Cape Verde Boulders Indicate Massive Tsunami 73,000 Years Ago 54
TaleSlinger writes: Researchers from University of Bristol, UK found that boulders strewn 200m above sea level on Cape Verde, off the west coast of Africa, were ripped from cliffs below and washed up there by a tsunami between 170m and 270m (550-850ft). Researchers at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory dated the tsunami at 73,000 years ago. It's interesting that this is about the same time as the Mt. Toba Eruption and about the same time humans nearly became extinct.
Re:Mass extinction not caused by Mount Toba (Score:5, Funny)
I thought it was global warming, you know, prehistoric man discovered fire, lit too many of them, and off we go.
Re: (Score:2)
I thought it was the total disaster known as the world of warcraft cataclysm expansion.
Re: (Score:2)
Prehistoric men burned wood, which is neutral to the climate ....
Re: (Score:2)
Prehistoric men burned wood, which is neutral to the climate ....
You're obviously a Politically Incorrect Denier!
Re: (Score:2)
Neither am I political incorrct, nor a denier.
However eithher you atempted a lame joke, which I did not get, or you are an complete idiot.
Hint: read a book anout biology.
Re:Mass extinction not caused by Mount Toba (Score:5, Informative)
There have only been five "mass extinctions", the last one 66 million years ago:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
There have been numerous megafloods and tsunamis, as well as enormous sea level rise over the past 14000 years. None of them are the cause of mass extinctions.
People love speculating "which one" is the cause of flood myths:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
The fact of the matter is that megafloods and tsunamis are so frequent that there are many stories of great floods due to many actual great floods.
Re: (Score:1)
Quick, someone check to see if there's an ark up among the rocks.
Re: (Score:2)
The Toba bottleneck was about 50,000 years ago
Sorry, all I heard was "The Boba fettleneck was about 50,000 years ago (in a galaxy far far away)".
Re: (Score:2)
I thought they determined the mass extinction wasn't caused by Mount Toba.
You're right. It was Cthulu. He left the rest of us as a snack for later.
Re: (Score:3)
Megatsunamis can be purely local. The most recent known megatsunami reached 525m (yes, about 1700 ft) and occurred in 1958:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Why is this even posted here? Extinction events are well documented, nothing new here...
To pick just one of many examples, security breaches are well documented.
Say what? (Score:3)
Can't be - there's at least one living right across the street.
Re: (Score:2)
That human is actually only nearly living across the street.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Say what? (Score:4, Interesting)
Ignore the "humans almost went extinct" bit (Score:5, Informative)
That's not from the Nature letter; apparently that's some off-the-wall addition from the submitter.
Since the submitter hasn't figured this out... This was a localized mega-tsunami. An enormous volcanic-induced landslide caused a huge wave to hit a nearby island. Just like other mega-tsunamis that are known to have occurred in Hawaii and Alaska. The scientists aren't talking about some global catastrophe - it would've sucked to be on that other nearby island, though.
Re:Ignore the "humans almost went extinct" bit (Score:5, Informative)
The potential for extinction obviously wasn't due solely to a tsunami. What is being referred to is this [ox.ac.uk]:
Toba had erupted a number of times previously (one of these, about 840,000 years ago, was itself a super-eruption). What was significant about the event 74,000 years ago was the coincidence that an important period in human evolution was occurring at the same time. The Earth was already inhabited by a number of species closely related to us, such as Homo neanderthalensis (the Neanderthals) in Europe, and Homo erectus and Homo floresiensis (sometimes called the ‘hobbits’) in southeast Asia. All of these survived Toba, but some archaeologists have claimed that almost all the anatomically modern humans (our direct ancestors) were killed by the environmental effects the volcano caused, with the remaining people surviving in refuges in Africa. This scenario is based on data from genetics, and because it suggests that people were narrowed down from many to very few numbers, it is known as a genetic ‘bottleneck’.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
This was a localized mega-tsunami. An enormous volcanic-induced landslide caused a huge wave to hit a nearby island.
Volcano in Indonesia (Indian Ocean) causes a tsunami in West Africa (Atlantic Ocean). I'd call that a bit more than localized.
Most homo-whatever species were living in Africa and many lived near the coastlines. The combination of an immediate wipe-out plus an ensuing volcanic winter probably did put a major stress on our ancestors.
Re: (Score:2)
From the article:
The article does not say that a volcano in Indonesia caused a tsunami in West Africa. Please read it.
Re: (Score:3)
I guess your post is a troll, but I will provide some context anyway
The magnitude 9.0 earthquake off Japan in 2011, the biggest to hit the nation in recorded history, generated a tsunami that was up to 40 m high in a few restricted areas along the coast of Japan itself, but less than 3 m everywhere else the waves reached. A tsunami wave from Toba, North Sumatra would need to travel across the Indian Ocean, around South Africa and up almost the entire South Atlantic ocean into the North Atlantic to hit Cape
Re: (Score:2)
There is a coincidence of timing. However, given that previous estimates for this particular sector collapse (see my comment elsewhere for the dozens of other "recent, geologically" Atlantic sector collapses) were between 50 and 150 thousand years ago, it is little more than coincidence.
If there were a tight human population bottleneck (as opposed to a more drawn out but less severe one, with comparable cumu
Re: (Score:2)
Great floods are recorded worldwide throughout history.
2 or 7 of every animal on Earth on a boat? That's the bit that's bollocks.
Re:Great Flood (Score:4)
2 or 7 of every animal on Earth on a boat? That's the bit that's bollocks.
Yeah, because the part about Noah fathering his 3 sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, when he was five hundred years old is totally believable.
As is the idea that he was 950 years old when he died. Also totally believable.
Re: (Score:2)
It is not outside the realm of possibility that there was a period in our world's history where
Re: (Score:1)
When I was in Africa, I met a man who claimed that his father was 110 years old.
People exaggerate, or more likely do not know the real number and make up some unimaginably huge number because he's really old. I'd question if he could even count to 100. And remember, written language is hundreds of years old and written biblical stories were verbal stories going back hundreds of generations. You have to look at them in this light and also the context at the time they were written down. Numbers now mean diffe
Re: (Score:2)
According to current standards, those ages seem ludicrous.
According to any standards, those ages seem ludicrous. There is literally zero proof that anyone has ever lived to 150, let alone to 950 years.
It is not outside the realm of possibility that there was a period in our world's history where we lived longer, perhaps even even much longer -- than we do now.
And it's not outside the realm of possibility that there was a period in our world's history when unicorns roamed the skies, shooting laser beams from their horns. They later grew tired of the skies and psychomagnetically recromulated their own DNA, becoming sea-based creatures resembling sharks with laser beams in their eyes instead. Soon they'll do it again, except
Re: (Score:2)
As is the idea that he was 950 years old when he died. Also totally believable.
Well, we have reason to believe some trees are over 5000 years old so if you believe in the creation myth and that Adam and Eve were created by divine touch that diminished over generations that is actually one of the less incredible parts. That we don't live longer is probably a compromise between reproductive age and retaining experience and knowledge between generations as giving birth to a new healthy generation might be more evolutionary "fit" than growing longer life spans, not any true kind of hard l
Re: (Score:1)
so if you believe in the creation myth
Stop right there. No, I don't believe in the creation myth, because I'm not a fucking idiot.
Only gullible suckers, people with head injuries, and the terminally naive believe in these toxic little fairy tales anymore.
Fear (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
! 800 foot wave? You don't need to be near the beach to get hit by that. For instance, that would pretty much wipe out Holland.
Just for some context ... (Score:2)
The Cape Verde isla