Last year I became a believer in the theory that a natural disaster in 535 A.D. caused the Dark Ages. For me the clincher came when I read a book on the Mayans that was too old for the authors to know anything about the theory, and they reported that the city of Tikal left NO historical records between the years 534 and 593. The most likely culprit for the disaster is a Southeast Asian volcano like Krakatoa or Tambora; any idea how much ash and rock it would have sent into the atmosphere?
There's also a theory that Mt. Toba, a really big volcano on Sumatra, erupted during the ice age, and the resulting "nuclear winter" killed off everyone, except for a few thousand Neanderthals. I don't know about that, but if Mt. Toba blows in our lifetime, it's safe to say that we'll never have to worry about global warming again!
Never mind Toba... I've read and seen a few items recently that there is a potential supervolcano under Yellowstone, just waiting to go.
Last year I became a believer in the theory that a natural disaster in 535 A.D. caused the Dark Ages. For me the clincher came when I read a book on the Mayans that was too old for the authors to know anything about the theory, and they reported that the city of Tikal left NO historical records between the years 534 and 593. The most likely culprit for the disaster is a Southeast Asian volcano like Krakatoa or Tambora; any idea how much ash and rock it would have sent into the atmosphere?That theory would be from David Keys' book. I don't have a whole lot of use for his eventual culprit, because of the worldwide distribution of the supposed darkness.
There's also a theory that Mt. Toba, a really big volcano on Sumatra, erupted during the ice age, and the resulting "nuclear winter" killed off everyone, except for a few thousand Neanderthals. I don't know about that, but if Mt. Toba blows in our lifetime, it's safe to say that we'll never have to worry about global warming again!That's another popular one, but again, I don't have much use for alleged supereruptions, despite my catastrophist orientation. :')