The day mankind almost died, when will it happen again!!! Options

[Alexander38]

Homo Sapiens Sapiens, is the unquistioned ruler of the world, someday we might be supplantet by Homo Sapiens Superior or something else, but for now we are in acendancy as in there is nobody that can challenge us in the open! we would as the most natural thing in the world wipe out anything that in the even remotest sence could challenge us!.
But has anybody thought about how it came about, there has been many other Sapiens species before us, so how come we were the one that came out on top?.

Science today regonizes 5 hominids as our close kin to our ancestors, and one who probably is our nest of kin Australopithecines boisei as in it's ancestors developed into Homo Erectus from which all later Sapiens species can draw their line. But our species as Sapiens Sapiens is very young, only about 75000 years at the most! and Neanderthalis was well developed by the time we entert the scene, what happende to throw us as a new species, unto the top of the food chain?.

To get an answer to that we have to travel many miles south, to the Island of Sumatra, on this Island about 75000 years ago there happend an event that turned the natural world upside down all over the northern hemisphere,

It was summer and the monsoom season was under way, the lush rainforest prepared itself for another deluge of rain that would further invigorate the forest, but the forest animals were restless, there had been several tremors in the ground whit increasing frequensy and the larger animals of the plateau had evacuatet Toba if they could, so when the highland plateau of Toba began to rumble, most of the movable animal life had evacuatet. It startet whit several smaller earthquakes in the vincinty of the plateau, and huge amounts of gasses began to vent out from the plateau which whit is size of 120km x 40km was not eksaktly small, suddenly whit a huge groan and a tremedous roar Toba split down the middle and the center began to slowly cave in, whit a sound that could be heard more than 3000miles away Toba began to eksplode, 200t pieces of Toba were thrown 16 miles into the air and landed more than 600km form the Volcano, enormous basalt bloks were spewn out and roll down the side of Toba, whit a weight of several thousands of tons they crushed everything on their way, not that there were that much to destroy, since a pyroplastic cloud more than 700 C warm and moving faster than 160km an hour had destroyed and burned all life under it over and area of more 30000km2.
but the destruction did not end here, inside Toba horrific amounts of molten lava directly from the core of the earth, pushed up and over the rim of the volcano now more than 100km long in southeasterly direction, and 30 km wide in north westerly direction were the rim were weakest and whit a loud crack and a enormous avalanche a literal tsiunami of superheatet lava more than 20m heigh in some places ran down and outwards at speeds of more 80km/h were it was steepest, soon those lava flows would cover more than 20000km2 in layers from 50-150m thick, meanwhile billions of tons of ashes were spewed out into the atmosphere into a height of 30 miles, the huge amounts of matter that in many cases were still hundres of degrees warm ran into the jet stream that helped carrying the moist air needed for the monsoom! whit a tremendous clash of air and ashes the weather patten changed and carried by the jetsteam at hundres miles pr hour the monsoom began unleashing its mud on the northern parts of Borneo were a mountain range un named by any humans as yet, protectet the southern parts of the Island by forcing the clouds to give up its burden before their time, over the next forthnight most of what would later become Malaysia were cover in ashes up to 9m thick, but the same winds spared the other major Islands in the nation later known as Indonesia and most of south-east asia, were relativily minor ashfalls were registert as far away as in Laos were the highland were coverd in 30cm thick layer of ash were it was heaviest.
But the calamity had just begun, the Indian monsoom had just startet, and instead of life giving rain it was a fall of corrosive mud, made by the the mixture of ash, sulphour CO2 and water, heatet and exposed to the undilutet sun in superheigh altitudes, turning large parts of the downpur to sulphouric acid whit a strenght of upto 10%. whole provinces of the Indian continent were coverd in ash layers between 1-6 m thick, and the corrosive downpour devastatet several 100000km2 of the lush rain forest in east and southeast of the continent, eksterminating among other things the largest landliving turtel ever whit a weight of more than a ton.

Will continue if theres an interest.

[Alexander38]

This is about as accurate as it can be if we do not have a working timemachine, geologist and scientist in general know it was in the summer that Toba blew up, otherwise the fallout from the ash would have behaved much differently, and the Rainforest of southeast asia/Indonesia would have suffed even worse than they did.

[mommadona]

More, Please!

[Pie]

Wow. Fascinating history, Alexander. Please continue as you are able.
Very humbling, as we sapiens tend to forget that Mother Nature really rules us.

[amy]

I'm interested! Keep on going.

[RadicalMom]

Andrew, this is great. I'm interested in reading more. Please continue!

[Alexander38]

Cont.

' In the later Yunnan province in the country known as a China, an immence head raised it's head lookin to the northvest, trying see if their should be any danger in the contiuning rumble from that direction, he look around making sure that his group were all there both his females and children and the young male he had to see off soon, he wasn't scared, their was no predator but one that would dare challenge him in the highlands they called home, he was an old male but whit a weight of more than 500kg, and the strenght to break the back of the largest Tiger like a toothpick he was secure! he was a Giganopithecus oswaldi the largest primate to walked the earth, only one thing could threaten him, those using fire, his group had no defence against that, and it was a long time since his group had meet other of their kind, but he didn't knew it then that the rumbeling in the horizon were the deathsong of his species, whitin a few generation no more of his kin would be born and they would be gone into the legends.

24 hours later, the coast of Yemen on the arabian peninsular.
A group of hominids were walking throu the forest, they were out to hunt the elusive deer that made up most of their protein diet, it was a difficult task, but one they had tried before, they had all there spears at the ready, advanced spears it was too, they had break away tips to ensure that the prey died and left a trail they could follow, they were Homo Sapiens, but did not think off themself as such, they were just 'the people', throu the forest a sound like a large singing bird was heard, it was one of the younger males of the clan, he had spottet their prey, now in a efficient manner all the hunters began to spread out, two or three would go wide around the spot were the young hunter had seen the prey, and the others would make a small semi-circle, centert around the hunter that spottet their targets first, in that way they would be assured of at least one of the hunters would get a good throw in.
Whit great patience they moved as silently throu the open forest as they could, they had to give time for the other group to cut off the escape of the deers.
Whitin a handspan of the movement of the sun, they were ready, there was 18 deers whit some small calfs among them. the trap were ready to be sprung, when something spook the deers they all looked up, and at the same time a shout from one of the younger hunters spread the deers to all corners, spears flew throu the air, but the hunters were not quite ready so only one doe was hit, but the releif over at least getting a doe were forgotten almost imitiably, all lookt at the sky in the east, a huge black and bluish cloud covering the horizon move towards them, no one had seen anything the like of this ever before, it was late afternoon but a great darkness spread itself all around them, before long it was as dark as a moonlit night whit the sun almost completly blockt out by the ever spreading cloud of ash and sulphur, the eldest hunters began to pray to the great mother while the younger hunters were in doubt what they should do! the temperature was already beginning to drop like it was a real nightfall, and whitin 6 weeks of almost perpetual darkness most of the game animals would begin to stave as the grasses wilther under the lack of the life giving sun, and the rain that should give life to this somewhat arid land, tastet funny and seemed to eat the leafs of the trees and bushes, the clan would not survive the vinter, there was no food neither animals nor plants eksept the trees to even remotely feed the clan, and the cold and sickness that followed would take care of those the hunger did not.

cont.

[Alexander38]

Toba +10min after the eruptíon. the year is 72800BC it is summer.

Deep below the Supervolcano at at deepth of more than 20miles the sudden release of pressure, released an earthquake greater than man had expericended before, at a magnitude of more than 9.5 it was at least 8 times as powerful as the quake that should course so much grief at christmas time so many years later.
Parts of the seabottom settleed more than 30m in a instant as pressure from whit in was released and pressure of the water from whitout pressed inexhaustible downwards. the resulting tsunami would be one of the greatest to have hit the earth in more than 4 million years. moving outwards at the speed of sound the crestel seaguls gathering food for their chicks on the island later known as Diego Garcia only felt a slight tremor just before the low crestet wave passed them by, at the deephts were they sought their food the Tsunami were only a small wave moving very fast, the gulls were in the air as the sound of the ekxplosion of Toba reach them, the great flok of birds were thrown into a panic their internal compasses were thrown heywired by the enormous static outburst coursed by the explosion.
Turning around the gulls using the sun as their compass began their flight back towards their nesting place on Diego Garcia, but the fligth were long and many of their flok went lost as they began their flight over 300 miles towards their nesting grounds.

Diego garcia +6 hours after the eruption.
'The air was filled whit the cries of distrought birds seeking in wain after their chicks and land marks that was regonizable, as one bird landed it stood in seawater puddle in a place that could only be discribet as a desert of death, even here 60feet above ground all was washed away. huge trees were tossed together in enormous twistet masses that was begining to smell of death, as she waddle foreward whit her mate cirkling just above, the gull tried in wain to call out after their chicks but no sound were heard, suddenly a loud crack was heard she liftet above ground for a moment looking for danger, but it was only the setteling off the trees that were giving the sound.
After landing again she began walking toward the nearest mass of broken trees, a familar smell reached her and her mate which landed behind her, moving toward the tress they saw a small wing reaching out of the mud at the base of the trees, as she walked towrd the little unformed wing her brain regonized the smell as one of her chicks, slowly pulling the wing trying to see if their still should be life in their young one, turning around the halfburied form of their little daughter, she looked upon them with lifeless eyes seeing into nothingness, giving a disrought shrill scream the mated pair tried in wain to get some life in their little one, but no life was there to respond, together whit tens of thousand other matet pairs of seabirds they had lost all, and would in the next 20 years constantly balancing on the brinck of extinction as temperature fell and ocean currents were redirectet in other directions coursing untold havoc in the undersea foodchain, and starving several species of seabirds into extinction.

[Pie]

This is addictive reading, Alexander ! Fascinating and very real- takes me right back in time.......... scary but compelling. Keep it coming !

[Alexander38]

20 miles above Sumatra, +10 mins after the eruption.

The huge jetstream carrying this years monsoom clashes into the warm air and ashes thrown out by Toba at a rate ½million ton pr min, the insuring clash between these titanic forces createts the largest thunderstorm in 27 million years, massive lighting bolts at a rate of several hundres each and every minute crisscrosses the sky in an area larger than the island below them, the thundering noice almost overshadow the roar of Tobas eruption.
The mixing of the carbon monoxide and sulphour released by her mixes whit the heavy moist air of the monsoom creates a sour rainfall not seen since, whit areas hit by sulphuric acid in concentrations of more than 25%, enough to kill all unprotectet life and vegitation incl the most primitive forms leaving places that will be literaly as scorched of life as our planet was for ½ billion years ago, on the Arabic peninsular the rainfall will be sour enough to kill even the largest trees whitin one season before new rains could dilute and save what life that might be left, in its place a great desert will form that covers the peninsular this day.
Before Toba the peninsular had a desert in the interior and Rub Al khalid (Deep desert) after wards the desert will grow ekplosivly to cover the former grass steppes and open forest that otherwise was prevalent here.

[TheRestofUs]

Great reading, like the others say, please go on Storyteller

[TheRestofUs]

Have a question if I may, are you familiar with the Legends of Lemuria, or Mu?

Reason I ask, is that the time you are recounting was a time that such a supercontinent was supposed to have existed, covering most of the present day Pacific basin, and including Austrialia, and Indonesia.

This post has been edited by TheRestofUs: Aug 9 2005, 05:26 PM

[Alexander38]

Have a question if I may, are you familiar with the Legends of Lemuria, or Mu?

Reason I ask, is that the time you are recounting was a time that such a supercontinent was supposed to have existed, covering most of the present day Pacific basin, and including Austrialia, and Indonesia.

I have, but that is for another story telling another time, this includes the greatest flood mankind have ever experinced.

[RadicalMom]

I have, but that is for another story telling another time, this includes the greatest flood mankind have ever experinced.

Alexander, I am enjoying this read. Thank you for sharing this with us! Pleas continue; this is fascinating!

[lawnorder]

More, Please!

Ditto!

[lawnorder]

Have a question if I may, are you familiar with the Legends of Lemuria, or Mu?

Reason I ask, is that the time you are recounting was a time that such a supercontinent was supposed to have existed, covering most of the present day Pacific basin, and including Austrialia, and Indonesia.

Yep, right where last year's Tsunami hit...

The Tamil are thought to be decendents of Lemurians.

[lawnorder]

Hey Alexander38, have you read "Evolution" by Steven Baxter ? It's science fiction but he tries to keep the science accurate.

He describes a similar catastrophic event when a huge meteor hit Centarl America, extingushing the dinossaurs and almost all life but on the poles...

[jeffmoskin]

Hey Alexander38, have you read "Evolution" by Steven Baxter ? It's science fiction but he tries to keep the science accurate.

He describes a similar catastrophic event when a huge meteor hit Centarl America, extingushing the dinossaurs and almost all life but on the poles...

Definitely NOT science FICTION.

Dr Walter Alvarez tells all:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteorite_impact

[nates_daisy]

Oh..... this is a great thread ...... maybe you could do another one on Yellowstone?

They say it was enormous last time....

Long before any recorded human history in Yellowstone, a massive volcanic eruption spewed an immense volume of ash that covered all of the western U.S., much of the Midwest, northern Mexico and some areas of the eastern Pacific Coast. The eruption dwarfed that of Mount St. Helens in 1980 and left a huge caldera 43 miles long and 18 miles wide (70 km by 30 km) sitting over a huge magma chamber (see Geology section and Yellowstone Caldera). Yellowstone has registered three major eruption events in the last 2.2 million years with the last event occurring 640,000 years ago. Its eruptions are the largest known to have occurred on Earth within that timeframe, producing drastic climate change in the aftermath.

wikipedia

[Alexander38]

Southern France, close to modernday Lyon. TE + 48hours.

The tribes youngest females together whit the children were busy collecting berries and nuts, which were a welcome supplement to their otherwise mainly carnivorous diet, it was hot, the mean temperature was more than 22C around the clock and tropical fauna was prevalent in this part of the world.
Itchii' a young female was the first to notice the change, looking eastward at the setting sun she saw a frightining sight, the sky looked as it bleed from horizon to horizon the sky was red as the reddest blood, calling out the other of the band looked up, it was from that direction the men and older females had left for hunting!!!. Shitii'' the leading female whistled out to her charges and they hurried to gather what they could returning to their camp close to the foothills overlooking the ocean,.
The red sky seemed to follow them back toward their camp coursing some of the children to call out in fear as it looked like the sky was literaly in flames and followring them home, the females tried to quite the highpitch shrilles of their frigthend small charges. As they arraived at the camp the oldest of their tribe was waiting for them, he was to infirm to be of help on hunting trips but he got the responsibillity to look after their fire and teach the youngest how to make their tools, his hunch over look and a left leg that had been broken more than two times, the last time in three places trying avoid the charge of a European warthog waying more than 400pd, it had thrown him aside like a doll given him a open wound whit it's tusks before the other hunters had distractet it enough for him to get away supportet by one younger males in his tribe.
He was looking at the sky silently praying to their great mother for protection.
Tusyu'' was just as worried as the the females returning, this was a bad omen!!.

Late at night still waiting for the return of the hunters, they saw a sight none had seen in living memory, across the sky waving colours moving north / south were seen clearly as the immence static dicharges of Toba's eruption coursed the magnetic northpole to shift for a short time, compasses would have have been useless in those days as the EMR and discharges coursed the protective Van Allen belt around their planet to get a literaly hiccup, making it visible in places were it had not been visible before. The Polaris Borallis were visible as far south as the later Ethiopia.
The colours were pretty making the children to go quite, looking whit wide eyes at the sight unfolding before them, suddenly a loud whistle tore throu the night, all stopped their gazing and turned their eyes towards the sound, into the light of their bonfire under the light of the Borallis walked the hunters, the males and older females, their hunting had been succesfull and much meat was carried home, they had eaten their fill as was custom before returning home whit the meat they could carry, they startet to greet each other, as usuall but whit a greater urgency than before, no one knew what was comming.

Giving the great earth mother a proper sacrifice were more urgent than ever in this uncertaint time, the females whit Shitii'' as the matriach made their solem sacrifice to their tribes ancestors and earthmother as they waitet for the morning to come.
Come morning the uncertaint feeling the tribe had the day before was reinenforced, it was light but then again it was not, it was like looking at the sun throu a thin cloud but there was none in the sky, the temperature was also beginning to fall, not much but enough to be notised, it was like the mild winter was comming early this year. Shitii'' tribe were not aware of it but for the next 6 years little of the sun would get throu to the earth and the temperature would fall drastictly, in Greenland in the high north, the inland glaciers would qucikly grow to cover all of that immence island, and the temperature would fall whit 16C on average in the northern most parts of the hemisphere, the jungels covering much of the southern parts of europe would dissapear forever and so would the common rhinosorous, apes and prides of lions stalking the forest and savannas of central france and southern germany.
The archaic Sapiens species that had followed Shitii''s Neanderthals into Europe would be extinct whit in 30 years as europe and the rest of the world gets thrown into a new and severe iceage, glaciers more than a mile thick would come down from the north, and in the spand of 2000 years have coverd areas formerly used by apes and rhinos as a feeding ground.
Only the fact that mother earth was on her way into a new hot spell at the time, saves the hominids of the planet of an even more severe blow to their survival.

The seas would fall by more than 120m as water gets trapped in the glaciers, the persian gulf would cease to excist as you can walk on dry land from yemen to Persia, Australia would become connectet whit the main asian continent as the Indonesian achipalgoes turns into one huge new lowland continent as the seas receed.
All archaic sapiens species outside east africa will become ekstinct, only the neanderthals in Europe and the Homo erectus in Asia would survied, and the Neanderthals will re-occupied areas in the levant formerly possesed by the archaic Homo Sapiens.
The Homo Sapiens remaining would count less than 2000 in all of Africa, whit less than 100 breeding female lines at their lowest.

Neanderthals Names: The Larynx in the Neanderthals only made them capable of two vovels and fairly high pitches sounds compared to modern man, much like some larger birds in fact.