a work in progress
your comments, suggestions and critique of writing and the info and actualy, any aspect of the story would be appreciated on the Comments for Some Days thread
Some Days Aren’t So Bad
By LMonty911
Copy write reserved to author
Introduction
And then there was light.
Millennia uncounted passed.
Viewed from far away, the living planet appeared benign and welcoming. The thin halo of atmosphere twinkled as weather systems swept across the surface of land and giant blue oceans of liquid water. A casual observer might think the surface stable and solid.
The casual view was deceiving. The cool crust floated on a mantle of rock made plastic by the heat of the planets core, where temperatures were not much lower than the surface of the nearby star. The temperature gradient drove convection currents of molten rock slowly upwards until they cooled and dropped again to the superheated depths.
The solid surface fractured from the alternating stresses. The spinning top of a planet bulged ever so slightly at the equator, continually adjusting its balance and mass to maintain an even rotation. Crustal plates rubbed against each other, affected by the relentless convection motions they rode. At some intersections, the solid crust was driven down, recycled into the molten depths below. Opposite those subduction zones, the growth of the plates was fed by upward bound molten rock that cooled as it took its turn on the planet surface. The surface rocked and shook, as sudden shifts relieved the unequal pressures below.
Mountain ranges formed where plates collided. Vast oceans camouflaged the deepest trenches. Immense internal pressure pushed liquid rock and gasses thru to the surface near the edges of plates in cataclysmic explosions. Volcanoes bloomed red wherever weaker portions of the crust cracked to allow the pressure to release.
The titanic battle for balance marched on. The swirling planet continued its seemingly eternal pirouette about its star. On the roiling surface of Sol giant explosions released tentacles of energy that invisibly licked at portions of the planets surface. The atmosphere of Earth absorbed and reacted to the input. Storms raged. The oceans fed the storms and danced with them. The molten currents within reacted to the forces. The crust bulged and changed to balance the spin
As the planet matured more stable periods developed. The crust appeared to move little for millennia. Volcanic eruptions became less frequent. Many of the now quiescent giant volcanic calderas of the planets youth weathered to unrecognizable plains and hills, rarely venting the still active magma below.
The need to balance the spin persisted. Bulges of plastic regolith resulted in the tiniest wobble at the Earth’s axis. When millennia of small adjustments failed, earthquakes increased in frequency and dormant volcanoes awoke. Tectonic plates jumped and shifted in the geologic twinkling of an eye - an avalanche of continents.
Coastlines submerged. New land rose from oceans struggling to find their own balance as the depths beneath them rose or fell. Giant sheets of ice covered land formerly temperate. Frozen continents now closer to Earth’s equator warmed.
Cataclysmic pole shifts punctuated epochs of relative stability. In one of those quiet times, life appeared. Complexity increased. Deep in the blue seas and upon the cool surface beings crawled, walked and flew. The Creator looked upon His handwork, and saw that it was good. His breath stirred the dust. For the first time on the planet, a species looked out upon its world and dreamed.
Man adapted and spread throughout the ever but so slowly changing world he inhabited. The tenacious species was nearly annihilated during the pole shifts that occurred since his appearance. In the most recent quiescent period, Man’s own complexity increased. The cultural memories of the last pole shift became oral legends and then written records of a great flood.
Solar radiation cycles bathed the planet in energy. The buffering atmosphere transmitted energy to the plastic asthenosphere kilometers below. A bulge appeared in the planets solid iron core. It grew buoyant as gravity from passing celestial bodies pulled it outward into the asthenosphere. Convection currents shifted. Iron melted, displacing the equilibrium of the convective flow. Balance lost.
Distracted by the second of his great World Wars, Man remained unaware of the greater conflict beneath his feet. Decades passed. The wobble of the axis increased ever so slightly as the oblate sphere stretched and the crust uplifted near the poles. The spinning top whirled incrementally faster. Closer to the equator, plumes of magma exploited fragile cracks in the depths of the crust as the gigantic pressures built upon the edges of the tectonic plates. The seismic precursors of the next great pole shift- volcanism and earthquakes - increased in frequency and intensity.
Equilibrium would not be denied. An unbalanced Earth shook her skin to smooth the wrinkles beneath. Giant quakes ensued as the continents seemed to skitter across her surface. Surging oceans reclaimed shore lands long lost to them and exhaled long submerged mountains and plateaus as the plates settled.
It took just days, as Man counted time, for the balance to be restored. Geologic balance. For the stunned remnant of the human race on the surface, the shift had just begun.
your comments, suggestions and critique of writing and the info and actualy, any aspect of the story would be appreciated on the Comments for Some Days thread
Some Days Aren’t So Bad
By LMonty911
Copy write reserved to author
Introduction
And then there was light.
Millennia uncounted passed.
Viewed from far away, the living planet appeared benign and welcoming. The thin halo of atmosphere twinkled as weather systems swept across the surface of land and giant blue oceans of liquid water. A casual observer might think the surface stable and solid.
The casual view was deceiving. The cool crust floated on a mantle of rock made plastic by the heat of the planets core, where temperatures were not much lower than the surface of the nearby star. The temperature gradient drove convection currents of molten rock slowly upwards until they cooled and dropped again to the superheated depths.
The solid surface fractured from the alternating stresses. The spinning top of a planet bulged ever so slightly at the equator, continually adjusting its balance and mass to maintain an even rotation. Crustal plates rubbed against each other, affected by the relentless convection motions they rode. At some intersections, the solid crust was driven down, recycled into the molten depths below. Opposite those subduction zones, the growth of the plates was fed by upward bound molten rock that cooled as it took its turn on the planet surface. The surface rocked and shook, as sudden shifts relieved the unequal pressures below.
Mountain ranges formed where plates collided. Vast oceans camouflaged the deepest trenches. Immense internal pressure pushed liquid rock and gasses thru to the surface near the edges of plates in cataclysmic explosions. Volcanoes bloomed red wherever weaker portions of the crust cracked to allow the pressure to release.
The titanic battle for balance marched on. The swirling planet continued its seemingly eternal pirouette about its star. On the roiling surface of Sol giant explosions released tentacles of energy that invisibly licked at portions of the planets surface. The atmosphere of Earth absorbed and reacted to the input. Storms raged. The oceans fed the storms and danced with them. The molten currents within reacted to the forces. The crust bulged and changed to balance the spin
As the planet matured more stable periods developed. The crust appeared to move little for millennia. Volcanic eruptions became less frequent. Many of the now quiescent giant volcanic calderas of the planets youth weathered to unrecognizable plains and hills, rarely venting the still active magma below.
The need to balance the spin persisted. Bulges of plastic regolith resulted in the tiniest wobble at the Earth’s axis. When millennia of small adjustments failed, earthquakes increased in frequency and dormant volcanoes awoke. Tectonic plates jumped and shifted in the geologic twinkling of an eye - an avalanche of continents.
Coastlines submerged. New land rose from oceans struggling to find their own balance as the depths beneath them rose or fell. Giant sheets of ice covered land formerly temperate. Frozen continents now closer to Earth’s equator warmed.
Cataclysmic pole shifts punctuated epochs of relative stability. In one of those quiet times, life appeared. Complexity increased. Deep in the blue seas and upon the cool surface beings crawled, walked and flew. The Creator looked upon His handwork, and saw that it was good. His breath stirred the dust. For the first time on the planet, a species looked out upon its world and dreamed.
Man adapted and spread throughout the ever but so slowly changing world he inhabited. The tenacious species was nearly annihilated during the pole shifts that occurred since his appearance. In the most recent quiescent period, Man’s own complexity increased. The cultural memories of the last pole shift became oral legends and then written records of a great flood.
Solar radiation cycles bathed the planet in energy. The buffering atmosphere transmitted energy to the plastic asthenosphere kilometers below. A bulge appeared in the planets solid iron core. It grew buoyant as gravity from passing celestial bodies pulled it outward into the asthenosphere. Convection currents shifted. Iron melted, displacing the equilibrium of the convective flow. Balance lost.
Distracted by the second of his great World Wars, Man remained unaware of the greater conflict beneath his feet. Decades passed. The wobble of the axis increased ever so slightly as the oblate sphere stretched and the crust uplifted near the poles. The spinning top whirled incrementally faster. Closer to the equator, plumes of magma exploited fragile cracks in the depths of the crust as the gigantic pressures built upon the edges of the tectonic plates. The seismic precursors of the next great pole shift- volcanism and earthquakes - increased in frequency and intensity.
Equilibrium would not be denied. An unbalanced Earth shook her skin to smooth the wrinkles beneath. Giant quakes ensued as the continents seemed to skitter across her surface. Surging oceans reclaimed shore lands long lost to them and exhaled long submerged mountains and plateaus as the plates settled.
It took just days, as Man counted time, for the balance to be restored. Geologic balance. For the stunned remnant of the human race on the surface, the shift had just begun.