Indonesia Gallery Photo

Lake Toba (Indonesian: Danau Toba) is a lake and supervolcano, 100 kilometres long and 30 kilometres wide, and 505 metres (1,666 ft) at its deepest point. Located in the middle of the northern part of the Indonesian island of Sumatra with a surface elevation of about 900 m (3,000 ft), the lake stretches from [show location on an interactive map] 2°53′N 98°31′E / 2.88°N 98.52°E / 2.88; 98.52 to [show location on an interactive map] 2°21′N 99°06′E / 2.35°N 99.1°E / 2.35; 99.1. It is the largest volcanic lake in the world.[1] In addition, it is the site of a supervolcanic eruption that occurred 75,000 years before the present, a massive climate-changing event. The eruption is believed to have a VEI intensity of 8. This eruption, believed to have been the largest anywhere on Earth in the last 25 million years, may have had global catastrophic consequences; some scientists believe that this eruption may have wiped out much of humanity and may have created a population bottleneck that affected the genetic inheritance of all human survivors.