Science sometimes supports myths ... the confirmation of the volcano's explosion 37,000 years ago

Little West

Geologists say they have found scientific evidence for a volcanic eruption that occurred 37,000 years ago, and its events have been recounted by a legend from an indigenous Australia. This makes it the oldest story in the history of mankind still in circulation of a natural phenomenon. What does the legend say? How did scientists reach this conclusion?

The process of determining the history of rock formation around two volcanoes in southern Australia revealed that the story may actually be based on real facts and not just a myth.

the legend
From ancient times the people of Gondetjimara, one of the indigenous peoples living in Australia, have passed down from generation to generation an old story that tells how the "creator" of their ancestors transformed into the fiery volcano known today in that region as "Budgem Pim".

It is a dormant volcano no more than 178 meters above sea level. It is located with the adjacent Tower Hill volcano in southwestern Victoria within the vicinity of a national reserve that includes a small lake that originated in three ancient meteor craters.

The ancient tale describes how four giant creatures reached southwest Australia, three of which spread to the rest of the country, while the fourth stayed in the area where he took a squatting position and turned his teeth into lava and his body into a volcano.

After nearly 40,000 years, the evidence reached by scientists from the Australian universities of Curtin and Melbourne in a scientific study published this February 6 in the journal "Geologist" indicates that this long-running tale can be more than just a legend.

Various methods of dating
To reach this conclusion, geologist Eren Machan of the University of Melbourne, lead author of the study with colleagues, determined the age of two samples of ancient lava from the "Poud Beem" and "Tower Hill" eruptions.

The team also examined an ancient stone ax that was found buried in volcanic rocks near the old "Tower Hill" volcano in the area in the 1940s.

Instead of adopting methods used in geological and anthropological history processes such as radioactive carbon or optical scintillation of ancient coal samples, or deposits from rock shelters, researchers used the "argon-argon" dating technique that relies on measuring the radiation emitted by the argon to determine the ratio of the radioactive isotope to it in a sample What. This enabled them to determine the time of the volcano eruption more accurately than before, the researchers say.

The results indicate that the eruptions may have been synchronized, with a history of lava dating to approximately 36,800 years for the "Tower Hill" volcano, and about 36,900 years for "Bude Pim".

The presence of a previously discovered stone ax buried under a layer of volcanic rock and ash is an important indication that humans were present in the area when the volcanic eruptions occurred.

Anecdote here and fees there
In the absence of artifacts and permanent structures such as housing for Australian Aborigines, finding archaeological samples is a difficult challenge.

As Machan says, it is fortunate that "the oral narratives of Australian indigenous peoples have enabled the perpetuation of ecological knowledge across many generations, providing a valuable source of archaeological information."

It should be noted that this is not the first time that a prehistoric person has recorded geological events such as volcanoes.

A scientific study published in 2016 found drawings inside the "Chauvet" caves in the southeast of France for a volcano eruption that occurred 36,000 years ago. Scientists have also found drawings in the Kethalhoyuk region, in central Turkey, of a revolutionary volcano dating back 8,000 years.

But it is the first time that scientists have linked the events of an ancient legend circulated orally to prove the occurrence of such geological phenomena.