The Eruption of Toba
In Sumatra, Indonesia, approximately 74,000 years ago the volcano known as Toba erupted. This is thought to be the largest volcanic eruption in the last 2 million years. Because rocks are resilient, we can look at geological evidence to see that the eruption was colossal and affected a wide area. The aerosols from the eruption may have changed climate around the world. However, it is difficult to find (preserved) evidence of the impact of the eruption on the environment and the creatures that lived there. Scientists have speculated that the Toba event resulted in a sharp decline in human population and affected the pathway of human evolution. This sounds like an excellent event to teach us about the wide-spread and varied consequences of a catastrophic volcanic eruption. In fact, this event led to the Toba catastrophe theory.
The following site can give you one perspective of this famous event:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catastrophe_theory
Despite the potential for the eruption of Toba to be a regional (or even global) catastrophe, there are many scientists that claim the impacts of the eruption have been exaggerated and this eruption did not change the course of human history. Part of the controversy is centered on dating the event and part of the problem is varying interpretations of the scarce physical evidence of vegetation change, fossils and climate change. Our knowledge of the sequence of events and the severity of the consequences are pieced together from ancient evidence and hence interpretations are debated.
