Fallen Ash

Chapter 1

After my little dip I dried off and got dressed and found Rochelle beginning to wake up from her nap. Chris and Scarlet were out in the living area watching TV. I walked out, my hair still wet and joined them. Rochelle took a quick shower and joined us about 20 minutes later. we eventually turned the TV off and got into conversation. I had run into the room and grabbed my laptop. We were sitting on the floor, we could have stayed on the couch, but we didn't really care it was more fun sitting in a circle on the floor. I had texted my parents and sister a while before letting them know I got to Nebraska safely and I'll be home before they knew it. I really did miss them and felt a little homesick but I kept reminding myself that I'd be home soon and to just enjoy myself with my friends and classmates.

"But Lizzie, the volcano is a little over 1000 miles away from Chicago, how would we hear it, isn't it physically impossible?" Scarlet raised her eyebrows at my statement about the volcano. I took a huge interest in this volcano. I think back to all the sleepless nights I had just researching this volcano.

"Think about it Scar, this volcano is thousands of times bigger than Mount St. Helens. This explosion would be so loud that people in Canada would likely hear it. If this volcano were to explode then it could possible deafen us if we aren't careful. People's brains could explode if they are in the immediate vicinity. If they aren't killed by the explosion it's self first." I explained. Scarlet rolled her eyes at me.

"You spend too much time studying this thing." She chuckled. Rochelle was listening in, for once this seemed to captivate her.

"Would there be signs ahead of time if the volcano were to activate again?" She asked. I nodded.

"Most volcanoes give signs weeks and sometimes months ahead of time."

"I don't know Lizzie," Chris spoke, "with how quiet the Super Volcano is maybe they won't notice."

"Did you pay attention during the volcanoes unit at all Chris? Movement will be noticed by seismographs ahead of time and with the volcanoes size there's no doubt signs would be detected." I shot back. Chris shrugged.

"I'm just saying, I feel like it would be extremely sudden."

"Is it...highly likely that the volcano would blow?" Rochelle asked nervously.

"Scientists say that it's a 0.0001% chance of it blowing. So there's a chance but it's not likely."

"How much have you researched this?" Scarlet asked.

"I'd rather not answer that." I answered with a chuckle.

"What about danger zones?" Chris asked. I pulled up a graph on my laptop. I pointed to the dark blue zone in the center.

"That area right there is the most dangerous area, it's basically inescapable. You'd get over 1000 millimetres of ash. Or...uh..." I quickly looked up how many inches that would be. "Basically 40 inches of ash maybe more. It's instant death, especially since the ash will be more deadly in that vicinity. I pointed to the lighter blue area.

"Once again this is an extreme danger zone, you might be able to get away, but it's not very likely. The ash is hotter as you get closer to the volcano. The purple area the most you could get is about 4 inches of ash. In the orange you'd get about 2 inches. Darker yellow is under an inch and the light yellow is hardly any. So you'd be safer in the orange to yellow zones. But you can die in any of those zones because if you inhale the ash you could die from silicosis. A lung fibrosis. Ash isn't like snow, it's sharp so inhaling it would not only hurt your lungs but cause problems to your throat, it's more like sand." I was going on a rant but they didn't interrupt they listened carefully and took in the information. My eyes were shining like it was the best thing in the world. I loved teaching people about the Super Volcano.

"Okay okay, but how would one avoid breathing in the ash, that's my number one question." Rochelle asked.

"A wet wash cloth. Something dry would allow the ash to get through the cloth. If it's damp then it stops the ash from getting through." I answered.

"What about power?" Rochelle asked.

"Power would be completely out all over. Even in some part of Canada. The explosion would be so powerful it might as well be an Earthquake all over the world and because of the damage it would take years and years before power could be fixed again. If you look at the graph, the blue and purple zone wouldn't likely get any power for maybe even decades, the place could possibly be unlivable. After the ash stops falling there will likely be more than the chart can tell us. This ash would be falling for weeks on end and once it finally stops those villages could possibly be completely buried in ash. Those statistics of how much ash there is would go up and once the ash hardens there isn't any going back." They looked terrified of that fact.

"But why would they go up?" Scarlet asked.

"They are simple estimates of how much there would be within the first day or two. The ash wouldn't stop falling for almost 2 and a half weeks. The orange and yellow zones may be safe to live in after the ash finishes falling."

"What climate? Would the climate be effected, I heard that the explosion would be so huge that it would cause climate change all over the world." Chris asked. I thought about it a moment.

"I haven't looked too much into that part, but I remember reading something about the climate in North America would drop. It would get colder. The rest of the world I'm not so sure." I answered. After that there was a knock at our door. Rochelle ran over to get it. A teacher walked in.

"Come on guys, dinner is downstairs in the lobby." She spoke. I looked at the time, we've been talking about the volcano for almost 3 hours.

"Okay we'll be right down." I spoke, not realizing how little time I had left.

~~~~~~~~~

Okay so this is a story that I'm thinking about working with. And yes, I did look all this information up I didn't just make it up on the spot. This took almost 2 hours to simply write 2000 words because I kept having to look up information.

I basically explained what the super volcano was and how it would effect the world. These facts have been explained by scientists themselves so don't go judging me judge them. I won't lie, I have taken a huge interest in the Super Volcano, it fascinates me quite a bit and I have spent many hours doing research and reading Science Fiction about it.

Ash Fall was mentioned in this chapter and I'm telling you right now, it is one of my favorite books of all time. It's a trilogy written by Mike Mullins and I HIGHLY recommend reading it. I'm not a big fan of science fiction but holy crap that was a good series.

Anyways if you enjoyed:

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Luv ya peeps!

~Nik<3