Oh yeah, those essays were illuminating. I was still living in NYC at the time and had no idea of what it took to keep the Mississippi "on course", to say nothing of the challenges of Los Angeles, or the active vulcanism of Iceland and Hawaii.
While probably not applicable here, I wonder whether lunar vulcanism might also have generated something approaching rings around the Earth - just without the big meteors. :)
I’ve experienced -40°C, so native #Mercurymindat.org#MinCup24
I've never heard of this but, then, I've never lived near active vulcanism. Also, in a genre hat, I don't think I've ever heard of this in any fantasy novel I've read (and a lot of them have volcanoes, thanks to Tolkien).
Great, now we have witch’s hair falling from the sky: “So-called 'witch's hair' - thin, sharp, glass needles that are created in volcanic eruptions – have started falling on communities across the Reykjanes peninsula as a volcano in southwest Iceland continues to erupt.”
The eruption, which began on 22 August following a series of earthquakes, continues to pull in the crowds with people coming to Iceland from abroad in the hope of snapping the perfect Instagram pictur...
Yeah, it had previously risen to 60m correspondingly fast. Active vulcanism, think of the forces involved in an actual eruption.
The sun's dimness isn't natural, but I'll grant you the vulcanism. I don't think we're given any reason to think Urth's core didn't cool down naturally, but it's easy enough to come up with with ways that might have been done deliberately too.
this is one of the big challenges for the new reader. the sun is red and dimmer (but seemingly not a red giant), and it’s implied that vulcanism (and therefore plate tectonics?) has ended. a setting of billions of years in the future seems OTT, so maybe these monsters in the Urth are real..?