Youngest Toba eruption

High school (ages 12+)
Environment & Earth

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Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/youngest-toba-eruption

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. How big is Youngest Toba eruption?Potential genetic bottleneck for early human populations (Toba catastrophe theory)
2. What is the event?Youngest Toba eruption (supereruption)
3. What is the approximate age?74,000 years before present
4. What was the Toba eruption and when did it happen?The Toba eruption was a supervolcano explosion that happened about 74,000 years ago, sending a huge amount of ash and pumice into the air.
5. What is the Toba caldera and Lake Toba?The eruption carved a huge depression 100 km long and 30 km wide. Over time, water filled it, creating Lake Toba, one of the world’s largest volcanic lakes.

Supereruption: An eruption of a supervolcano that ejects more than 1,000 cubic kilometers of material and can cause global climatic effects.
Stratosphere: The layer of Earth's atmosphere above the troposphere, where volcanic aerosols can persist for extended periods.
Sulfate Aerosols: Tiny particles of sulfuric acid and water suspended in the atmosphere, formed from volcanic sulfur dioxide emissions.
Genetic Bottleneck: A sharp reduction in the size of a population due to environmental events or human activities, leading to reduced genetic variation.