I have a new article at Survive 2012 simply titled Supervolcanoes. If the 2012 event happens to be a supervolcano, or a supervolcanic eruption is triggered in 2012 by something else, then you need to be aware of just how catastrophic it can be…

Scientists have been discussing the possibility of the last supervolcanic eruption nearly wiping out the entire human species. According to New Scientist:

Toba is a supervolcano on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. It has blown its top many times but this eruption, 74,000 years ago, was exceptional. Releasing 2500 cubic kilometres of magma – nearly twice the volume of mount Everest – the eruption was more than 5000 times as large as the 1980 eruption of mount St Helens in the US, making it the largest eruption on Earth in the last 2 million years

Double the volume of Everest is a powerful and memorable statistic!

In theory (which is debated in the article), the aerosols “belched out” by Toba were such that our planet would have suffered a volcanic winter for 10 years or so. The devastation to flora and fauna would have made it difficult for humans to feed themselves, and the entire planet would have become a warzone with every species fighting over meals.

Modern humans, who were still thought to be living in Africa, would have been whittled down to just a few thousand breeding pairs scattered in dispersed refugia – creating a so-called “genetic bottleneck” in evolution. As the separate colonies developed independently of one another, they would have sown the seeds for the genetic differences between races once these separate groups eventually left Africa.

This is sobering:

The Geological Society of London’s working group went one step further in 2005 when they described the impact of a generic super-eruption. “An area the size of North America or Europe could be devastated, and pronounced deterioration of global climate would be expected for a few years following the eruption. Such events could result in the ruin of world agriculture, severe disruption of food supplies, and mass starvation. The effects could be sufficiently severe to threaten the fabric of civilisation,” they conclude.

A food shortage, regardless of cause, would have a domino effect. Western greed would most likely cause mass-starvation in poorer countries. Civil wars would be inevitable. Economies would collapse. Martial law would be commonplace, creating further problems. And a supervolcano could make this a reality tomorrow (or 50,000 years from now, nobody knows when).