Ancient humans lived through a massive volcanic eruption 74,000 years ago

[brooklynite]

CNN

About 74,000 years ago, Sumatra's Mount Toba experienced a super-eruption -- an event scientists suspect was large enough to wipe out a majority of early humans living at the time, slowing down the spread of humanity.

But researchers have discovered evidence that Homo sapiens were migrating before, during and after the event, according to a new study.

The explosive event, which was estimated to be 5,000 times more massive than the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption, is thought to have created a volcanic winter that impacted the spread of ancient humans.

While there's no hard evidence, the volcanic winter is estimated to have lasted between six and ten years, followed by a reduction in global temperatures for about a thousand years beyond that. If true, this would have devastated humans, human ancestors and animal populations across Asia.

[Karadeniz]

1. I saw a t.v.show that explained how the ice age helped the ancestors because they could kill

And bury food on the spot, then come back next season and have frozen food ready for cooking. When the climate warmed, they checked their caches only to find the foods had gone bad.

[jayfish]

2. Part Of That Is Probably True.

They didn't just wake up one day to find all of the ice gone though. I'm sure they had thousands of years to move thier caches around.