
Toba catastrophe theory - flaviojuvenal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catastrophe_theory
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rubberbandage
Is this apropos of some discussion I missed, or just a cool “Today I Learned”
link?

I actually read this particular article just a week ago (Baader-Meinhof, etc.)
when following links for another cataclysmic event:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manicouagan_impact_crater>

It still amazes me just what an incredible resource Wikipedia is.

~~~
guylhem
It lacks some paleoalignment pictures to illustrate the facts.

See [http://ars.els-
cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S092054460800003...](http://ars.els-
cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0920544608000034-gr14.jpg) for the end carnian
impacts - perfect alignment between Manitoba, Quebec, France and Azerbaijan
craters

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lifeisstillgood
I find the bottleneck theory fascinating - for example it seems there is one
gene now identified that in the six cases where it is missing the people
simply cannot talk. Now was that mutation Pre or post bottleneck? If Pre, what
was spread of talking beforehand - was there a family advantage - or did it
take a whole talking species to have an advantage?

How on earth you can answer those questions is beyond me but what makes us
human is such a fascinating study

(and on the "no eugenics here front" what really makes us human is our
_humanity_ )

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pmr_
Are you talking about FOXP2? If so, absence of it foremost affects the motor
control of speech organs. There also seems to be some effect on the actual
brain functions that are usually associated with speech, but it is hard to say
if this is really caused by the absence of the gene or by the developmental
damage caused by its effects. It always seems tricky to me to pinpoint
something as complex as language (and by extension speech) onto a single gene
given the multitude of functions that are involved.

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confluence
> _The last eruption had an estimated Volcanic Explosivity Index of 8
> (described as "mega-colossal")_

I'm not going to lie - this made me giggle.

Assuming this theory holds - then at one point in time all our futures
depended on the actions of less than 1000 people - which makes me wonder about
our future generations. Will they say the same thing about us living on planet
earth?

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yohui
I assume "1000 breeding pairs" means at least 2000 people. Elsewhere the
article mentions an estimate of "3000 to 10000" survivors.

Either way, if true, it's an fascinating picture. Most of us will have more
people within a few miles radius than once lived over all the Earth.

I wonder what sort of traits might have been passed on had the predicted
disaster not occurred.

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aerique
With some googling and clicking around I couldn't find what the estimated
population was before the disaster.

Anyone know?

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Egregore
Are we prepared for such an eruption today, and what can we do to
prevent/fight consequences?

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arbuge
Well we did make it through last time with much fewer resources...

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Avshalom
Sure but the thing about already living in the stone age is that being knocked
back to the stone age isn't so much a catastrophe as it is Tuesday.

~~~
arbuge
I dunno... Sometimes I miss the good 'ole days.

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eblade
I've been there 2 years ago and the lake is so immensely huge. Difficult to
imagine how powerful the eruption that made it.

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bejar37
Zoy

