Satellite
Show on map
  • Day 2

    Dawn at Lake Toba

    December 7, 2022 in Indonesia ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    Open main menu



    Search
    Good morning world from lake Toba of the island of Sumatra. We have a beautiful home exchange rate on the lake which is the largest volcanic lake in the world its size is the equivalent of the size of the entire country of Singapore similar almost in size to the entire island of Bali which is our home. We had a tedious long trip to get here starting with an hour and a half flight to Jakarta yesterday morning 2 hour wait another 2 hour flight to Medan.
    Since our flight was 1 hour late arriving in Medan our driver had to take us on the scariest drive I've been on my entire life which consists of 4 hours of passing trucks and huge potholes with just a little freeway to arrive at tiga raja which is the port that takes you over to the island of Samosir in the middle of lake Toba and to the small town of Tuk Tuk.

    Lake Toba (Indonesian: Danau Toba) (Toba Batak: ᯖᯀᯬ ᯖᯬᯅ; romanized: Tao Toba) is a large natural lake in North Sumatra, Indonesia, occupying the caldera of a supervolcano. The lake is located in the middle of the northern part of the island of Sumatra, with a surface elevation of about 900 metres (2,953 ft), the lake stretches from 2.88°N 98.52°E to 2.35°N 99.1°E. The lake is about 100 kilometres (62 miles) long, 30 kilometres (19 mi) wide, and up to 505 metres (1,657 ft) deep. It is the largest lake in Indonesia and the largest volcanic lake in the world

    LocationNorth Sumatra, IndonesiaCoordinates2.68°N 98.88°ETypeVolcanic/tectonicPrimary outflowsAsahan RiverBasin countriesIndonesiaMax. length100 km (62 mi)Max. width30 km (19 mi)Surface area1,130 km2 (440 sq mi)Max. depth505 m (1,657 ft)[1]Water volume240 km3 (58 cu mi)Surface elevation905 m (2,969 ft)IslandsSamosirSettlementsAmbarita, PangururanReferences[1]

    Lake Toba is the site of a supervolcanic eruption estimated at VEI 8 that occurred 69,000 to 77,000 years ago,[6][7][8] representing a climate-changing event. Recent advances in dating methods suggest a more accurate identification of 74,000 years ago as the date.[9] It is the largest-known explosive eruption on Earth in the last 25 million years. According to the Toba catastrophe theory, it had global consequences for human populations; it killed most humans living at that time and is believed to have created a population bottleneck in central east Africa and India, which affects the genetic make-up of the human worldwide population to the present.[10] More recent studies have cast doubt on this theory and found no evidence of substantial changes in global population.[11]

    It has been accepted that the eruption of the Toba Caldera led to a volcanic winter with a worldwide decrease in temperature between 3 to 5 °C (5.4 to 9.0 °F), and up to 15 °C (27 °F) in higher latitudes. Additional studies in Lake Malawi in East Africa show significant amounts of ash being deposited from the Toba Caldera eruptions, even at that great distance, but little indication of a significant climatic effect in East Africa.
    Read more