Eruption of Toba

The eruption of Toba in Indonesia is the most powerful volcanic event in the last 25 million years.

The explosion caused a massive amount of ash, smoke, and debris which covered thousands of miles.

This event happened 75 thousand years ago, and it almost wiped out humanity. Evidence of this event can be found in our blood.

Any two humans have almost identical DNA, compared to chimpanzees which have more genetic variation than all of the human population.

In order to explain this, it is believed that most humans died off, and left only about 2000 people.

I hope you enjoyed today’s Quest! See you next Monday!

Source: Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari