[RayChuang88]

The eruption of Krakatau produced less volcanic ash than the 1815 Tambora eruption, which spewed something like 15 cubic miles of volcanic ash into the atmosphere. That was enough to cause pretty severe climatic changes, including essentially eliminating summer at the higher latitudes in 1816.

Today, the Indonesian volcanoes are VERY closely monitored because almost every volcano in the Indonesian Archipelago is capable of spewing out gigantic amounts of volcanic ash into the atmosphere. One volcano on Sumatra island--Toba--is a true supervolcano that could spew well over 140 cubic miles of ash in a single eruption event, which would have devastating worldwide effects on agricultural production.

[gleeaikin]

Toba was about 74,000 years ago and left a caldera 18 by 65 miles wide. By comparison, Pinatubo left one 3 miles wide. The most recent Yellowstone caldera is at least 20 by 30 miles. The most recent Yellowstone event was around 640,000 years ago. I wonder if that and the Long Valley Caldera were the precipitaters of two of our ice ages. I know that there was a significant drop in temperatures after Toba, which had already begun about 125,000 years ago. Wonder what caused that. Also thought about this latest volcanic find being the start of the little ice age.