From supervolcanoes to mysterious event x’s and Norway almost murdering everyone on earth,
these are the times humanity almost went extinct. Toba Supervolcano
It can be tough to find a mate in today's high stress world, but it was never tougher than
after the Toba Supervolcano event, when there might have been as few as 1,000 reproductive
adults left on the entire face of the earth. 72,000 years ago modern humanity had hit its
stride. Our brains were now basically the same form they would be when we invented the space
shuttle and Fortnite - arguably a step backwards in our evolution. We'd long ago left the savannas
of Africa and started to spread around the world. We were using spears to hunt with,
and stone tools were today's Iphone. The world was ours for the taking, and it wouldn't be long
until we invented the wheel, space travel, and the Star Trek Galactic Federation.
But one supervolcano in Indonesia had different plans for humanity.
Sometime around 70,000 BC the Toba supervolcano blew its top,
resulting in one of the largest single event volcanic eruptions humanity is aware of-
until Yellowstone blows its top sometime next week after you watch this video.
The eruption blew an astonishing 1700 cubic miles of vaporized rock into the atmosphere,
or the equivalent of 3 million Empire State Buildings. This resulted in a layer of ash
half a foot thick (15 centimeters) falling all over the South Pacific area. Within days the
ash had suffocated all plant life and poisoned all water, dooming every human in the region.
Being further away from the eruption however was no guarantee of survival,as the supervolcano
eruption had global consequences. The explosion pumped tons of gas and debris into the atmosphere,
so much that it actually blocked sunlight. This led to a global cooling effect on average
of 3 to 5 degrees Celsius, or between 5.4 to 9 degrees fahrenheit- though in
some places the temperature fell as much as 18 degrees (10 C) for several years.
This would be devastating for a lot of plant life, and may have even triggered an ice age.
Even survivors well outside the blast zone would still have to contend with highly acidic rain
and snow which would poison water supplies. The sudden temperature swing would have completely
upset migratory behavior of large animals, who would begin starving off after the failure of
local plant life. While it's likely very few humans died directly from the massive explosion,
the aftermath nearly doomed humanity to extinction. One study estimates there were
about 1,000 adult humans capable of breeding left, while another drops that number down to just 40!
What's clear from the genetic record is that right around the Toba catastrophe
humanity experienced a genetic bottleneck which brought us incredibly close to total extinction.
Toba is believed to be the reason why so many different species of humans also went extinct,
and why today there's only one surviving intelligent great ape-
other than Bigfoot ofcourse. Toba's absolute decimation of the human
gene pool could have potentially set humanity back tens of thousands of years in development.
If it wasn’t for Toba you could have been enjoying Star Trek Federation level technology right now
instead of slaving away like a modern peasant. The explosion also helped wipe out other types
of humans, and lead to a world where only a single intelligent great ape would survive.
If it weren't for Toba, there's a chance today's society would have multiple intelligent types
of humans, which would've been neat but probably just made us murder the absolute hell out of each
other. So, you know, silver lining. Event X, 1.2 Million Years Ago
Modern humans evolved a few hundred thousand years ago, but humanity almost didn't get a chance to
get that far down the evolutionary process. In 2009 scientists used DNA to read back on human
history and help fill in some holes in the history books. In all DNA there are some sequences known
as 'mobile genetic elements', or small bits of DNA that move around and multiply within the genome.
Using a slide rule and a microscope- spoiler alert, nobody on the Infographics
staff knows how genetic research works- scientists are able to use these bits
of DNA to help piece together our genetic past. What they found was shocking. About 1.2 million
years ago something was seriously wrong with the Homo genus. Amongst various members of the Homo
genus including Homo ergaster and Homo erectus, there was only a population of about 26,000.
Not in one area, but on the entire face of the earth. Incredibly, that's about half of the
total capacity of Rome's coliseum, and about how many total gorillas are left in the wild today.
How could several highly successful species have such a low population number? Archaeological
evidence proves that our ancestors were living all across Africa and Eurasia, and had already
been using stone tools. There are two theories. The first is that some mysterious Event X nearly
wiped humanity off the face of the earth, leaving the surviving species of man with
only a few thousand members each. However, no definitive event can be linked back to this cause
in the archaeological or geological record, and there's no link between other species
and a subsequent mass dying. What then could have targeted the Homo genus, and only the Homo genus,
and nearly driven us to extinction, almost like an orchestrated culling...
The second theory is that these population numbers actually represent a sort of steady state for the
early homo species. This population size isn't an anomaly, but rather the average population
for the time. This conflicts somewhat with the widespread evidence we have for the spread of all
Homo species, and the risk of sudden extinction from such catastrophically low numbers for species
spread out over such a vast area. However, given that humans have literally zero natural weapons
except our brains, we can sort of get behind the idea that early Homo species sucked so bad at
fighting off animals that we struggled to survive, meaning humanity basically just barely eaked by.
Mother nature had a chance to kill us off and missed her shot, and now we're making
her pay for it. Next time someone asks you to recycle, remind them that this is our shot,
and unlike mother nature, we're not hesitating. Our personal opinion is that there was indeed
some mysterious Event X that targeted the Homo genus and only the Homo genus.
Consider the following: why are all humans universally repulsed, disgusted, or terrified
by multi-legged creepy crawly insects, and also share a common fear of the dark? Lastly,
why are UFOs a phenomenon reported literally all around the world throughout human history?
Did spider-like space aliens with multiple appendages raid human settlements at night
and try to cull us but mysteriously stopped just short of complete extinction? We're
not saying this did happen, but we are saying that science can't prove this didn't happen.
The Black Death For over a decade the bubonic
plague had been ravaging Asia, but since Europe was writing most of the history books at the time
it didn’t hit prime time until October of 1347. Twelve ships had docked at the Sicilian port of
Messina and brought the worst early-Christmas present possible with them from Asia:
the black death. Authorities would rush these ships out of the harbor, but it was too late,
the cat was already out of the bag- or more accurately, the flea infested rats.
This horrendous disease caused massive boils in the groin and under the armpits, which could
grow as big as an apple according to witnesses. The massive boils would continuously weep blood
and puss, while the victim suffered from chills, fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and aches and pains.
Eventually, the victim would die- but likely not before spreading the disease
to dozens of other people since humanity did not understand how plagues worked very well.
There was no treatment for the plague, or rather there was, but it basically didn't do anything
except make things worse and outright kill people. Common treatments included leeching
or bleeding- or the making of small incisions in order to drain out the 'bad blood'. Since nobody
knew anything about germs, often these small incisions would hasten death by becoming infected
themselves, or the plague could spread from one victim to another thanks to the repeated use of
a bleeding tool without proper sanitation. Other treatments which perhaps wouldn't kill you but
were completely useless included laying in bath water with fresh flowers and various oils, proving
that even in plague-infested middle ages Europe, Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop brand could have found a
way to turn a profit by selling useless products. Things got so bad that most people began to
suspect that the plague was a punishment from God. This prompted the short-lived flagellant movement,
which included mass groups of men who would travel from town to town whipping themselves
as an act of penance for the world's sins. The men would beat themselves with heavy leather
straps that were embedded with sharp pieces of metal, and repeat the process three times a day
for thirty three and a half days, then they'd pack their bags and move on to the next town, hoping to
atone for humanity through their suffering. The movement was eventually ended by the Pople- not
because he cared about the men whipping themselves for man’s sins, but because flagellants who were
willing to suffer for the people had become a lot more popular than the rich, corrupt papacy.
Estimates on its death toll vary from 75 million to 200 million, which would have
been over half of the human population- rapidly losing half of your population is a slippery slope
to extinction, but luckily humanity's gradual adopting of sanitary practices and technology
dramatically reduced the effects of the plague. While it never really went away, you can still
get it today, the plague never resurfaced as furiously as it did in the 14th century.
What really limited its effectiveness and saved humanity's bacon though is the fact that at the
time, the plague wasn't very good about getting around. Long distance travel was limited to ship,
and many human populations at the time were extremely isolated in relation to each other.
Only merchants, soldiers, and political figures undertook regular journeys,
severely limiting transmission vectors and routes for the plague.
Were a new disease as virulent and deadly as the plague to strike today
we only have to look to Covid to know that within months, most of humanity will have been wiped out.
Nuclear Holocaust, 1995 The Norwegians are a hardy and on the whole,
generous and kind people. That's why it's a shame they almost murdered every person on earth.
In 1995 the Cold War had officially been over for four years. The West had won the showdown
between Capitalism and Communism, and as the frost thawed relations were slowly warming
between Russia and the United States. For 40 years the specter of nuclear war had hung over
the world- with psychological effects so profound that some psychiatrists believe
it has had measurable effects on the evolution of the modern world... but that was all over now.
Then on January 25th, 1995, the end nearly came for humanity.
Just a few hours before dawn, a rocket lifted off from the Andøya Rocket Range
off the northwest coast of Norway. The sounding rocket contained scientific experiments as part
of a study of the aurora borealis by a joint Norwegian and American team,
and Norway had alerted the Russians of the launch well in advance. However, those notifications
never made it up the proper channels, and within seconds of the rocket lifting off,
Russian long-range radar had already detected it. For Russian radar operators, it was the sum of all
fears. The rocket behaved exactly like a US submarine-launched Trident nuclear missile,
and incredibly, took the exact same trajectory already predicted to be taken in a US first-strike
against Russia. In the event of nuclear war, it was expected that the first launch would come
from a US submarine, and intended to detonate high in the atmosphere and take out Russian
early-warning radar and communications with an EMP blast. Minutes later, American Minutemen
intercontinental ballistic missiles would rain down hellfire across Russia, and Russia could do
nothing to defend itself. The Russian civilization would be wiped off the map within 15 minutes,
and only a handful of Russian nukes would ever get off the ground in retaliation.
Due to the low resolution of Russian radars, they were unable to determine the size of the
rocket's stages, which would have helped identify the rocket as a real Trident missile or not.
Russian radar could only track speed and trajectory, and as the Norwegian sounding
rocket entered a flight corridor used by American Minutement missiles, Russian computers made a
match with a Trident missile. To add to the terrible coincidences, the sounding
rocket even released its nosecone at an extremely similar altitude and speed to a Trident missile.
Within minutes of the launch the Russian nuclear football was placed in front of Russia's
then-president, Boris Yeltsin. He had a fateful decision to make, and every second he hesitated
Russia's ability to retaliate diminished. As soon as the American Trident missile's nuclear
payload exploded, Russian early-warning radar would be knocked out. Secondary attacks would
wipe out Russian nuclear ballistic missile fields a few minutes after that. Concurrent with strikes
on Russia's ballistic missiles would be strikes on major communication nodes and Moscow itself.
Then would come the air force bases housing Russia's airborne nuclear strike force.
Yeltsin's ability to communicate with his nuclear forces however
would have been eliminated well before that. If Russia was to retaliate, it was now or never.
A heated discussion erupted. Yeltsin needed more information,
but Russian radar- lagging a little bit behind American radar- simply couldn't give it.
The military was adamant- Russia had to respond while it still could.
But Yeltsin couldn't for the life of him figure out why the US would strike unexpectedly.
He made his decision- Russia would not retaliate. For the next few minutes, every senior official
aware of the early morning crisis held their breath and waited for new reports to come in- or
to not come in. If the attack was real, they would never hear of it because the EMP blast would knock
out communications with any unit within visual range of the actual detonation. The only way they
would know that the end of the world had indeed begun was when satellite confirmation of nuclear
launches in the US reached them- if the EMP blast didn't knock out those receiving stations as well.
It could very well be that Yeltsin and his staff would never even know nuclear war had begun,
blinded and cut off from all communications by a massive EMP blast the only warning they
would have is the sudden dawning of an artificial sun directly over the Kremlin,
followed by almost immediate complete atomization. No EMP blast ever came, and working backwards
Russian computers calculated the launch site as a Norwegian rocket base- the last place US forces
would fire a nuclear weapon from. Thankfully, due to the end of the cold war the US and Russia
had been on much friendlier terms than normal, but had the incident occurred just four years
earlier, it's extremely likely the world would have ended in atomic hellfire.
Now go check out Worst Natural Disasters In Human History, or click this other video instead.