/ Modified may 18, 2010 12:06 p.m.

NOVA Mystery of the Megavolcano

Scientists pursue clues to a massive volcanic eruption that appears to have had a devastating impact on the Earth 75,000 years ago. Tuesday, May 25 at 8 p.m. on PBS-HD.

A remote lake in Southeast Asia conceals evidence of Earth's greatest volcanic cataclysm of the last 100,000 years. Miles beneath its placid surface lies a magma chamber that exploded so violently during the Ice Age that gases and ash may have encircled the globe and blotted out the sun for years on end.

nova megavolcano 2 NOVA Mys of Megavolcaon 2
PBS

Visualization of Toba eruption

The Toba eruption may have helped kick the climate into an unprecedented freeze and perhaps even pushed ancestral human populations to the brink of extinction. In a classic science detective story, NOVA pieces together the clues about this great catastrophe and probes questions about human evolution and Earth's fragile ecosystems.

NOVA

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