How did the Toba super-eruption change Earth’s climate?

Theme: Earth science and resources

Description: 

Around 74,000 years ago, Mount Toba in Sumatra, Indonesia, produced one of the largest volcanic eruptions of the last two million years. This so-called “super-eruption” injected enormous volumes of ash and aerosols into the atmosphere and is thought to have triggered a short-lived volcanic winter, with global temperatures dropping by several degrees. Some studies have even suggested that this event caused a major population bottleneck in early humans, although the severity of its impacts remains debated.

Despite its importance, the climatic consequences of the Toba eruption are still poorly understood, largely because high-resolution climate records from the region are rare.

This Honours project aims to address this gap by studying stalagmites collected from caves near the modern Toba crater lake. These samples are thought to span the period before and after the eruption, allowing changes in rainfall and temperature to be tracked through time. Stalagmites are exceptional palaeoclimate archives, preserving detailed chemical records of past environmental change. The project will involve geochronology and geochemical analyses to reconstruct how climate responded to one of Earth’s most extreme volcanic events.

Additional Information: This project is funded by the Australian Research Council and is part of a broader project investigating the pre-history of Sumatra.

Contact: Assoc. Prof. Gilbert Price