#Silver Globe Geyser Complex

[rabbitcruiser]

Yellowstone National Park, WY (No. 23)

Yellowstone is at the northeastern end of the Snake River Plain, a great bow-shaped arc through the mountains that extends roughly 400 miles (640 km) from the park to the Idaho-Oregon border.

The volcanism of Yellowstone is believed to be linked to the somewhat older volcanism of the Snake River Plain. Yellowstone is thus the active part of a hotspot that has moved northeast over time. The origin of this hotspot volcanism is disputed. One theory holds that a mantle plume has caused the Yellowstone hotspot to migrate northeast, while another theory explains migrating hotspot volcanism as the result of the fragmentation and dynamics of the subducted Farallon Plate in Earth's interior.

The Yellowstone Caldera is the largest volcanic system in North America, and worldwide it is only rivaled by the Lake Toba Caldera on Sumatra. It has been termed a "supervolcano" because the caldera was formed by exceptionally large explosive eruptions. The magma chamber that lies under Yellowstone is estimated to be a single connected chamber, about 37 miles (60 km) long, 18 miles (29 km) wide, and 3 to 7 miles (4.8 to 11.3 km) deep. The current caldera was created by a cataclysmic eruption that occurred 640,000 years ago, which released more than 240 cu mi (1,000 km3) of ash, rock and pyroclastic materials.This eruption was more than 1,000 times larger than the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. It produced a caldera nearly 5⁄8 mi (1.0 km) deep and 45 by 28 miles (72 by 45 km) in area and deposited the Lava Creek Tuff, a welded tuff geologic formation. The most violent known eruption, which occurred 2.1 million years ago, ejected 588 cu mi (2,450 km3) of volcanic material and created the rock formation known as the Huckleberry Ridge Tuff and the Island Park Caldera. A smaller eruption ejected 67 cu mi (280 km3) of material 1.3 million years ago, forming the Henry's Fork Caldera and depositing the Mesa Falls Tuff.

Source: Wikipedia

[krinsbez]

Original Setting Idea: The Savage City

I've been playing around with an idea for a stonepunk/junglepunk/Lost World-type setting for awhile now (and used parts of it for the Hybrid City setting B_Munro/QuantumBranching covered for me, which I may post here one’a these days). In recent months it's gotten beyond my original intent (partially because I was inspired by some of Bruce's additions), and I figured I'd present it to you lot. It's set...somewhere. A planet, a continent, the interior of the Earth, I dunno. Regardless, it's hot and a tropical, a mix of lush jungles and swamps, and also volcanoes and geysers all over the place. It is a place where evolution has gone wonky, where a vast multitude of creatures from every corner of the globe that have been extinct for thousands, or millions, or even hundreds of millions of years still thrive, side-by-side with each other, and with creatures that never existed on our world. It is vast and enormous, beautiful and deadly. And it isn't just animals living there; it's also got people. Primitive people, but people. But not just the people we imagine; because in this place the gifts of thumbs and thought and upright posture isn't exclusive to a single certain lineage of hairless primates. Oh, no. There are a wide assortment of thinking peoples here, and while they may be technologically primitive by modern standards (no one's figured out how to make bronze yet), they're not stupid. So let's talk about this. Roughly, they can be divided into two groups; the "civilized" peoples, who have cities and agriculture and domesticated animals and complex social systems, and the "tribal" peoples who are hunter-gatherers...with complex social systems. The most powerful civilization of all are the Small People (ant/bee-people) who while larger than the eusocial insects of our world, are still pretty small. But their numbers and ferocity make up for it. Fortunately, they're largely indifferent to everyone else. and very hostile to each other, so as long as everyone else stays out of their way, they aren't a problem. The other civilized peoples are the Hairy People (ape-people) small in numbers, but vigorous and flexing their muscles, the Winged Peoples (pterosaur-, bird-, and bat-people) who share a common government and disdain for the "landcrawlers", but who's complex politics (necessary to maintain peace and unity between three biologically and culturally heterogeneous species) keep them in check, and the Scaly People (dinosaur people), who's once rapacious expansion has been halted due to internal strife and the need to keep a lid on the people they've already conquered and enslaved; the Shelled People (turtle-people), Feathered People (other dinosaur-people), and Slimy People (frog-people). Then there are the tribal peoples, the Thin People (humans), Stocky People (Neanderthals), Tall People (bear-people), Tailed People (monkey-people), and Whiskered People (cat-people), alternately ignored, feared, or preyed upn by their more technologically advanced neighbors...until recently, when various warring tribes of each have been united by a brilliant, charismatic leader, who marched his army to the City of Silver, one of the most magnificent cities in the known world, and long time political and economic rival to the City of Gold capital of the Scaly Empire. It was this rivalry that, decades ago, caused them to support a rival claimant to the Imperial Throne, and that support which caused the victorious Scaly Emperor to do nothing when the armies of the Hairy King came to conquer the city. But with the occupying Hairy People, well, occupied by the Tribal Horde's Siege, the oppressed-for-a-generation Scaly natives took the opportunity to rise up in revolt. With enemies both within and without, the Hairy Governor of the city chose the least bad option for the safety of not only his soldiers, but the many Hairy civilians trapped in the city with them, opening the gates to the Horde, in exchange for not massacring his people. And that's when the Scaly Emperor finally decided to re-take the city, not counting on how much the Silverian Scalies hated him for abandoning them, and thus making common cause with their erstwhile oppressors and the new invaders to keep the city out of his grasping claws. And so, the city now stands, surprisingly intact for all the fighting, with power shared as per shaky truce between Horde, Hairy, and Scaly, as outsiders circle to see what happens next...

I realize this wasn't clear above, but in my head, the Thin People, Tall People, etc. were all divided into individual tribes as well as by species. IE, there's multiple tribes of Tall People, with their own leaders, their own dialect of the Tall People language, their own version of the Tall People religion, etc. such that some are barley recognizable as sharing common roots. I was thinking if, in addition to this that, there are also multiple racial phenotypes of each People? So some Thin People would look like Sub-Saharan Africans and some would look like North Europeans, and some would look like Pacific Islanders, etc. Of course, then I'd have to make-up racial phenotypes for all the other people. Aaand that's as far as I've gotten. Anyone interested in helping me make this more coherent?

[rabbitcruiser]

Yellowstone National Park, WY (No. 22)

As the name suggests, Wall Pool is a pool with a wall and an overhanging shelf of sinter to the west. Wall Pool is related to Black Opal Pool and Black Diamond Pool as a hydrothermal explosion crater. Wall Pool was created by one of the steam explosions in the early 1900s. Wall Pool exploded again in 2005, but activity has continued to decrease. It actively boils and the edges of the pool and surrounding runoff contain orange and yellow thermophiles.

Wall Pool has an average temperate of 190.5°F (88°C), an average pH of 7.9, and an average conductivity of 1833 uS/cm.

Source

[rabbitcruiser]

Yellowstone National Park, WY (No. 21)

Black Diamond Pool is a large murky blue pool with water flowing into other pools nearby. Soft sinter and sparse vegetation surrounds the area of the pool. Outflow from the pool forms braided channels of orange and green thermophiles. These large pools formed from hydrothermal explosions. While not all historic explosions are known, Black Diamond Pool erupted black murky water after an earthquake in July 2006, with several explosive eruptions in the following days. Eruptions continue to be infrequent since, with the last eruption observed in 2016.

Black Diamond Pool has an average temperate of 148.5°F (64.7°C), an average pH of 8.2, and an average conductivity of 2092 uS/cm.

Source

[rabbitcruiser]

Yellowstone National Park, WY (No. 18)

Silver Globe Geyser Complex contains several geysers and hot springs, with one main geyser referred to as Silver Globe Geyser. Silver Globe Geyser sits in a slight hillside with an overhanging sinter cliff. The deep pool is a clear blue and some vegetation on the hillside grows almost up to the water. The other geysers and hot springs in the complex are similar with similar activity of small, frequent eruptions or continuous activity.

Silver Globe Geyser Complex has an average temperate of 188.8°F (87.1°C), an average pH of 7, and an average conductivity of 2169 uS/cm.

Geysers

Geysers have constrictions in their plumbing systems that prevent water from moving freely to the surface where heat would escape. Water beneath the constrictions creates a buildup of steam. Eventually the steam pushes water past the constrictions and the geyser erupts.

Hot Springs

Hot springs are the most common hydrothermal features in Yellowstone. Their plumbing has no constrictions.

Superheated water cools as it reaches the surface, sinks, and is replaced by hotter water from below.

This circulation prevents water from reaching the temperature needed to set off an eruption.

Source

[rabbitcruiser]

Yellowstone National Park, WY (No. 20)

While evidence for high water levels exist, Black Pearl Geyser appears to be a cavernous opening in the ground surface that is continuously steaming. Water inside the depression constantly boils. Moss-like vegetation surrounds the opening at the surface. Black Pearl Geyser goes through years of dormancy, but had a period of activity in the years following the 1959 earthquake, ending in 1967.

Black Pearl Geyser has an average temperate of 192.7°F (89.3°C), an average pH of 8, and an average conductivity of 1950 uS/cm.

Source

Jewel Geyser has a unique structure as a linear pool with a built up yellow-red cone of geyserite deposits along the edge. Possibly named from the droplet of water during an eruption or from the glistening geyserite sinter surrounding the vent. Most of the geyserite is pea-sized on small mounds, but larger mounds also exist. Some of the shallow pools between the geyserite contain orange thermophiles and the surrounding area is covered with solidified sinter. Jewel Geyser frequently erupts, with intervals in the 4–12 minute range.

Jewel Geyser has an average temperate of 165.8°F (74.3°C), an average pH of 8.4, and an average conductivity of 2143 uS/cm.

Source

[rabbitcruiser]

Yellowstone National Park, WY (No. 19)

Mustard Spring has an East and West Mustard Spring, two pools about 50 feet (15.2 m) from each other. Currently, East Mustard Spring is an active geyser with 2–3 minute intervals between eruptions. Water levels in West Mustard Spring sit lower. Both pools are similar in size, but East Mustard Spring is surrounded by small mounds of geyserite deposits and a thin surrounding layer of runoff water outside the geyserite. West Mustard Spring, due to being shallower, has vegetation growing right up to the pool. Yellow and orange thermophiles fill the shallow runoff pools of East Mustard Spring and the pool of West Mustard Spring.

Mustard Spring has an average temperate of 183.3°F (84.1°C), an average pH of 8, and an average conductivity of 2174 uS/cm.

Source

[krinsbez]

The Savage City: An Original Stonepunk/Lost World Setting

(note: parts of this concept were used in my Hybrid City concept, which I may post some day. Some elements were further inspired by Bruce Munro’s cover of same)

It's set...somewhere. A planet, a continent, the interior of the Earth, I dunno. Regardless, it's hot and a tropical, a mix of lush jungles and swamps, and also volcanoes and geysers all over the place. It is a place where evolution has gone wonky, where a vast multitude of creatures from every corner of the globe that have been extinct for thousands, or millions, or even hundreds of millions of years still thrive, side-by-side with each other, and with creatures that never existed on our world. It is vast and enormous, beautiful and deadly. And it isn't just animals living there; it's also got people. Primitive people, but people. But not just the people we imagine; because in this place the gifts of thumbs and thought and upright posture isn't exclusive to a single certain lineage of hairless primates. Oh, no. There are a wide assortment of thinking peoples here, and while they may be technologically primitive by modern standards (no one's figured out how to make bronze yet), they're not stupid. So let's talk about this. Roughly, they can be divided into two groups; the "civilized" peoples, who have cities and agriculture and domesticated animals and complex social systems, and the "tribal" peoples who are hunter-gatherers...with complex social systems. The most powerful civilization of all are the Small People (ant/bee-people) who while larger than the eusocial insects of our world, are still pretty small. But their numbers and ferocity make up for it. Fortunately, they're largely indifferent ot everyone else. and very hostile to each other, so as long as everyone else stays out of their way, they aren't a problem. The other civilized peoples are the Hairy People (ape-people) small in numbers, but vigorous and flexing their muscles, the Winged Peoples (pterosaur-, bird-, and bat-people) who share a common government and disdain for the "landcrawlers", but who's complex politics (necessary to maintain peace and unity between three biologically and culturally heterogeneous species) keep them in check, and the Scaly People (dinosaur people), who's once rapacious expansion has been halted due to internal strife and the need to keep a lid on the people they've already conquered and enslaved; the Shelled People (turtle-people), Feathered People (other dinosaur-people), and Slimy People (frog-people). Then there are the tribal peoples, the Thin People (humans), Stocky People (Neanderthals), Tall People (bear-people), Tailed People (monkey-people), and Whiskered People (cat-people), alternately ignored, feared, or preyed by their more technologically advanced neighbors...until recently, when the various warring tribes of each have been united by a brilliant, charismatic leader, who marched his army to the City of Silver, one of the most magnificent cities in the known world, and long time political and economic rival to the City of Gold capital of the Scaly Empire. it was this rivalry that, decades ago, caused them to support a rival claimant to the Imperial Throne, and that support which caused the victorious Scaly Emperor to do nothing when the armies of the Hairy King came to conquer the city. But with the occupying Hairy People, well, occupied by the Tribal Horde's Siege, the oppressed-for-a-generation Scaly natives took the opportunity to rise up in revolt. With enemies both within and without, the Hairy Governor of the city chose the least bad option for the safety of not only his soldier,s but the many Hairy civilians trapped in the city with them, opening the gates to the Horde, in exchange for not massacring his people. And that's when the Scaly Emperor finally decided to re-take the city, not counting on how much the Silverian Scalies hated him for abandoning them, and thus making common cause with their erstwhile oppressors and the new invaders to keep the city out of his grasping claws. And so, the city now stands, surprisingly intact for all the fighting, with power shared as per shaky truce between Horde, Hairy, and Scaly, as outsiders circle to see what happens next... Aaand that's as far as I've gotten. Anyone interested in helping me make this more coherent?