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Limits RegistryThe Toba supereruption, which occurred in Sumatra, Indonesia, roughly 74,000 years ago, is estimated to have ejected on the order of 2,000-2,800 km³ of material (dense-rock equivalent) — the largest known volcanic eruption of the last approximately 2 million years, rated VEI 8 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index. It left behind Lake Toba, now the world's largest volcanic crater lake, and has been linked (with ongoing scientific debate) to a period of global cooling and a possible human population bottleneck.
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The Toba supereruption, which occurred in Sumatra, Indonesia, roughly 74,000 years ago, is estimated to have ejected on the order of 2,000-2,800 km³ of material (dense-rock equivalent) — the largest known volcanic eruption of the last approximately 2 million years, rated VEI 8 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index. It left behind Lake Toba, now the world's largest volcanic crater lake, and has been linked (with ongoing scientific debate) to a period of global cooling and a possible human population bottleneck.
The greatest estimated erupted volume of any single volcanic eruption identified in the geologic record over roughly the last 2 million years — distinct from the largest eruption within written human history, a separate and more precisely measured record.
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Limits Registry. LR-LARGEST-SUPERVOLCANIC-ERUPTION-GEOLOGIC-RECORD. Largest known supervolcanic eruption in the geologic record. 2026.