Stone Age Apocalypse

Human evolution is believed to have begun some six million years ago. Yet, despite the passage of so much time, the diversity of the DNA genetic code of all humans is minute.

Some Seventy-five thousand years ago, something apocalyptic occurred that left relative few humans alive to carry on the species.

The cause of this bottleneck is now believed to have been a massive volcanic eruption on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

A super-eruption from the site of Lake Toba in Sumatra blasted out more than two hundred cubic miles of ash over an area of over a million square miles.

Today on Far Future Horizons we present two documentary features concerning this prehistoric mega disaster: Naked Science - Stone Age Apocalypse and PBS NOVA’s Mystery of the Megavolcano.

These documentaries investigate the devastating aftermath of the most powerful volcano of the last twenty-five million years including, the theory that it triggered a human genetic bottleneck leaving a tiny band of humanity, as low as a few thousand survivors to preserve the human race. These documentaries also look at the threat of super-volcanoes in the twenty-first century.

These episodes of NOVA and Naked Science other PBS and National Geographic Channel documentaries can be purchased from PBS’s Online Store and direct from the National Geographic Channel’s store respectively.

Naked Science - Stone Age Apocalypse

NOVA - Mystery of the Megavolcano

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