Teori bencana Toba

Teori bencana Toba adalah teori ilmiah bahwa gunung berapi Toba (di Sumatra) telah meletus. Letusan terjadi sekitar 75.000 hingga 70.000 tahun yang lalu. Menurut teori ini, rata-rata suhu dunia turun hingga 3-3.5 derajat Kelvin. Hal ini menyebabkan manusia yang hidup pada masa itu meninggal. Diperkirakan hanya 10.000 (atau bahkan 1.000) manusia yang selamat dari bencana ini. Kemungkinan bencana ini juga menyebabkan hominid lain punah. Setelah peristiwa ini, Bumi kembali dikolonisasi, dimulai dari Afrika.

Ilustrasi letusan Toba.

Pranala luar

• Population Bottlenecks and Volcanic Winter
• 1998 article based on news release regarding Ambrose's paper
• Homepage of Professor Stanley H. Ambrose
• Toba Volcano, by George Weber
• Article in The Economist
• Journey of Mankind by The Bradshaw Foundation - includes discussion on Toba eruption, DNA and human migrations
• Geography Predicts Human Genetic Diversity ScienceDaily (Mar. 17, 2005) — By analyzing the relationship between the geographic location of current human populations in relation to East Africa and the genetic variability within these populations, researchers have found new evidence for an African origin of modern humans.
• Out Of Africa -- Bacteria, As Well: Homo Sapiens And H. Pylori Jointly Spread Across The Globe ScienceDaily (Feb. 16, 2007) — When man made his way out of Africa some 60,000 years ago to populate the world, he was not alone: He was accompanied by the bacterium Helicobacter pylori...; illus. migration map.