"The dating of the Campanian Ignimbrite Eruption (CI) to ~37,000 calendar years
B.P. draws attention to the coincidence of this volcanic catastrophe and the suite of
coeval,
Late Pleistocene biocultural changes that occurred within and outside the Mediterranean region. These included the Middle to Upper Paleolithic cultural transition and the replacement of
Neanderthal populations by anatomically modern
Homo sapiens, a subject of sustained debate.
[10] No less than 150 km3 of magma were extruded in this eruption (the CI eruption), traces of which can be detected in Greenland
ice cores. As widespread discontinuities in archaeological sequences are observed at or after this eruption, a significant interference with ongoing human processes in Mediterranean Europe is hypothesized."
[11] It is possible that these eruptions drove Neanderthals to extinction and cleared the way for modern humans to thrive in Europe and Asia
.
