Toba traces: The volcanic glass fragments are thinner than human hair
Toba traces: The volcanic glass fragments are thinner than human hair
Tell that to the Atlanteans.
Tell that to the Atlanteans.
While everyone is looking at the impressive release of rock and aerosols for the Bottleneck, I think there is an overlooked factor which may be the real culprit: Tsunami.
Tsunamis come in two versions: the first is uplift or subsidence - which was the 2004 variety - creates a rolling ocean wave like as a storm at sea.
The energy released by the uplift is dissipated and dispersed over a wide area. Toss a rock in a bathtub filled with water. The ripple is the wave, and while large were the rock entered the water, the wave becomes small at the edge as the energy dissipates.
The 2004 tsunami, centered near Toba, caused massive loss of life where the wave came ashore, but only went ashore as far as the energy would push it.
The second tsunami version is collapse - when rock collapses into or under the ocean. This version makes a standing wave.
Standing wave tsunamis, unlike their cousin rolling wave tsunamis, builds to a height in direct proportion to the falling distance and mass of the collapsing formation. The farther it falls, the larger the formation, the larger the wave created. The energy here is massive. Slide a bucket of rocks down the side of the bathtub and the wave created continues at the same height until it reaches the opposite end of the tub.
The only real world example I know of this sort is a bay in Alaska - there is a video of this taken by a crabber. The far wall of the bay collapsed creating a standing wave which scoured the bay down to bedrock of everything up to the height of the wave.
Another predicted wave could be created by the collapse of the west side of the Canary Islands. This wave could be from several thousand feet to three miles high and hit the East Coast of the US stopping only at the top of the Allegheny Mountains. Everything below the mountain tops would simply be gone - like it never existed.
It is possible that the initial stage Toba eruption pushed massive amounts of material into the ocean before the finial stage of the eruption. No matter what happened in the later stages of the eruption, the standing wave tsunami would have been created and traveling outward at whatever height it was until the wave met some formation taller that it was. Everything below that would have be erased - including all the people living below the height of the wave in all the lands bordering the Indian Ocean.
I don't know if there is any evidence for this, nor if anyone has looked.
Another thing this climate change researcher overlooked is the effect of inhalation of those volcanic glass particles - inhaling glass particles will cause hemorrhaging in the lungs and death.
“... it's just too simplistic ...” And why does every explanation have to be complex to be true, Ms Lane?
Her specialty: Tephrochronology: a geochronological technique that uses discrete layers of tephra —volcanic ash from a single eruption—to create a chronological framework ...
