Lake Toba

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Lake Toba

Landsat photo
Location North Sumatra, Indonesia
237N 9849E / 2.617N
Coordinates 98.817ECoordinates: 237N
9849E / 2.617N 98.817E
Lake type Volcanic/ tectonic
Primary
Asahan River
outflows
Basin
Indonesia
countries

Max. length 100 km (62 mi)

Max. width 30 km (19 mi)
Surface area 1,130 km2 (440 sq mi)
Max. depth 505 m (1,660 ft)[1]
Water volume 240 km3 (58 cu mi)
Surface
905 m (2,970 ft)
elevation

Islands Samosir
[1]
References

Lake Toba (Indonesian: Danau Toba) is a lake and supervolcano, 100 kilometres long and
30 kilometres wide, and 505 metres (1,666 ft) at its deepest point. Located in the middle of
the northern part of the Indonesian island of Sumatra with a surface elevation of about
900 metres (2,953 ft), the lake stretches from 253N 9831E / 2.88N 98.52E to
221N 9906E / 2.35N 99.1E. It is the largest volcanic lake in the world.[1] In addition, it
is the site of a supervolcanic eruption that occurred about 74,000 years ago,[2] a massive
climate-changing event. The eruption is believed to have had a VEI intensity of 8. This
eruption is believed to have been the largest anywhere on Earth in the last 25 million years.
According to the Toba catastrophe theory to which some anthropologists and archeologists
subscribe, it had global consequences, killing most humans then alive and creating a
population bottleneck in Central Eastern Africa and India that affected the genetic inheritance
of all humans today.[3]

Contents
[hide]

1 Geology
2 The Eruption
o 2.1 More recent activity
3 People
4 Flora and fauna
5 Gallery
6 See also
7 References
o 7.1 Notes
o 7.2 Sources

8 External links

[edit] Geology
The Toba caldera complex in Northern Sumatra, Indonesia consists of four overlapping
volcanic craters that adjoin the Sumatran "volcanic front". The youngest and fourth caldera is
the world's largest Quaternary caldera (100 by 30 kilometres) and intercepts the three older
calderas. An estimate of 2500-3000 cubic kilometres of dense-rock equivalent pyroclastic
material, known the Youngest Toba tuff, was blasted from the youngest caldera during one of
the largest single eruptions in geologic history. Following the "Youngest Toba tuff eruption",
a typical resurgent dome formed within the new caldera, joining two half-domes separated by
a longitudinal graben.[4]

There are at least four cones, four stratovolcanoes and three craters visible in the lake. The
Tandukbenua cone on the NW edge of the caldera is relatively lacking in vegetation,
suggesting a young age of only several hundred years. Also, the Pusubukit volcano on the
south edge of the caldera is solfatarically active.[5]

Lake Toba Aerial View

[edit] The Eruption

Main article: Toba catastrophe theory

Location of Lake Toba shown in red on map.

The Toba eruption (the Toba event) occurred at what is now Lake Toba about 67,500 to
75,500 years ago.[6] The Toba eruption was the latest of a series of at least three caldera-
forming eruptions which have occurred at the volcano, with earlier calderas having formed
around 700,000 and 840,000 years ago.[7] The last eruption had an estimated Volcanic
Explosivity Index of 8 (described as "mega-colossal"), making it possibly the largest
explosive volcanic eruption within the last twenty-five million years.

Bill Rose and Craig Chesner of Michigan Technological University have deduced that the
total amount of erupted material was about 2,800 km3 (670 cu mi)[8] around 2,000 km3
(480 cu mi) of ignimbrite that flowed over the ground, and around 800 km3 (190 cu mi) that
fell as ash, with the wind blowing most of it to the west. The pyroclastic flows of the eruption
destroyed an area of 20,000 square kilometres (7,722 sq mi), with ash deposits as thick as
600 metres (1,969 ft) by the main vent.[8]

To give an idea of its magnitude, consider that although the eruption took place in Indonesia,
it deposited an ash layer approximately 15 centimetres thick over the entire Indian
subcontinent; at one site in central India, the Toba ash layer today is up to 6 metres thick[9]
and parts of Malaysia were covered with 9 m of ashfall.[10] In addition it has been calculated
that 1010 metric tons of sulphuric acid[citation needed]was ejected into the atmosphere by the event,
causing acid rain fallout.[11]

The Toba caldera is the only supervolcano in existence that can be described as
Yellowstone's "bigger" sister. With 2,800 km3 of ejecta, it was an even greater eruption than
the supereruption (2,500 km3) of 2.1 million years ago that created the Island Park Caldera in
Idaho, USA. The eruption was also about three times the size of the latest Yellowstone
eruption of Lava Creek 630,000 years ago. For further comparison, the largest volcanic
eruption in historic times, in 1815 at Mount Tambora (Indonesia), ejected the equivalent of
around 100 km3 (24 cu mi) of dense rock and made 1816 the "Year Without a Summer" in
the whole northern hemisphere, whilst the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington
State ejected around 1.2 km3 (0.29 cu mi) of material.

The subsequent collapse formed a caldera that, after filling with water, created Lake Toba.
The island in the center of the lake is formed by a resurgent dome.
Landsat photo of Sumatra surrounding Lake Toba

Though the year may never be precisely determined, the season can: only the summer
monsoon could have deposited Toba ashfall in the South China Sea, implying that the
eruption took place sometime during the northern summer.[12] The eruption lasted perhaps two
weeks, but the ensuing "volcanic winter" resulted in a decrease in average global
temperatures by 3 to 3.5 degrees Celsius for several years. Greenland ice cores record a pulse
of starkly reduced levels of organic carbon sequestration. Very few plants or animals in
southeast Asia would have survived, and it is possible that the eruption caused a planet-wide
die-off. There is some evidence, based on mitochondrial DNA, that the human race may have
passed through a genetic bottleneck around this time, reducing genetic diversity below what
would be expected from the age of the species. According to the Toba catastrophe theory
proposed by Stanley H. Ambrose of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1998,
human populations may have been reduced to only a few tens of thousands of individuals by
the Toba eruption.[13]

[edit] More recent activity

Children playing in Lake Toba

Smaller eruptions have occurred at Toba since. The small cone of Pusukbukit has formed on
the southwestern margin of the caldera and lava domes. The most recent eruption may have
been at Tandukbenua on the northwestern caldera edge, since the present lack of vegetation
could be due to an eruption within the last few hundred years.[14]

Some parts of the caldera have experienced uplift due to partial refilling of the magma
chamber, for example pushing Samosir Island and the Uluan Peninsula above the surface of
the lake. The lake sediments on Samosir Island show that it has been uplifted by at least 450
metres[7] since the cataclysmic eruption. Such uplifts are common in very large calderas,
apparently due to the upward pressure of unerupted magma. Toba is probably the largest
resurgent caldera on Earth. Large earthquakes have occurred in the vicinity of the volcano
more recently, notably in 1987 along the southern shore of the lake at a depth of 11 km.[15]
Other earthquakes have occurred in the area in 1892, 1916, and 1920-1922.[7]

Lake Toba lies near the Great Sumatran fault which runs along the centre of Sumatra in the
Sumatra Fracture Zone.[7] The volcanoes of Sumatra and Java are part of the Sunda Arc, a
result of the northeasterly movement of the Indo-Australian Plate which is sliding under the
eastward-moving Eurasian Plate. The subduction zone in this area is very active: the seabed
near the west coast of Sumatra has had several major earthquakes since 1995, including the
9.3 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake and the 8.7 2005 Sumatra earthquake, the epicenters of
which were around 300 km from Toba.

On 12 September 2007, a magnitude 8.5 Earthquake shook the ground in Sumatra and was
felt in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. The epicenter for this earthquake was not as close as
the previous two earthquakes, but it was in the same vicinity.

A view of Lake Toba from the island of Prapat

Batak House at Lake Toba

[edit] People
Most of the people who live around Lake Toba are ethnically Bataks. Traditional Batak
houses are noted for their distinctive roofs (which curve upwards at each end, as a boat's hull
does) and their colorful decor.[16]

[edit] Flora and fauna

Lake Toba offers a nurturing environment for fish such as the tilapia mossambica,
aplocheilus pachax, lebistes reticulatus, osphronemus goramy, trichogaster trichopterus,
channa striata, chana gachua, clarias batrachus, clarias nieuhofi, clarias. sp., nemachilus
fasciatus, cyprinus carpio, puntius javanicus, puntius binotatus, osteochilus nasselti,
lissochilus sp., labeobarbus sora, and rasbora sp.[17]
Many other types of plants and animals live within the boundaries of Lake Toba. Flora
organisms include various types of phytoplankton, emerged macrophytes, floating
macrophytes, and submerged macrophytes. Fauna include several variations of zooplankton
and benthos.[17]

[edit] Gallery

Toba Lake viewed Toba Lake viewed Toba Lake viewed from Toba Lake Villages
from Parapat from Parapat Ambarita Samosir

[edit] See also

Indonesia portal

Supervolcano
List of lakes in Indonesia
List of volcanoes in Indonesia

[edit] References
[edit] Notes

1. ^ a b c Worldlakes.org
2. ^ Global Volcanism Program page on Toba
3. ^ "When humans faced extinction". BBC. 2003-06-09.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2975862.stm. Retrieved 2007-01-05.
4. ^ Chesner, C.A., Westgate, J.A., Rose, W.I., Drake, R., Deino, A. (March 1991).
"Eruptive history of Earth's largest Quarternary caldera (Toba, Indonesia)". Michigan
Technological University.
http://www.geo.mtu.edu/~raman/papers/ChesnerGeology.pdf. Retrieved 2008-08-23.
5. ^ "Synonyms and Subfeatures: Toba". Global Volcanism Program. Smithsonian
Institution. http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=0601-
09=&volpage=synsub. Retrieved December 13, 2008.
6. ^ Zielinski, G. A.; P.A. Mayewski, L.D. Meeker, S. Whitlow, M. Twickler and K.
Taylor (1996). "Potential Atmospheric impact of the Toba mega-eruption ~71'000
years ago". Geophysical Research Letters (United States: American Geophysical
Union) 23 (8): 837840. doi:10.1029/96GL00706.
7. ^ a b c d "Toba, Sumatra, Indonesia". Oregon State University.
http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/southeast_asia/indonesia/toba.html
.]
8. ^ a b "Supersized eruptions are all the rage!". USGS.
http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/volcanowatch/2005/05_04_28.html.
 9. ^ Acharyya S.K., and Basu P.K. 1992. "Toba ash on the Indian subcontinent and its
implications for correlation of late pleistocene alluvium." Quaternary Research
40:10-19
10. ^ Scrivenor, J.B. 1931. The Geology of Malaya (London: MacMillan), noted by
Weber.
11. ^ Huang C.Y., Zhao M.X., Wang C.C., and Wei G.J. 2001. "Cooling of the South
China Sea by the Toba eruption and correlation with other climate proxies ca. 71,000
years ago." Geophysical Research Letters 28:3915-3918, noted by Weber.
12. ^ Bhring C., and Sarnthein M. 2000. "Toba ash layers in the South China Sea:
evidence of contrasting wind directions during eruption ca. 74 ka." Geology 28:275-
278.
13. ^ "Yellowstone Is a Supervolcano?". SEMP.
http://www.semp.us/publications/biot_reader.php?BiotID=164. Retrieved 2008-02-
21.
14. ^ "Toba volcano (Indonesia, Sumatra)". VolcanoDiscovery.com.
http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/volcano-tours/volcanoes/indonesia/sumatra/toba/.
15. ^ "Significant Earthquakes of the World". United States Geological Survey (USGS).
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/eqarchives/significant/sig_1987.php.
16. ^ "Batak People". IndonesianMusic.com.
http://www.indonesianmusic.com/batak.htm.
17. ^ a b "Danau Toba (Lake Toba)". International Lake Environment Committee.
http://www.ilec.or.jp/database/asi/asi-10.html.

[edit] Sources

Rampino, Michael R. and Stephen Self (1993). "Climate-volcanism feedback

and the Toba eruption of 74,000 Years Ago". Quaternary Research 40 (3): 269
280. doi:10.1038/359050a0.
Vazquez, Jorge A. and Mary R. Reid (2004). "Probing the accumulation
history of the voluminous Toba Magma". Science 305 (5686): 991994.
doi:10.1126/science.1096994.
Petraglia, M. et al. (2007). "Middle Paleolithic Assemblages from the Indian
Subcontinent Before and After the Toba Super-Eruption". Science 317 (5834):
114116. doi:10.1126/science.1141564.

[edit] External links

Toba, Sumatra, Indonesia - Volcano.umd.edu Accessed 11 December 2005
Stanley H. Ambrose, Volcanic Winter, and Differentiation of Modern Humans
Accessed 11 December 2005
Joel Achenbach, Who Knew, National Geographic Accessed 11 December 2005
George Weber, Toba Volcano
Lake Toba travel guide from Wikitravel