Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T16:26:31.517Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Palaeoenvironmental response to the ∼74 ka Toba ash-fall in the Jurreru and Middle Son valleys in southern and north-central India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Sacha Claire Jones
Sacha Claire Jones*
Affiliation:
McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, , University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3ER, UK
*
*Fax: +44 1223 333536.E-mail address:scj23@cam.ac.uk.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Distal deposits of rhyolitic volcanic ash from the ∼74 ka "supervolcanic" eruption of Toba, in northern Sumatra, are preserved in numerous river valleys across peninsular India. The Toba eruption is hypothesized to have resulted in climate change and the devastation of ecosystems and hominin populations. This study reports the results of the analysis of sediments and stratigraphical sequences from sites in the Jurreru and Middle Son valleys in southern and north-central India. The aim of the study is to determine the extent of palaeoenvironmental change in both valleys as a result of the ash-fall. Inferences based on evidence from the Jurreru valley are more detailed, where pre- and post-Toba palaeoenvironmental changes are divided into seven phases. The results indicate that ash-fall deposits in both valleys underwent several phases of reworking that possibly lasted for several years, indicating that ash was mobile in the landscape for a considerable period of time prior to burial. This could have enhanced and lengthened the detrimental effects of the ash on vegetation and water sources, as well as animal and hominin populations.

Keywords

TobaSupereruptionIndiaJurreruMiddle SonDistal tephraPalaeoenvironment
Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 73 , Issue 2 , March 2010 , pp. 336 - 350
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Acharyya, S.K., Basu, P.K., (1993). Toba ash on the Indian subcontinent and its implications for correlation of Late Pleistocene alluvium. Quaternary Research 40, 10–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ambrose, S.H., (1998). Late Pleistocene human populations bottlenecks, volcanic winter, and differentiation of modern humans. Journal of Human Evolution 34, 623–651.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
An, Z., Kukla, G., Porter, S.C., Xiao, J., (1991). Magnetic susceptibility evidence of monsoon variation on the loess plateau of Central China during the last 130,000 years. Quaternary Research 36, 26–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Basu, P.K., Biswas, S., Acharyya, S.K., (1987). Late Quaternary ash beds from Son and Narmada basins, Madhya Pradesh. Indian Minerals 41, 66–72.Google Scholar
Bekki, S., Pyle, J.A., Zhong, W., Toumi, R., Haigh, J.D., Pyle, D.M., (1996). The role of microphysical and chemical processes in prolonging the climate forcing of the Toba eruption. Geophysical Research Letters 23, 2669–2672.Google Scholar
B"hring, C., Sarnthein, M., (2000). Party, Leg 184 Shipboard Scientific Party. Toba ash layers in the South China Sea: evidence of contrasting wind directions during eruption ca. 74 ka. Geology 28, 275–278.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chesner, C.A., Rose, W.I., (1991). Stratigraphy of the Toba Tuffs and the evolution of the Toba Caldera Complex, Sumatra, Indonesia. Bulletin of Volcanology 53, 343–356.Google Scholar
Cronin, S.J., Hedley, M.J., Neall, V.E., Smith, R.G., (1998). Agronomic impact of tephra fallout from the 1995 and 1996 Ruapehu volcano eruptions, New Zealand. Environmental Geology 34, 21–30.Google Scholar
Dale, V.H., Delgado-Acevedo, J., MacMahon, J., (2005). Effects of modern volcanic eruptions on vegetation. Mart", J., Ernst, G.G.J., Volcanoes and the environment. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge., 227–249.Google Scholar
Dennell, R.W., Rendell, H.M., Halim, M., Moth, E., (1992). A 45-000-year-old open-air Paleolithic site at Riwat, northern Pakistan. Journal of Field Archaeology 19, 17–33.Google Scholar
Gathorne-Hardy, F., Harcourt-Smith, W., (2003). The super-eruption of Toba, did it cause a human bottleneck?. Journal of Human Evolution 45, 227–230.Google Scholar
Grattan, J., (2006). Aspects of Armageddon: an exploration of the role of volcanic eruptions in human history and civilization. Quaternary International 151, 10–18.Google Scholar
Gu, L., Baldocchi, D.D., Wofsy, S.C., Munger, J.W., Michalsky, J.J., Urbanski, S.P., Boden, T.A., (2003). Response of a deciduous forest to the Mount Pinatubo eruption: enhanced photosynthesis. Science 299, 2035–2038.Google Scholar
Horwell, C.J., Baxter, P.J., (2006). The respiratory health hazards of volcanic ash: a review for volcanic risk mitigation. Bulletin of Volcanology 69, 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huang, C.-Y., Zhao, M., Wang, C.-C., Wei, G., (2001). Cooling of the South China Sea by the Toba eruption and correlation with other climate proxies ?71,000 years ago. Geophysical Research Letters 28, 3915–3918.Google Scholar
Jones, G.S., Gregory, J.M., Stott, P.A., Tett, S.F.B., Thorpe, R.B., (2005). An AOGCM simulation of the climate response to a volcanic super-eruption. Climate Dynamics 25, 725–738.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, M.T., Sparks, R.S.J., Valdes, P.J., (2007). The climatic impact of supervolcanic ash blankets. Climate Dynamics 29, 553–564.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, S.C., (2007a). The Toba supervolcanic eruption: tephra-fall deposits in India and palaeoanthropological implications. Petraglia, M.D., Allchin, B., The evolution and history of human populations in South Asia. Springer/Kluwer Academic Publishers, New York., 173–200.Google Scholar
Jones, S.C., (2007b). A human catastrophe? The impact of the ?74,000 year-old supervolcanic eruption of Toba on hominin populations in India. PhD thesis, University of Cambridge, , England. Google Scholar
Jones, S.C., Pal, J.N., (2005). The Middle Son valley and the Toba supervolcanic eruption of 74 kyr BP: Youngest Toba Tuff deposits and Palaeolithic associations. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in History and Archaeology 2, 47–62.Google Scholar
Jones, S.C., Pal, J.N., (2009). The Palaeolithic of the Middle Son valley, north-central India: changes in hominin lithic technology and behaviour during the Upper Pleistocene. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 28, 323–341.Google Scholar
Kudrass, H.R., Hofmann, A., Doose, H., Emeis, K., Erlenkeuser, H., (2001). Modulation and amplification of climatic changes in the Northern Hemisphere by the Indian summer monsoon during the past 80"k.y. Geology 29, 63–66.Google Scholar
Mason, B.G., Pyle, D.M., Oppenheimer, C., (2004). The size and frequency of the largest explosive eruptions on Earth. Bulletin of Volcanology 66, 735–748.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ninkovich, D., Sparks, R.S.J., Ledbetter, M.T., (1978). The exceptional magnitude and intensity of the Toba eruption, Sumatra: an example of the use of deep-sea tephra layers as a geological tool. Bulletin Volcanologique 41, 286–298.Google Scholar
Oppenheimer, C., (2002). Limited global change due to the largest known Quaternary eruption, Toba 74 kyr BP. Quaternary Science Reviews 21, 1593–1609.Google Scholar
Pattan, J.N., Shane, P., Banakar, V.K., (1999). New occurrence of Youngest Toba Tuff in abyssal sediments of the Central Indian Basin. Marine Geology 155, 243–248.Google Scholar
Petraglia, M., Korisettar, R., Boivin, N., Clarkson, C., Ditchfield, P., Jones, S., Koshy, J., Lahr, M.M., Oppenheimer, C., Pyle, D., Roberts, R., Schwenninger, J.-L., Arnold, L., White, K., (2007). Middle Paleolithic assemblages from the Indian Subcontinent before and after the Toba Super-Eruption. Science 317, 114–116.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clarkson, C, Cunningham, K, Ditchfield, P, Fuller, D, Hampson, J, Haslam, M, Jones, S, Koshy, J, Miracle, P, Oppenheimer, C, Roberts, R, White, K., (2009). Human occupation, adaptation and behavioral change in the Pleistocene and Holocene of South India: recent investigations in the Kurnool District. Andhra Pradesh. Eurasian Prehistory 6, (1"2), 119"166.Google Scholar
Prabhu, C.N., Shankar, R., Anupama, K., Taieb, M., Bonnefille, R., Vidal, L., Prasad, S., (2004). A 200-ka pollen and oxygen-isotopic record from two sediment cores from the eastern Arabian Sea. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 214, 309–321.Google Scholar
Rajagopalan, G., Sukumar, R., Ramesh, R., Pant, R.K., Rajagopalan, G., (1997). Late Quaternary vegetational and climatic changes from tropical peats in southern India " an extended record up to 40,000 years BP. Current Science 73, 60–63.Google Scholar
Rampino, M.R., Self, S., (1992). Volcanic winter and accelerated glaciation following the Toba super-eruption. Nature 359, 50–52.Google Scholar
Rees, J.D., (1979). Effects of the eruption of Par"cutin volcano on landforms, vegetation, and human occupancy. Sheets, P., Grayson, D.K., Volcanic Activity and Human Ecology. Academic Press, New York., 249–292.Google Scholar
Riedel, J.L., Pringle, P.T., Schuster, R.L., (2001). Deposition of Mount Mazama tephra in a landslide-dammed lake on the upper Skagit River, Washington, USA. White, J.D.L., Riggs, N.R., Volcaniclastic sedimentation in lacustrine settings. Blackwell Science, U.K.., 285–298.Google Scholar
Robock, A., Ammann, C.M., Oman, L., Sindell, D., Levis, S., Stenchikov, G., (2009). Did the Toba volcanic eruption of ?74 ka B.P. produce widespread glaciation?. Journal of Geophysical Research 114, D10107.Google Scholar
Rose, W.I., Chesner, C.A., (1987). Dispersal of ash in the great Toba eruption, 75 ka. Geology 15, 913–917.Google Scholar
Rose, W.I., Riley, C.M., Darteville, S., (2003). Size and shapes of 10-Ma distal fall pyroclasts in the Ogallala Group, Nebraska. Journal of Geology 111, 115–124.Google Scholar
Scasso, R.A., Corbella, H., Tiberi, P., (1994). Sedimentological analysis of the tephra from the 12-15 August 1991 eruption of Hudson volcano. Bulletin of Volcanology 56, 121–132.Google Scholar
Schulz, H., Emeis, K.-C., Erlenkeuser, H., von Rad, U., Rolf, C., (2002). The Toba volcanic event and interstadial/stadial climates at the marine isotopic stage 5 to 4 transition in the Northern Indian Ocean. Quaternary Research 57, 22–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Self, S., (2006). The effects and consequences of very large explosive volcanic eruptions. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A 364, 2073–2097.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sharma, G.R., Clark, J.D., (1983). Palaeoenvironments and prehistory in the Middle Son Valley. Abinash Prakashan, Allahabad. Google Scholar
Sparks, S., Self, S., Grattan, J., Oppenheimer, C., Pyle, D., Rymer, H., (2005). Super-eruptions: global effects and future threats. Report of a Geological Society of London Working Group. The Geological Society, London., 123.Google Scholar
Srivastava, P., Singh, I.B., Sharma, M., Singhvi, A.K., (2003). Luminescence chronometry and Late Quaternary geomorphic history of the Ganga Plain, India. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 197, 15–41.Google Scholar
von Rad, U., Burgath, K.-P., Pervaz, M., Schulz, H., (2002). Discovery of the Toba ash (c. 70 ka) in a high-resolution core recovering millennial monsoonal variability off Pakistan. Clift, P.D., Kroon, D., Gaedicke, C., Craig, J., The tectonic and climatic evolution of the Arabian Sea region. Geological Society Special Publication No. 195. The Geological Society, London., 445–461.Google Scholar
Voorhies, M., Thomasson, J.R., (1979). Fossil grass anthoecia within Miocene rhinoceros skeletons: diet in an extinct species. Science 206, 331–333.Google Scholar
Watt, S.F.L., Pyle, D.M., Mather, T.A., Martin, R.S., Matthews, N.E., (2009). Fallout and distribution of volcanic ash over Argentina following the May 2008 explosive eruption of Chait"n. Chile. Journal of Geophysical Research 114, B04207.Google Scholar
Westgate, J.A., Shane, P.A.R., Pearce, N.J.G., Perkins, W.T., Korisettar, R., Chesner, C.A., Williams, M.A.J., Acharyya, S.K., (1998). All Toba tephra occurrences across Peninsular India belong to the 75,000 yr B.P. eruption. Quaternary Research 50, 107–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, M.A.J., Clarke, M.F., (1995). Quaternary geology and prehistoric environments in the Son and Belan valleys, North Central India. Wadia, S., Korisettar, R., Kale, V.S., Quaternary environments and geoarchaeology of India. Geological Society of India, Bangalore., 282–308.Google Scholar
Williams, M.A.J., Royce, K., (1982). Quaternary geology of the Middle Son valley, North Central India: implications for prehistoric archaeology. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 38, 139–162.Google Scholar
Williams, M.A.J., Pal, J.N., Jaiswal, M., Singhvi, A.K., (2006). River response to Quaternary climatic fluctuations: evidence from the Son and Belan valleys, north-central India. Quaternary Science Reviews 25, 2619–2631.Google Scholar
Witham, C.S., Oppenheimer, C., Horwell, C.J., (2005). Volcanic ash-leachates: a review and recommendations for sampling methods. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 141, 299–326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zielinski, G.A., Mayewski, P.A., Meeker, L.D., Whitlow, S., Twickler, M., Taylor, K., (1996). Potential atmospheric impact of the Toba mega-eruption ?71,000 years ago. Geophysical Research Letters 23, 837–840.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Jones Supplementary Material

Supplementary data

Download Jones Supplementary Material(PDF)
PDF 769.5 KB