One of the great privileges of my job is that I get to participate on graduate student committees. Many times this allows me to get up close and personal with data sub-disciplines extend far from those of my particular expertise. You know that I have a fondness for fossils and the stories they tell. So... Continue Reading →
One of the largest volcanic eruptions in earth’s history, the Toba super eruption has been a special interest to anthropologists and climatologists because of its potential impacts on past human populations.   I have explored the implications of the Toba eruption on human history in previous posts (See: The Toba Super Eruption: A Global Catastrophe that... Continue Reading →
I recently discussed how the catastrophic Toba super-eruption in Indonesia is a serious challenge to the young-earth model of earth's history (The Toba Super Eruption: A Global Catastrophe that Creationists Ignore). Briefly, Â I explained that the Toba volcano caldera produced the largest eruption in the past 100,000 years releasing an estimated 2800 cubic kilometers of... Continue Reading →
Sudden catastrophic events are not unknown in earth’s history. Large craters are evidence of past cosmic impacts and widespread layers of volcanic ash are a testimony to massive volcanic eruptions. But when did these catastrophes occur and could they have influenced human history? Standard geological models place the largest catastrophic events far in the past. ... Continue Reading →
Naturalis Historia 