Second Indonesian volcano wakes up

[HeeBGBz]

Second volcano intensifies disaster alarm in Indonesia

snip


Tangkuban Perahu, a smouldering 2,076-metre (6,933 foot) mountain near the city of Bandung on Java island, began rumbling overnight, prompting scientists to raise the alarm and declare the summit around the open crater off limits.


"There is possibility that poisonous gas may come out," said Surono, a vulcanology and geological disaster mitigation official, who said Wednesday the volcano's alert status had been raised from "alert" to "prepare".


A day earlier, more than 20,000 people fled the slopes of Mount Talang on Sumatra island, as the peak spewed hot ash after being unsettled by huge tremors from the same faultline that caused last year's deadly tsunami.

Toba. Toba. Toba.

[Quakerfriend]

1. Toba what?

Prayers tonight to the people of Java.O8)

[HeeBGBz]

2. Toba or not Toba

That is the question

[starroute]

3. Are you sure you want to know?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/166869.stm

Humans came 'close to extinction'

A new hypothesis about recent human evolution suggests that we came very close to extinction because of a "volcanic winter" that occurred 71,000 years ago.

<snip>

Geneticists have thought for some time that humans passed through a recent evolutionary bottleneck but they had little idea what may have caused it.

Scientists believe that an eruption of Toba caused a volcanic winter that lasted six years and significantly altered global climate for the next 1,000 years.

During those six years, there was substantial lowering of global temperatures, drought and famine. No more than 15,000 people survived.

http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/evolution/

The last glacial period was preceded by 1000 years of the coldest temperatures of the Late Pleistocene, apparently caused by the eruption of the Mount Toba volcano. The six year long volcanic winter and 1000-year-long instant Ice Age that followed Mount Toba's eruption may have decimated Modern Man's entire population. Genetic evidence suggests that Human population size fell to about 10,000 adults between 50 and 100 thousand years ago. The survivors from this global catastrophy would have found refuge in isolated tropical pockets, mainly in Equatorial Africa. Populations living in Europe and northern China would have been completely eliminated by the reduction of the summer temperatures by as much as 12 degrees centigrade.

[Spangle]

4. In the USA

Yellowstone has the makings of being the next Toba. And she is rumbling like she is thinking about it. It's been known to spew ash from Cali to Missippi. That is a major ash field. She is also overdue by about 40,000 years or so.

[kineneb]

5. Looks like the big earthquake was only the beginning

There has been three major earthquakes in the Sumatra area and now a second volcano rumbling. The Earth has its own agenda. We may not be part of it.

Irony warning- we live on the edge of a ancient caldera which is now a big lake (Clear Lake), next to a smaller volcano (Konocti). And up the road is Lassen and Shasta...and south of us, the San Andreas Fault with all its cousins...

maybe I should just shut up...