UK–(ENEWSPF)–30 April 2013. New research has overturned the theory that the Mount Toba super-eruption, which took place at the Indonesian island of Sumatra 75,000 years ago, could have plunged the Earth into a volcanic winter which led to the near extinction of early humans. A fresh analysis of volcanic ash recovered from lake sediment cores in Lake Malawi in East Africa shows that the eruption spewed ash much further than studies have previously found. Previous theories have suggested that the explosive volcanic eruption could have triggered a chain of climatic events resulting in a cooling of temperatures, but this study finds no evidence of a significant dip in temperatures in East Africa at the time. The findings are published in the early edition of the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
