Stories
The live trackers show what the planet is doing right now. Stories are the long view: fewer, slower, carefully researched explanations of extraordinary places, events and processes, with the evidence laid out and the uncertainty left in.
Toba: following the ash from Sumatra to South Africa
How scientists reconstruct the 74,000-year-old Toba supereruption from ash, ice and rock, and why the "near extinction" story has weakened.
🌋 Volcanoes · 18 min read · 1 October 2026
Read the story →How stories differ from the trackers
- Stories are researched and reviewed before they run. Each is built from published scientific sources and checked by a separate review before publication. A new one appears only when it is ready, so this page is short on purpose.
- Live figures never come from a story. Anything about what is happening now comes from the USGS and NOAA feeds behind the trackers, and is described on the About & methodology page.