Chapter 35: The Terrifying Forces of Nature

In the spring of 8492 B.C., Mount Vesuvius, which famously engulfed Pompeii, entered the preparation stage for an eruption. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoAt the same time, the nearby volcanoes of Ischia and Camp Freegre were also in the preparation phase, and the pre-eruption heat stream could also be seen blowing from the top.

The shaking they experienced was actually an incomplete eruption of Camp Freigre Volcano, which itself was in a long sleep, and its rock formations near the surface lacked aquifers and limestone formations, which made it accumulate pressure slowly, and its thin rock layers at the top of the mountain caused its pressure to leak out easily, and once a strong heat flow rushed out, it could destroy the rock formations at the top of the mountain, causing cold air to quickly burrow into the exposed crater, causing the pressure to drop, and the crater itself was too wide (about 40,000 steps wide) to have the problem of uneven thicknessThe eruption was only half the success – lava erupted violently from the side of the crater, and the resulting earthquake shattered its own fragile top shell, suppressing its subsequent eruptions. But even if it erupted, the ejected lava was still more than 400 people high, and when it fell, it immediately covered the evergreen scrub to the northwest and caused the last horrific fire on the Apennine Peninsula – the entire forest in the area of present-day Naples – was burned to the ground.

But this was not as striking as the eruption of Mount Vesuvius: the earth gradually began to shake, first the small stones on the ground rolled around, then the rocks on the mountain began to roll down, and then the shaking became more violent, and the boulders on the mountain began to make a tooth-aching sound, and some trees with weak roots were shaken, and if there were creatures on the ground, they would be dizzy and unable to stand on their feet.

At this point, the shaking will weaken a little, and this is the last chance for the animals to escape: as the lava begins to rise along the walls of the volcanic tubes, the lava will carry the hot gases across the walls of the volcano, and some of the porous igneous rocks will "catch" these gases, which will cause the lava to be uneven in density and pressure, and the eruption will be delayed. As the hot gas at the bottom of the first wave of lava accumulates, the pressure on the volcanic walls increases, and these pressures even cause the walls to break, which creates even greater tremors.

When the pressure builds up to that limit, you can even feel the whole volcano shrink inward, and then you can see the lava rushing out of the crater.

Rumble.. ！

In the autumn of 8492 BC, Mount Vesuvius erupted, followed by an earthquake measuring 12.4 on the Richter scale. The shear force generated by the earthquake caused the southern part of the Apennines to slide westward, causing a super-massive landslide on the west side of the section, and the rocks from the landslide crashed into the wetlands at the foot of the mountain, and finally transformed the otherwise peaceful wetlands into continuous hills with volcanic ash. At the same time, the southern part of the mountain collapsed downward, transforming from a towering peak into a hill with a suitable environment, forming what is now one of the most important seaport areas in Italy: Naples.

Before Vesuvius erupted, Hadu had been running in this direction with a group of guards. According to the experience of the steppe people, every time a natural disaster occurs, the animals will be the first to sense the changes in the environment and flee as fast as possible, while the narrow mountain range on the opposite side makes these animals only escape in two directions of the mountain range. A large-scale abnormal animal tide will bring abundant food to the human races that may exist nearby, and this must be the best time for all these human races to go out to hunt - which is why Mohadu should hurry in this direction.

After the lava from Camp Freegre erupted from the crater, the pressure on the Ischia volcano was not so great, and there was no massive eruption, but the still rising lava was vented from its crater at a height of only 80 people, and then it rushed into the nearby blue sea, scalding many fish.

By the time Vesuvius erupted, Hado had reached the southern end of the Alps, on the other side of Corsica. Originally, they were still laughing and laughing, and they were not impressed by the eruption - the eruption of Camp Freigre was indeed "loud and insubstantial", except for a few clouds of ash that were thrown into the nearby area after an eruption - but the eruption of Vesuvius still paralyzed them to the ground.

Rumble.. ！

The first round of lava rushed into the air at a height of 1,000 people, and the ensuing volcanic ash rose into the sky, directly covering the entire blue sea, and even completely blocking the bright sun. The main components of lava are various metal minerals and their oxides, which are sprayed into the cold air at high altitude in a high-temperature molten state, and these metal elements are rapidly cooled into plasma with free electrons, which drives the entire mass of volcanic ash to discharge. From Hado's point of view, the whole scene was as terrifying as the wrath of the Creator: the sky was densely covered with gray-black ash, mixed with still bright red lava, and then one after another purple-blue lightning flashed out of the crater and slashed straight to the top of the sky, and the lightning slammed into the rocks of the crater in a split manner, and the lightning occurred with a piercing sound caused by the violent friction of the air.

This continued until the second eruption.

Hado and his guards were all paralyzed on the ground in fright, and if he hadn't put his arms around the camel's neck, the horse would have run into the forest and hid in the foliage. As the lava began to fall from the sky and fall on the nearby land and sea, Hado and the others hadn't fully recovered — partly because of the shock of the landscape when the volcano erupted, and partly because they hadn't been able to get up because the earthquake was still working. But then Hadu began to sense that the situation might be going in a worse direction: they were on the beach, and the water was receding, exposing the aquatic plants and shells underneath. Hadu stood up straight, and dragged the horse and the guards to the nearby mountains.

Hado's instincts were correct: in the epicenter of the earthquake caused by the volcanic eruption, the displacement of the mountains created a crack about 15 steps wide on the continental shelf underwater, and although the crack was not large, the sea water quickly replenished inward, causing the sea level of the Tyrrhenian Sea next to the volcano to drop by 8 people abruptly, and the Liggirian Sea adjacent to it also dropped by 5 people - this is equivalent to the volume of sea water in the cubic step, you can imagine it. As soon as the seawater sucked in by the cracks in the continental shelf comes into contact with the hot lava, it instantly vaporizes into a high-temperature vapor of up to 570 degrees Celsius, and even the sodium chloride rich in seawater becomes molten sodium chloride vapor due to the high temperature. As the sea water continues to rush in, the vapor mass expands more and more, and the gas pressure gradually accumulates, and the vapor mass that rises from the lava is pressed down and touches with the lava, and the temperature rises to the high temperature just now. The struggle between the sea water and the steam mass ended when the pressure of the steam mass broke through the limit, and the water that was retreating in this direction was transferred by the force of the steam mass, and the surging evolution evolved into a tsunami and rushed to the surrounding shore.

Fortunately, Hado walked in time, and his eyes were distracted as he looked at the beach that had been washed up by the roaring sea—the trees were scattered at the foot of the mountain, and the sea shoveled deep into the earth, turning out all the dirt that was three people high, and the sea rushed up the mountainside, and knocked down all the rocks, and destroyed all the roads that Hadu had taken up the mountain, and scattered the dirt, sand, branches, trunks, grass stems, and small animal carcasses on the "beach", if there was a beach.

An unlucky tiger and two wild horses were also swept down the ravine by the current, and although they tried desperately to pull at the nearby mountains, they could not break free from the raging current, and the last wave hit and suffocated under the thick mud and sand.

Hadu and his guards were terrified: the tsunami had reached a terrifying height of 300 men, and its frontal impact could wipe out all the camps of the "Shin'ne-Nu" tribe in one fell swoop. Hado watched as the tsunami crashed against the south side of the nearby mountains, shattering the lush bushes and dwarf trees, and exposing the entire slope of the mountain.

The earthquake was still worn, and Hadu could only stab his iron spear into the rocks to keep his guards from falling. And the level 13 storm brought by the tsunami was almost going to blow Hadu away, and they could only escape by leaning down and hiding on the leeward side. Frightened, he shrunk his head into Hado's arms, and even Hadu didn't have the strength to touch his back to comfort him.

Compared with the direct shaping power of earthquakes on the terrain, the tsunami has a stronger ability to transform the earth's surface, it can make a mess of the originally peaceful island scenery and foothills, create a dammed lake in the mountains that lack water sources, erase the original jingling and crisp river, chisel the lake with the sound of insects in the twilight, and pinch the protrusion of the mountain into a flat and smooth cliff.

The tsunami caused by this earthquake affected the entire Mediterranean coast, not only impacting the Strait of Gibraltar and causing its strait to expand, but also violently cutting off a beach area on the eastern side of Sardinia, and finally directly breaking the original connection between Sicily and the Apennine Peninsula, making it completely an island; , forming thousands of seasonal islands, large and small, (islands that appear and disappear with tides and climate). The tsunami did not reach the Fajra plain on the southern shore of the Mediterranean: as it gradually shifted to low-density water, the tsunami lost its momentum and had to crash into the beachhead weakly – but the loud sound of the impact was heard even in the Sahara Desert, especially by the hunters of the "Shin'ne-Nu" who were making fish frames in the humid depressions of the northeastern desert.

Flooded by the sea, it was no longer possible for them to follow the so-called coastline eastward—they could only head towards the snow-covered mountains, hoping to reach the eruption area before the tide was over. But just as they came to their senses and confided in each other about their fear of nature, a second eruption followed.

The temperature of the lava begins to accumulate again after the first eruption, and since the first eruption was mainly caused by light gases pushing the lava layer up for escape, this eruption only rushed high enough but the actual amount of the eruption was not large. The second eruption was dominated by lava in a state of high temperature and pressure, which was 100,000 times thicker than water, but the moment they burst out of the crater, they also poured down like a mudslide. The sudden release of a large amount of gas from the porous rock formations that had suddenly withdrawn from the pressure caused widespread tremors, and the second seismic wave spread around the Mediterranean Sea to a magnitude of 11.3 on the Richter scale.

The scorching lava poured down into the sea, instantly scalding an entire sea of life to death - it had not survived much under the infestation of the earthquake and tsunami, but it was a good thing, and it was all scalded to death at once. The high temperature of the sea also leads to drastic changes in ocean currents: a sudden increase in the evaporation of the sea near the core of the high temperature, the salinity of the sea is close to saturation, and the sudden increase in density forms a huge and terrifying vertical density cline, which slowly spreads to the rest of the nearby sea, disrupting the normal water cycle and water recharge system throughout the Mediterranean. There is no strange coolness on this side of the density jump, and there is a terrifying boiling water of death on the other side. At the touch of a button, the tuna, which originally grew in the Tyrrhenian Sea, were frightened and ran through the Tunis Strait to the Ionian Sea, while other predatory fish swam away as fast as possible. As a result, the sea area near the eruption area has become a "fish-free zone".

The prolonged earthquake caused by the second eruption also caused great pain to Hado's party: they were struggling to stabilize their body while climbing towards the perennial snow-covered Alps. In the meantime, they also took refuge in the vicinity of some natural mine caves from "snow disasters" – in fact, large-scale, large-scale avalanches. In fact, it is said that the distance in a straight line from the location of Monaco is not long, but at this time, the coastline was completely washed away, and the raging flood even washed up tens of thousands of steps on land, blocking the way of Hado and his descent from the mountain, so they had to continue along the mountain range. Further east, the road becomes more difficult: its proximity to the heart of the Alps, especially with the nearby towering snow-capped mountain Mount Viso, makes it even more difficult for Hado to climb it.

Considering the strong winds brought by the tsunami, it was impossible for them to cross from the ridgeline to the other side of the mountain, but they could only find a relatively sunken col to cross, but the continuous snow falling from the mountain blocked their way - due to the influence of the wind-blown snow and ground shaking snow on the ridgeline, the snowdrift that had been snowless was now 6 or 7 people high, and it was still the kind of soft and unbearable broken snowflakes. It was impossible to say that this environment was holding Hadu in the way: it was not a matter of controlling how quickly and easily the axe could shovel through the snow - but the problem was that as they made their way through the snow, things began to go wrong: they gradually entered a river channel, digging through the top layer of snow, and saw that the river was frozen underfoot, and it was a thin and easy to break form by the rapid freezing of the river. This leads to a dilemma: if the snow is weakened, if the thin ice in front of them breaks, the whole party may be planted in the freezing river at once, and if Hadu does not constantly shovel the snow, the snow will only continue to pile up and eventually overwhelm them, sealing them all under the surface of the river.

If only there were a big discus.

This is not only the guards who think so, but Hadu also feels very helpless at this time. If there were big discus, the snow and mountains would not be a problem at all, at most they would have to be lowered to the ground in windy areas, and everywhere else they would have come and gone.

Since there is no big discus to help them get out of the predicament, there is no other way to solve it. However, Hadu did not try to find a solid bank as a normal person would—not that he didn't try, but at first the snow melted into the river when it fell from the mountain, causing the river to rise and flood the nearby riverbank, which means that the col was full of water, and there was no ground to walk on. In this case, there is only one other way: control the iron to smash the ice 10 paces away, push the snow into it without interruption, and soon the river will freeze and surface, and then repeat the process. Since there are still ice floes and snow in other places that weigh down the river, even if snow is poured into a small area, the river level will not rise, but will make the nearby river ice thicker. Hadu used this method to open a road ahead, and the snow, which was already a threat, became a helper.

However, Hado must not have imagined that he would face the most terrible and difficult natural disaster of his life: the volcanic ash that permeated the entire Apennines.

The further you go to the other side of the mountain, the darker it becomes. At first, Hado thought it was caused by the smoke from the eruption blocking out the daylight, but later he began to realize that something was wrong. There seems to be a small impurity suspended in the air, and the only way to avoid these impurities is to cover your mouth and nose with a damp cloth. The further you go, the more the snow grows like a gray-black color, and finally it is completely covered in volcanic ash.

Hado paused for a moment, wrapping his face in a damp cloth - including the long face of the horse. From here, you can see volcanoes that are still spewing lava and craters that are constantly rumbling with a lot of ash.