Lake Toba ( id, Danau Toba) ( Toba Batak: ᯖᯀᯬ ᯖᯬᯅ;

romanized Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...

: ''Tao Toba'') is a large natural

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

North Sumatra North Sumatra ( id, Sumatra Utara) is a province of Indonesia located on the northern part of the island of Sumatra. Its capital and largest city is Medan. North Sumatra is Indonesia's fourth most populous province after West Java, East Java and ...

, Indonesia, occupying the

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is ...

of a

supervolcano A supervolcano is a volcano that has had an eruption with a Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) of 8, the largest recorded value on the index. This means the volume of deposits for such an eruption is greater than 1,000 cubic kilometers (240 cubi ...

. The lake is located in the middle of the northern part of the

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An isla ...

of Sumatra, with a surface elevation of about , the lake stretches from to . The lake is about long, wide, and up to deep. It is the largest lake in Indonesia and the largest

volcanic lake A volcanogenic lake is a lake formed as a result of volcanic activity. They are generally a body of water inside an inactive volcanic crater (crater lakes) but can also be large volumes of molten lava within an active volcanic crater (lava lakes) ...

in the world. Toba Caldera is one of twenty

Geopark A geopark is a protected area with internationally significant geology within which sustainable development is sought and which includes tourism, conservation, education and research concerning not just geology but other relevant sciences. In 20 ...

s in Indonesia, and was recognised in July 2020 as one of the UNESCO Global Geoparks. Lake Toba is the site of a supervolcanic eruption estimated at VEI 8 that occurred 69,000 to 77,000 years ago, representing a climate-changing event. Recent advances in dating methods suggest a more accurate identification of 74,000 years ago as the date. It is the largest-known explosive eruption on

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's sur ...

in the last 25 million years. According to the

Toba catastrophe theory The Youngest Toba eruption was a supervolcano eruption that occurred around 74,000 years ago at the site of present-day Lake Toba in Sumatra, Indonesia. It is one of the Earth's largest known explosive eruptions. The Toba catastrophe theory ho ...

, it had global consequences for human populations; it killed most humans living at that time and is believed to have created a

population bottleneck A population bottleneck or genetic bottleneck is a sharp reduction in the size of a population due to environmental events such as famines, earthquakes, floods, fires, disease, and droughts; or human activities such as specicide, widespread violen ...

in central east Africa and India, which affects the genetic make-up of the human worldwide population to the present. More recent studies have cast doubt on this theory and found no evidence of substantial changes in global population. It has been accepted that the eruption of the Toba Caldera led to a

volcanic winter A volcanic winter is a reduction in global temperatures caused by volcanic ash and droplets of sulfuric acid and water obscuring the Sun and raising Earth's albedo (increasing the reflection of solar radiation) after a large, particularly explosiv ...

with a worldwide decrease in temperature between , and up to in higher latitudes. Additional studies in

Lake Malawi Lake Malawi, also known as Lake Nyasa in Tanzania and Lago Niassa in Mozambique, is an African Great Lake and the southernmost lake in the East African Rift system, located between Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. It is the fifth largest f ...

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.

Geology

The Toba

Caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is ...

comprises four overlapping volcanic craters that adjoin the Sumatran "volcanic front". At it is the world's largest

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million year ...

caldera, and the fourth and youngest caldera. It intersects the three older calderas. An estimated of

dense-rock equivalent Dense-rock equivalent (DRE) is a volcanologic calculation used to estimate volcanic eruption volume. One of the widely accepted measures of the size of a historic or prehistoric eruption is the volume of magma ejected as pumice and volcanic ash, ...

pyroclastic material, known as the youngest Toba

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock ...

, was released during one of the largest explosive volcanic eruptions in recent geological history. Following this eruption, a resurgent dome formed within the new caldera, joining two half-domes separated by a longitudinal

graben In geology, a graben () is a depressed block of the crust of a planet or moon, bordered by parallel normal faults. Etymology ''Graben'' is a loan word from German, meaning 'ditch' or 'trench'. The word was first used in the geologic conte ...

. At least four cones, four

stratovolcano A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a conical volcano built up by many layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with a summit crater and peri ...

es, and three craters are visible in the lake. The Tandukbenua cone on the northwestern edge of the caldera has only sparse vegetation, suggesting a young age of several hundred years. Also, the Pusubukit (Hill Center) volcano ( above sea level) on the south edge of the caldera is solfatarically active.

Major eruption

The ''Toba eruption'' (the ''Toba event'') occurred at what is now Lake Toba about 73,700±300 years ago. It was the last in a series of at least four

-forming eruptions at this location, with the earlier known caldera having formed around 1.2 million years ago. This last eruption had an estimated VEI=8, making it the largest-known explosive

volcanic eruption Several types of volcanic eruptions—during which lava, tephra (ash, lapilli, volcanic bombs and volcanic blocks), and assorted gases are expelled from a volcanic vent or fissure—have been distinguished by volcanologists. These are oft ...

in the Quaternary. Bill Rose and Craig Chesner of

Michigan Technological University Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech, MTU, or simply Tech) is a public research university in Houghton, Michigan, founded in 1885 as the Michigan Mining School, the first post-secondary institution in the Upper Peninsula of Michiga ...

have estimated that the total amount of material released in the eruption was at least —about of

ignimbrite Ignimbrite is a type of volcanic rock, consisting of hardened tuff. Ignimbrites form from the deposits of pyroclastic flows, which are a hot suspension of particles and gases flowing rapidly from a volcano, driven by being denser than the surro ...

that flowed over the ground, and approximately that fell as ash mostly to the west. However, as more outcrops become available, Toba possibly erupted of ignimbrite and co-ignimbrite. The

pyroclastic flow A pyroclastic flow (also known as a pyroclastic density current or a pyroclastic cloud) is a fast-moving current of hot gas and volcanic matter (collectively known as tephra) that flows along the ground away from a volcano at average speeds of b ...

s of the eruption destroyed an area of least , with ash deposits as thick as by the main vent. The eruption was large enough to have deposited an ash layer approximately thick over all of

South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;; ...

; at one site in central India, the Toba ash layer today is up to thick and parts of

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federal constitutional monarchy consists of thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two regions: Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo's East Mal ...

were covered with of ash fall. The subsequent collapse formed a caldera that filled with water, creating Lake Toba. The island in the center of the lake is formed by a

resurgent dome In geology, a resurgent dome is a dome formed by swelling or rising of a caldera floor due to movement in the magma chamber beneath it. Unlike a lava dome, a resurgent dome is not formed by the extrusion of highly viscous lava onto the surface, ...

The exact year of the eruption is unknown, but the pattern of ash deposits suggests that it occurred during the northern summer because only the summer monsoon could have deposited Toba ashfall in the South China Sea. The eruption lasted perhaps two weeks, and the ensuing volcanic winter resulted in a decrease in average global temperatures by for several years.

Ice cores An ice core is a core sample that is typically removed from an ice sheet or a high mountain glacier. Since the ice forms from the incremental buildup of annual layers of snow, lower layers are older than upper ones, and an ice core contains i ...

from

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland ...

record a pulse of starkly reduced levels of organic

carbon sequestration Carbon sequestration is the process of storing carbon in a carbon pool. Carbon dioxide () is naturally captured from the atmosphere through biological, chemical, and physical processes. These changes can be accelerated through changes in lan ...

. Very few plants or animals in southeast Asia would have survived, and it is possible that the eruption caused a planet-wide die-off. However, the global cooling has been discussed by Rampino and Self. Their conclusion is that the cooling had already started before Toba's eruption. This conclusion was supported by Lane and Zielinski who studied the lake-core from Africa and GISP2. They concluded that there was no volcanic winter after the Toba eruption and that high H₂SO₄ deposits do not cause long-term effects. Furthermore, due to the low solubility of sulfur in the magma, the emission of volatiles and climate impacts are likely limited. Evidence from studies of

mitochondrial DNA Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA or mDNA) is the DNA located in mitochondria, cellular organelles within eukaryotic cells that convert chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial D ...

suggests that humans may have passed through a genetic bottleneck around this time that reduced genetic diversity below what would be expected given the age of the species. According to the Toba catastrophe theory, proposed by Stanley H. Ambrose of the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Un ...

in 1998, the effects of the Toba eruption may have decreased the size of human populations to only a few tens of thousands of individuals. However, this hypothesis is not widely accepted because similar effects on other animal species have not been observed, and

paleoanthropology Paleoanthropology or paleo-anthropology is a branch of paleontology and anthropology which seeks to understand the early development of anatomically modern humans, a process known as hominization, through the reconstruction of evolutionary kinsh ...

suggests there was no

.Gathorne-Hardy, F. J., and Harcourt-Smith, W. E. H.
"The super-eruption of Toba, did it cause a human bottleneck?"
, Journal of Human Evolution 45 (2003) 227–230. The genetic bottleneck is now recognized to be the

Out-of-Africa In paleoanthropology, the recent African origin of modern humans, also called the "Out of Africa" theory (OOA), recent single-origin hypothesis (RSOH), replacement hypothesis, or recent African origin model (RAO), is the dominant model of the ...

founder effect In population genetics, the founder effect is the loss of genetic variation that occurs when a new population is established by a very small number of individuals from a larger population. It was first fully outlined by Ernst Mayr in 1942, us ...

, rather than an actual reduction in population.

More recent activity

Since the major eruption ~70,000 years ago, eruptions of smaller magnitude have also occurred at Toba. The small cone of Pusukbukit formed on the southwestern margin of the caldera and lava domes. The most recent eruption may have been at Tandukbenua on the northwestern caldera edge, suggested by a lack of vegetation that could be due to an eruption within the last few hundred years. Some parts of the caldera have shown uplift due to partial refilling of the

magma chamber A magma chamber is a large pool of liquid rock beneath the surface of the Earth. The molten rock, or magma, in such a chamber is less dense than the surrounding country rock, which produces buoyant forces on the magma that tend to drive it up ...

, for example, pushing Samosir Island and the

Uluan Peninsula Uluan Peninsula extends into Lake Toba on the eastern side toward Medan, in Simalungun Regency and Toba Samosir Regency of North Sumatra province. It has experienced a large amount of uplift because of a series of massive volcanic eruptions that beg ...

above the surface of the lake. The lake sediments on Samosir Island show that it has risen by at least since the cataclysmic eruption. Such uplifts are common in very large calderas, apparently due to the upward pressure of below-ground

magma Magma () is the molten or semi-molten natural material from which all igneous rocks are formed. Magma is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and evidence of magmatism has also been discovered on other terrestrial planets and some natura ...

. Toba is probably the largest resurgent caldera on Earth. Large

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...

s have recently occurred in the vicinity of the volcano, notably in 1987 along the southern shore of the lake at a depth of . Such earthquakes have also been recorded in 1892, 1916, and 1920–1922.Stratigraphy of the Toba Tuffs and the evolution of the Toba Caldera Complex, Sumatra, Indonesia
/ref> In 2016, a study revealed that the Toba Supervolcano has a magma chamber containing of eruptible magma, about underground. This makes the supervolcano's magma chamber more than four times larger than the volume of

Lake Superior Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...

in North America, and also larger than the magma chamber underneath

Yellowstone Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in the western United States, largely in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress with the Yellow ...

. Lake Toba lies near the

Great Sumatran fault The Indonesian island of Sumatra is located in a highly seismic area of the world. In addition to the subduction zone off the west coast of the island, Sumatra also has a large strike-slip fault, the Great Sumatran Fault also known as Semangko ...

, which runs along the centre of Sumatra in the Sumatra Fracture Zone. The volcanoes of Sumatra and Java are part of the

Sunda Arc The Sunda Arc is a volcanic arc that produced the volcanoes that form the topographic spine of the islands of Sumatra, Nusa Tenggara, and Java, the Sunda Strait and the Lesser Sunda Islands. The Sunda Arc begins at Sumatra and ends at Flores ...

, a result of the northeasterly movement of the

Indo-Australian Plate The Indo-Australian Plate is a major tectonic plate that includes the continent of Australia and the surrounding ocean and extends northwest to include the Indian subcontinent and the adjacent waters. It was formed by the fusion of the Indian an ...

, which is sliding under the eastward-moving

Eurasian Plate The Eurasian Plate is a tectonic plate that includes most of the continent of Eurasia (a landmass consisting of the traditional continents of Europe and Asia), with the notable exceptions of the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian subcontinent an ...

. The

subduction zone Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at convergent boundaries. Where the oceanic lithosphere of a tectonic plate converges with the less dense lithosphere of a second plate, the ...

in this area is very active: the seabed near the west coast of Sumatra has had several major earthquakes since 1995, including the 9.1

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake An earthquake and a tsunami, known as the Boxing Day Tsunami and, by the scientific community, the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, occurred at 07:58:53 local time ( UTC+7) on 26 December 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern ...

and the 8.7

2005 Nias–Simeulue earthquake The 2005 Nias–Simeulue earthquake occurred on 28 March off the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia. At least 915 people were killed, mostly on the island of Nias. The event caused panic in the region, which had already been devastated by ...

, the epicenters of which were around from Toba.

People

COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Batak prauwen bij Haranggaol aan het Tobameer TMnr 60043981

Most of the people who live around Lake Toba are ethnically Bataks. Traditional Batak houses are noted for their distinctive roofs (which curve upwards at each end, as a boat's hull does) and their colorful decor.

Transportation

Parapat Parapat, also known as the City of Parapat, is a small town in North Sumatra province on the edge of Lake Toba, on the Uluan Peninsula where it forms the narrowest eastern link to Samosir Island. It is the primary transit point by ferry for vis ...

is located on the edge of the lake, which is the transit point to travel the lake and Samosir Island.

Medan Medan (; English: ) is the capital and largest city of the Indonesian province of North Sumatra, as well as a regional hub and financial centre of Sumatra. According to the National Development Planning Agency, Medan is one of the four mai ...

is about 173 km by road from the town and is connected via the Trans-Sumatran Highway to Pematang Siantar by a 48 km road.

Sisingamangaraja XII International Airport Sisingamangaraja XII International Airport ( id, Bandar Udara Internasional Sisingamangaraja XII) is an international airport located in Silangit, North Tapanuli, North Sumatra, Indonesia.

is located about 47 mi (76 km) from Parapat.

Flora and fauna

The

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring ( indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. ...

of the lake includes various types of

phytoplankton Phytoplankton () are the autotrophic (self-feeding) components of the plankton community and a key part of ocean and freshwater ecosystems. The name comes from the Greek words (), meaning 'plant', and (), meaning 'wanderer' or 'drifter'. ...

, emerged macrophytes, floating macrophytes, and submerged macrophytes, while the surrounding countryside is rainforest including areas of

Sumatran tropical pine forests The Sumatran tropical pine forests is a tropical coniferous forest ecoregion on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. Location and description These pine forests are found on the higher slopes of Sumatra, especially in the north of the island near ...

on the higher mountainsides. The

fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is '' flora'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. ...

includes several species of

zooplankton Zooplankton are the animal component of the planktonic community ("zoo" comes from the Greek word for ''animal''). Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents, and consequently drift or are carried along by ...

and

benthic The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning " ...

animals. Since the lake is

oligotrophic An oligotroph is an organism that can live in an environment that offers very low levels of nutrients. They may be contrasted with copiotrophs, which prefer nutritionally rich environments. Oligotrophs are characterized by slow growth, low rates o ...

(nutrient-poor), the native fish fauna is relatively scarce, and the only

endemics Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

are ''

Rasbora tobana ''Rasbora tobana'' is a species of ray-finned fish in the genus ''Rasbora ''Rasbora'' is a genus of fish in the family Cyprinidae. They are native to freshwater habitats in South and akistan s_...''_from_Sumatra.html" ;"title="outheast Asia, ...

'' (strictly speaking near-endemic, since also found in some tributary rivers that run into the lake) and '' Neolissochilus thienemanni'', locally known as the Batak fish. The latter species is threatened by deforestation (causing

siltation Siltation, is water pollution caused by particulate Terrestrial ecoregion, terrestrial Clastic rock, clastic material, with a particle size dominated by silt or clay. It refers both to the increased concentration of suspended sediments and to the ...

), pollution, changes in water level and the numerous fish species that have been introduced to the lake. Other native fishes include species such as '' Aplocheilus panchax'', '' Nemacheilus pfeifferae'', '' Homaloptera gymnogaster'', ''

Channa gachua ''Channa gachua'', the dwarf snakehead, is a species of fish in the family Channidae. The name "dwarf snakehead" is also used for several other species of small snakeheads. ''C. gachua'' is native to freshwater habitats in southern Asia, where ...

'', '' Channa striata'', ''

Clarias batrachus The walking catfish (''Clarias batrachus'') is a species of freshwater airbreathing catfish native to Southeast Asia. It is named for its ability to "walk" and wiggle across dry land, to find food or suitable environments. While it does not trul ...

'', '' Barbonymus gonionotus'', '' Barbonymus schwanenfeldii'', '' Danio albolineatus'', ''

Osteochilus vittatus ''Osteochilus vittatus'' is a species of cyprinid fish from Southeast Asia. Its common name is bonylip barb, hard-lipped barb, or silver sharkminnow. It grows to SL. Distribution The species is widely distributed in the Malay Peninsular and ...

'', '' Puntius binotatus'', '' Rasbora jacobsoni'', ''

Tor tambra ''Tor tambra'', the Javan mahseer, is a species of mahseer native to Southeast Asia. Taxonomy Tor tambra is a typical mahseer, with Cyprinidae features, large scales and a large head comparative to body depth. It is usually longer and slimmer bo ...

'', ''

Betta imbellis The peaceful betta or crescent betta (''Betta imbellis'') is a species of gourami native to Southeast Asia. ''Betta imbellis'' has a pair of suprabranchial chambers that each house a labyrinth organ, a complex bony structure lined with thin, high ...

'', ''

Betta taeniata ''Betta taeniata'' is a species of gourami endemic to the Southeast Asian island of Borneo, where it lives in inland waters. Description ''Betta taeniata'' is known to display paternal mouthbrooding. Males of the species have more vibrant colo ...

'' and '' Monopterus albus''.

FishBase FishBase is a global species database of fish species (specifically finfish). It is the largest and most extensively accessed online database on adult finfish on the web.

(2012).
Species in Toba.
' Accessed 25 January 2012 Among the many introduced species are ''

Anabas testudineus The climbing perch (''Anabas testudineus'') is a species of amphibious freshwater fish in the family Anabantidae (the climbing gouramis). A labyrinth fish native to Far Eastern Asia, the fish inhabits freshwater systems from Pakistan, India, ...

'', ''

Oreochromis mossambicus ''Oreochromis'' is a large genus of Oreochromini, oreochromine cichlids, fishes Endemism, endemic to Africa and the Middle East. A few species from this genus have been Introduced species, introduced far outside their native range and are import ...

'', ''

Oreochromis niloticus The Nile tilapia (''Oreochromis niloticus'') is a species of tilapia, a cichlid fish native to the northern half of Africa and the Levante area, including Israel, and Lebanon. Numerous introduced populations exist outside its natural range. I ...

'', '' Ctenopharyngodon idella'', ''

Cyprinus carpio The Eurasian carp or European carp (''Cyprinus carpio''), widely known as the common carp, is a widespread freshwater fish of eutrophic waters in lakes and large rivers in Europe and Asia.Fishbase''Cyprinus carpio'' Linnaeus, 1758/ref>Arkive Th ...

'', '' Osphronemus goramy'', ''

Trichogaster pectoralis The snakeskin gourami (''Trichopodus pectoralis'') is a species of gourami native to Southeast Asia. Prior to the merging of Belontidae to the family Osphronemidae, the snakeskin gourami was regarded as the largest member of its family. It is sti ...

'', ''

Trichopodus trichopterus ''Trichopodus'' (formerly included in ''Trichogaster'') is a genus of tropical freshwater labyrinth fish of the gourami family found in Southeast Asia. Gouramis of the genus ''Trichopodus'' are closely related to those of ''Trichogaster'' (former ...

'', '' Poecilia reticulata'' and ''

Xiphophorus hellerii ''Xiphophorus'' is a genus of euryhaline and freshwater fishes in the family Poeciliidae of order Cyprinodontiformes, native to Mexico and northern Central America. The many ''Xiphophorus'' species are all known as platyfish (or platies) and s ...

''.

Sinking of MV Sinar Bangun

On 18 June 2018, Lake Toba was the scene of a ferry disaster, in which over 190 people drowned. MV Sinar Bangun was an irregular operating vessel on the lake which capsized with many passengers on board. The incident caused the death of 190 people and injuries to a number of others. Preliminary reports found the vessel was in operation with irregularities. Ignoring overloading on the vessel and operating in rough weather conditions were concluded as the main reasons leading to the disaster.

In popular culture

''The Origin of Lake Toba'' is a folk story about the lake, in which once upon a time, there was a fisherman who caught a golden fish. Samosir Island is believed to be the golden fish's son.

Gallery

File:Lake Toba Aerial View.JPG, Lake Toba Aerial View File:LakeTobaSEShore.jpg, Aerial view of the southern shore with Sibandang Island visible in the background File:AmbaritaView.jpg, View of the lake with an example of Batak architecture in the foreground File:Tradbatakhouse.jpg, Traditional Batak house at Ambarita, Lake Toba File:Air terjun sipiso-piso.jpg, Sipiso-Piso Waterfall File:DanauToba20110608-1.jpg, Lake Toba from Tongging Village, near Sipiso-Piso Waterfall File:Indonesia 1992 1000r o.jpg, Lake Toba featured in 1,000-rupiah banknote File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Houtsnijwerk op de voorsteven van een Toba Batak prauw Tobameer TMnr 10017614.jpg, Details of carvings on the prow of a Toba Batak canoe File:Toba zoom.jpg, The caldera of Lake Toba, with a resurgent dome, forming Samosir Island File:A partial view of Toba Lake.jpg, alt=A panoramic partial view of Toba Lake, as seen from the west side to the southeast, A panoramic partial view of Toba Lake, as seen from the west side to the southeast

References

External links

Toba, Sumatra, Indonesia – Volcano.oregonstate.edu
Accessed 11 December 2005
Stanley H. Ambrose, ''Volcanic Winter, and Differentiation of Modern Humans''
Accessed 11 December 2005

Accessed 11 December 2005
(Lake Toba Ecosystem Management Plan) From laketoba.org

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Toba, Lake Batak Volcanic crater lakes Lakes of Sumatra Tourist attractions in Indonesia Tourist attractions in North Sumatra Subduction volcanoes Supervolcanoes VEI-8 volcanoes Calderas of Indonesia Volcanoes of Sumatra Landforms of North Sumatra Pleistocene calderas

Geology

Major eruption

More recent activity

People

Transportation

Flora and fauna

Sinking of MV Sinar Bangun

In popular culture

Gallery

See also

References

Further reading

External links