70,000 years ago, a huge super volcano blew its stuff all over the world. It was called the Lake Toba (Sumatra) catastrophe.
The human population was reduced from about a million to about 10,000 or so souls that prepped well enough to survive.
I have always wanted to know what set it off...now I know.
Probably a coincidence, I think.
But an interesting one!
Late Pleostocene Human Population Bottlenecks. . . (Toba)
The Toba ‘supereruption’ is probably mythical. Regardless, even a small star passing less than a light year away wouldn’t trigger a volcanic eruption on Earth.
If indeed the Oort Cloud exists (so far it only exists as a mathematical consequence to the currently dominant related set of Solar System origin models) a bunch of those bodies would have wound up on screwy orbits, which could explain a bunch of the trans-Neptunian objects found in the last twenty years.
Super-Eruption: No Problem (Toba)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1861776/posts
Toba super-volcano catastrophe idea ‘dismissed’
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3015183/posts
Archaeogenetic research refutes earlier findings
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3031097/posts
Modern Humans in India Earlier Than Previously Thought?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3067171/posts
You read my mind