Volcanoes change human history

Volcanic activity in Iceland has made the world reel in the past few days, but its influence is very small compared to many other volcanoes in the past.

Smoke, dust and lava escaped from the crater under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier on April 17.Photo: Reuters.

On June 12, 1991, Pinatubo volcano on Luzon island of the Philippines woke up. The BBC said that during the eruptions, it released an amount of ash about 10 billion cubic meters into the air. This is the second largest volcanic eruption in the 20th century.

As it flies to the stratosphere of the atmosphere, ash can cause short-term effects on the earth's climate because it blocks part of sunlight, causing ground temperatures to decrease. According to BBC, the activity of Pinatubo volcano caused the average earth temperature to drop from 0.4 to 0.5 degrees Celsius.

In addition, volcanic ash also reduces air quality, causing numerous health problems.

History also noted many more terrible volcanic eruptions. When a volcano on the Indonesian island of Krakatoa erupted in 1883, it caused tsunamis that killed thousands of people, and two-thirds of the island's area was destroyed. The ocean floor also changes after this eruption.

Huge column of dust and smoke rises from the Pinatubo volcano on the island of Luzon in the Philippines in 1991. Photo: andaman.org.

However, Krakatoa's terrible level is nothing compared to the Tambora volcanic eruption on Indonesia's Sumbawa Island in 1815. It is the most powerful volcanic eruption in modern history. Hot lava rivers escaping from the ridge of about 4,000 m, instantly killing about 10,000 people. Volcanic eruptions of an amount of ash, dust, lava and gas have a total volume of about 50 billion cubic meters. A huge amount of sulfur dioxide (SO ₂ ) gas also flies into the atmosphere.

BBC said the dust cloud from Tambora volcano caused global temperatures to drop from 0.4 to 0.7 degrees C. A year later, many areas in Europe and North America had no summer. Frost caused failures in Canada and the New England region. Europe is also miserable because of the decline in temperature.

The aftermath of the Tambora volcano also left its mark in science and art. Scientists believe that the cloud of dust from Tambora volcano is the cause of the birth of many strange portraits of Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851), a famous British artist.

In Europe, the price of oats - used as horse food - skyrocketed, causing the German inventor Karl Drais to create a form of horsepowerless transportation: a stroller. This is considered the 'ancestor' of bicycles.

If we reverse the flow of time further, to a time about 70,000 years ago, we will see a super volcano that threatened human survival. It is Toba volcano on Indonesia's Sumatra island.

After the Toba volcano awoke, the world experienced a winter of 6 years. After that the icy situation continued to dominate the Earth for another 1,000 years. Super volcanoes often release a volume of material with a volume of 1,000 billion cubic meters or more. Scientists believe that Toba's eruption caused plants to extinction extensively and many animals starved to death because there was no food. Biologists also found evidence that Toba volcano also affects human DNA. Specifically, the number of mutations in DNA decreased sharply in the period after the volcano erupted.

According to calculations by many researchers, the number of people on the planet after this disaster is only about 5,000 - 10,000, causing Homo sapiens to face extinction. But some scientists argue that it is the danger of extinction that forces people to become more intelligent and skillful to survive. For example, our ancestors know how to build tools and paint on rocks after the Toba volcano works.

Continuing backwards in time, we will meet a volcano that once caused mass extinction on Earth about 200 million years ago. It destroys all the competitors of the dinosaurs, bringing this species to dominate the Earth for hundreds of millions of years.

An eruption volcano 250 million years ago also caused mass extinction.

Today, super volcanoes like Toba are still dangerous. Volcanic experts continue to monitor them, but they can hardly predict when they will erupt.