Lake Toba

Lake Toba is a volcanic lake with a length of 100 kilometers and 30 kilometers wide, located in North Sumatra Province, Indonesia. This lake is the largest lake in Indonesia and Southeast Asia. In the middle of this lake there is a volcanic island called Samosir Island.

Lake Toba has long been an important tourist destination in North Sumatra, Bukit Lawang and Nias in addition, attract domestic and foreign tourists.

It is estimated that Lake Toba explosion occurred at about 73000-75000 years ago and is an eruption (super volcano) the most recent. Bill Rose and Craig Chesner from Michigan Technological University estimate that volcanic materials spewed out of the mountain as much as 2800 km ³, with 800 km ³ of rock and 2,000 km ³ overlies the volcanic ash which is expected in the wind to the west for 2 weeks. Volcanic dust in the wind has spread to half the earth, from China to South Africa. The explosion occurred during a week and throw dust reaches 10 km.

This incident caused mass death and in some species also suffered extinction. According to some DNA evidence, this eruption also reduced the number of people to about 60% of the total human population of the earth at that time, which is about 60 million people. The eruption also caused the ice age, although experts are still debating.

After the eruption, the caldera formed which is then filled with water and became what is now known as Lake Toba. Upward pressure by the magma that has not come out cause the appearance of the island of Samosir.