© B.A. Black et al. and the journal GeologyFigure 4 in B.A. Black et al.: This image shows annually averaged temperature anomalies in excess of 3ยฐC for the first year after the Campanian Ignimbrite (CI) eruption compared with spatial distribution of hominin sites with radiocarbon ages close to that of the eruption.
The Campanian Ignimbrite (CI) eruption in Italy 40,000 years ago was one of the largest volcanic cataclysms in Europe and injected a significant amount of sulfur-dioxide (SO2) into the stratosphere. Scientists have long debated whether this eruption contributed to the final extinction of the Neanderthals. This new study by Benjamin A. Black and colleagues tests this hypothesis with a sophisticated climate model.
Black and colleagues write that the CI eruption approximately coincided with the final decline of Neanderthals as well as with dramatic territorial and cultural advances among anatomically modern humans. Because of this, the roles of climate, hominin competition, and volcanic sulfur cooling and acid deposition have been vigorously debated as causes of Neanderthal extinction.
They point out, however, that the decline of Neanderthals in Europe began well before the CI eruption: "Radiocarbon dating has shown that at the time of the CI eruption, anatomically modern humans had already arrived in Europe, and the range of Neanderthals had steadily diminished. Work at five sites in the Mediterranean indicates that anatomically modern humans were established in these locations by then as well."
"While the precise implications of the CI eruption for cultures and livelihoods are best understood in the context of archaeological data sets," write Black and colleagues, the results of their study quantitatively describe the magnitude and distribution of the volcanic cooling and acid deposition that ancient hominin communities experienced coincident with the final decline of the Neanderthals.
In their climate simulations, Black and colleagues found that the largest temperature decreases after the eruption occurred in Eastern Europe and Asia and sidestepped the areas where the final Neanderthal populations were living (Western Europe). Therefore, the authors conclude that the eruption was probably insufficient to trigger Neanderthal extinction.
However, the abrupt cold spell that followed the eruption would still have significantly impacted day-to-day life for Neanderthals and early humans in Europe. Black and colleagues point out that temperatures in Western Europe would have decreased by an average of 2 to 4 degrees Celsius during the year following the eruption. These unusual conditions, they write, may have directly influenced survival and day-to-day life for Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans alike, and emphasize the resilience of anatomically modern humans in the face of abrupt and adverse changes in the environment.
"Did a volcanic cataclysm 40,000 years ago trigger the final demise of the Neanderthals?"
And the answer is......... NO!
The Neanderthals, with their larger cranial vaults and earlier progression into religion and ritual (as per National Geographic articles I read from early-to-mid 1990's), were wiped out by the wonderfully murderous and savage Cro-Magnon man (aka EEMH, or Early European Modern Humans.)
And things haven't changed for the better in 40,000 years.
(Like I said in a similar previous post, "Nice guys finish last......by design!")
Remember: When the (many) ice ages came, both long and short, and food became increasingly scarce without enough to go around, the first to pick up the club and beat his neighbor's brains out and eat the neighbor's children got to survive and pass on their lovely traits of murderous selfishness.
Thank you, Mother Nature, for always selecting the most murderous, thieving, rapacious scoundrels among us to survive when the chips are down, thriving and passing on their most 'wonderful genetics'.
And (as Paul Craig Roberts recently speculated to the Saker) we may get to witness this again within our lifetimes, if Amerikkka launches a first strike crushing nuclear attack on Russia, and Putin and Co. withhold a response to preserve humanity from extinction, and in turn are wiped from the face of the Earth. Once again, true and unambiguous Evil wins, the (relatively) altruistic good guys lose, and we all get to eat GMOs and Glyphosate and whatever else they tell us to, forever and ever, amen. Yippee!
It is not left vs right. It is not east versus west. It is quite simply a war of genetics.
And in that war, the good guys usually do not prevail.
Just ask the Neanderthals.
Oh, that's right, you can't, can you?
They're extinct........
(Sorry if I'm repeating myself.)