Toba catastrophe theory

Is this apropos of some discussion I missed, or just a cool “Today I Learned” link?<p>I actually read this particular article just a week ago (Baader-Meinhof, etc.) when following links for another cataclysmic event: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manicouagan_impact_crater" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manicouagan_impact_crater</a><p>It still amazes me just what an incredible resource Wikipedia is.

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?<p>How on earth you can answer those questions is beyond me but what makes us human is such a fascinating study<p>(and on the "no eugenics here front" what really makes us human is our <i>humanity</i>)

&#62; <i>The last eruption had an estimated Volcanic Explosivity Index of 8 (described as "mega-colossal")</i><p>I'm not going to lie - this made me giggle.<p>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?

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

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

Zoy