Revenge
Copyright© 2021 by Peter H. Salus
Chapter 19
A day later, Henry called. “Have you seen the paper?” he began.
“Again?”
“One of the Kamchatka volcanoes is erupting!”
“Is that unusual?”
“Yes and no.”
“Thank you for that unequivocal perhaps.”
“Sorry.”
“I should be saying that, I snapped at you.”
“Right. Anyway, there a bunch of volcanoes and they do go off fairly frequently and there are also earthquakes. But with the events at the other end of the Eurasian plate, this might be ominous.”
Kliuchevskoi is Kamchatka’s highest and most active volcano. Since its origin about 6000 years ago, this beautifully symmetrical, 4835-m-high basaltic stratovolcano has produced frequent moderate-volume explosive and effusive eruptions without major periods of inactivity. There was a large eruption in 1994 and over 30 smaller ones from 2005 through 2021.
“Anything else?”
“Lake Baikal is rumbling away. There was a long pause, then there were over 50 tremors in 2021 and there was another pause and now the area to the northeast is quaking again.”
“It certainly sounds as though the powers are ill at ease. What does the science net say?”
“Nothing much yet. I’m waiting for a seismologist and a volcanologist or someone in plate tectonics to sit together at lunch. Once there’s a remark, the electrons will be moving.”
“Well, I think it’s like any other area. How often to people in different departments or areas talk to one another?”
“Right. Now, explain about this Russian lake.”
“Lake Baikal is the crack or cleft where the Eurasian plate abuts the North American, as I understand it. The lake gets bigger by the year. At the same time, Australia jams up against India and India hits the bottom of Eurasia, making the Himalayas. I know there’s a lot more and I’m sure I got some of that wrong.”
“So Russia will break in two?”
“I doubt it. But there might be a long rift.”
“But there’s activity along the north of the Mediterranean, the north of India, the western edge of the Pacific and the midst of Asia?”
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