Each eruption has a distinct chemical signature that, along with conventional methods of carbon dating, can be used to associate each layer
of volcanic material with a particular eruption.
The scientists found that
most of the volcanic material injected into the stratosphere settles out at a height of between 18 and 28 kilometres, with the greatest concentrations between 24 and 25 kilometres.
For comparison: The Bárdabunga eruption blew out two cubic kilometers
of volcanic material over the course of several months, nearly ten times more than the Eyjafjallajökull.
An exceptional sulfate spike in the Greenland Ice Sheet Project Two (GISP2) ice core record, of 6 y duration, has been correlated to the YTT (16) despite an
absence of volcanic material.
At the bulleye's center is a region of what appears to be
deposits of volcanic material, a sign that the center of the basin may have been covered by a volcanic flow sometime soon after the SPA impact.
This played an important role as the
injection of volcanic material was so large in the Toba eruption that some chemical processes saturated, leading to a longer presence of sulfur - containing particles in the stratosphere.
A supervolcano is essentially a giant volcano capable of spewing forth over 1,000 km ³ (240 miles ³)
of volcanic materials into the surrounding environment, producing a vast caldera in the process.