientists are freaking out that the planet might warm up faster than one degree per century. One degree increase on average means at least 10 degrees increase in certain areas. We cannot withstand such huge changes in temperatures. In 300 years, it might not be possible to live comfortably anymore. Even today, during the summer, on more than half of the planet, you need to protect yourself from prolonged direct sunlight in order to not risk your health.

In fishponds today, many of the breeds of fish that are grown are different than 50 years ago because, during the summer, fish die because of high temperatures. Water at high temperatures holds a lot less oxygen, fish sufocate, and they can no longer regulate their temperature and die from heat stroke. Many ponds, besides filtration systems, have cooling systems too, in order to keep nature from killing them.