Yellowstone: Hellfire: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller (The Yellowstone Series Book 1)

by Bobby Akart

  They watched for a moment, and then Ashby abruptly said, “Pause it.”

  “I see it,” interjected Rita.

  “There’s no doubt about it,” Ashby said, shaking her head. “The crater is collapsing and will undoubtedly block the vent here.” She pointed with her unmanicured fingers. Ashby was very much the outdoorsy tomboy that her mother had been.

  Rita continued. “That’ll put a lot more strain on the Halema’uma’u crater. It’s already lost its lava lake. Do you see the indicators of sulfur and the large ballistic rocks around the crater rim?”

  “I’ve compared aerial photographs from before and after the most recent eruptions,” said Dusty. “The empty vent we’re looking at was once covered by a twelve-acre lava lake. Now, not only is the lava gone, but the vent has stretched as wide as a hundred acres.”

  “The large boulders are blocking the eruptive vent, keeping more clouds of ash from emerging,” added Rita.

  Ashby stepped away from the computer and slowly walked toward the edge of the mountain overlooking Kilauea. She stood silently for a moment, taking in the ash, the fires, and the lava flow as it marched to the Pacific.

  She was joined by Dusty and Rita, who’d experienced these quiet moments Ashby used to process information.

  “What are you thinking, Doc?” asked Dusty.

  Ashby broke out of her deep thought and turned to her students. “We really don’t know the implications of this, but it might prove our theories regarding the connection between Mauna Loa and Kilauea. The lava may have been distributed through the emptied magma chamber, only to resurface at the end of the year over at Mauna Loa. Or it’s possible the energy is building beneath the vent, and new explosions will blast through the rubble at the bottom of the crater.”

  “Do you think the new eruption will be larger than the ones experienced so far?” asked Rita.

  Ashby reflected for a moment and then responded, “Well, there are two possibilities in that regard. If the vent is permanently blocked, there won’t be any eruption from this crater. If our coupling hypothesis is correct, and the magma becomes disbursed toward Mauna Loa, that eruption in six months or so might be larger. Only time will tell.”

  “There’s also the big picture, right, Doc?” asked Dusty before he added, “The whole thing could be interconnected. There are one hundred sixty-nine volatile volcanoes stretching from here to Alaska. The USGS has placed fifty of them on the high-priority watch list.”

  “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Dusty,” replied Ashby. “The Ring of Fire encompasses a massive geographic area and spans several tectonic plates. Besides, we need to focus on the connection between sister volcanoes before we tie all of them together.”

  Rita couldn’t resist. “He spends too much time on those conspiracy websites and not enough time on scientific journals.”

  “Not true. I spend equal amounts of time on both.”

  Rita rolled her eyes and chuckled. “Point proven. Next.”

  Their conversation was interrupted as a media truck pulled in behind them at the overlook. The group turned to see the truck with the logo of KHON NewsChannel 2 emblazoned across the side. A young, attractive female reporter bounced out of the front seat and came in their direction.

  Dusty stood a little taller and adjusted his frumpy, outback attire. “I’ll handle this one.”

  “Of course you will,” quipped Rita with a hint of snark.

  Chapter 6

  Near the Kilauea Volcano

  The Island of Hawaii

  “Aloha! It’s a beautiful morning, isn’t it?” began Dusty as he greeted the young reporter. She was leggy, curvaceous, and slightly taller than he was. He switched his laptop into his left hand and extended his right to shake. “My name is Dusty Holder. I’m a geologist with NASA.”

  “Good grief,” mumbled Rita as she turned her attention back to her research. “He’s so full of himself.”

  “Come on, Rita.” Ashby chuckled. “I think it’s cute. Look at him, full of charm and confidence. Dusty’s a nerd who would have never approached a pretty girl like this growing up.”

  Ashby hesitated and listened as the young woman introduced herself.

  “I’m Layla Camlyn, a reporter with NewsChannel 2. Together with my producer, we’re hoping to conduct a brief interview with a scientific team studying the events here at Kilauea. Our viewers are especially interested in an explanation of the difference between volcanoes in Hawaii, like Kilauea, and Yellowstone, the world’s most famous volcano.”

  “Well, Layla, this is your lucky day. You see, as part of my work with NASA, I have a particular expertise in geohydrobiology.”

  “Geo … hydro … um, what?” she asked with a perplexed look.

  “Geohydrobiology. It’s basically the study of how our planet, water, and life itself works.”

  Ashby looked on with amusement. As Rita continued to pound away angrily on her keyboard, Ashby thought about the flirting ritual between males and females.

  Dusty loved to flirt. He’d come out of his shell in the eighteen months after he was accepted into the VIPER program. He was a somewhat introverted nerd, spending his time on computers for his studies, and his entertainment, which consisted of playing interactive video games. Once they began traveling all over the world, something changed within him. Especially as it related to his interaction with members of the opposite sex. Ashby had never seen him close the deal when he made overtures toward a woman. In a way, his flirting seemed to be for his amusement rather than in search of a possible relationship.

  The conversation continued, so she eavesdropped. “… which is the reason there is so much thermal activity in Yellowstone,” Dusty explained as he gently took Layla by the arm and escorted her to the edge of the cliff for a better look at Kilauea. “You are looking at the Kilauea volcano in all its glory. So, what’s the difference, you ask? The answer is simple. Yellowstone is sitting on top of a volcano. All of the geysers and mud pots and hot springs are the result of hot fluids rising to the caldera’s surface and mixing with water.”

  The cameraman had been filming the interaction and now had closed on the back of Dusty to get a close-up as he answered questions.

  “Is that what makes Yellowstone a supervolcano?” she asked.

  “Well, let me clarify something. In scientific jargon, the term supervolcano doesn’t really exist. It’s a word that began to be used years ago by the BBC to refer to eruptions of the size produced by Yellowstone, which is more appropriately called by its scientific term caldera.”

  “A caldera?”

  “Yes, like a sinkhole or a crater. When a so-called supervolcano erupts, it spews large volumes of magma into the air over a short period of time. This causes the cone-shaped structure to collapse downward into the partially emptied magma chamber. The depression left behind looks like a crater from above. It doesn’t happen very often, and Yellowstone is the most famous of them all.”

  “Is that the only difference?”

  “Oh, no. There is a huge difference in size and, Layla, size matters.”

  Even Ashby rolled her eyes at that one.

  Dusty reached down and picked up a pebble. Then he searched around until he found a fist-sized hunk of volcanic rock. He reached for Layla’s left hand and placed the pebble in it. Then he pointed toward her microphone. “May I?”

  “Um, sure.” She handed him the microphone and he placed the rock in her right hand. She subconsciously moved her hands up and down as if she were a human scale. “Big difference.”

  “Exactly,” said Dusty as he turned the microphone toward his mouth like an old pro. “Kilauea is approximately two and a half miles across. Yellowstone is a whopping forty-four miles wide, at least. And consider this. Volcanoes are measured in intensity by the Volcanic Explosivity Index. Zero is the quiet end of the scale. They are deemed relatively nonexplosive like Kilauea and Mauna Loa over there.”

  “What is Yellowstone?”

  “This is where the ter
m supervolcano comes in. It implies an eruption of magnitude eight or higher. In the history of mankind, there have been only forty-eight supervolcano eruptions, and Yellowstone accounts for two, and possibly three, of those.”

  “Okay, so how does this relate to the two rocks you’ve given me?”

  “The pebble represents the amount of material ejected from the earth in a devastating eruption like Kilauea. The larger stone, which in actuality should be much, much larger, represents the volume of magma in a Yellowstone eruption.”

  “This much?”

  “No, Layla,” replied Dusty as he looked directly into the camera. “A million times more.”

  As the news reporter’s eyes grew wide, she dropped both stones to the ground. Ashby sensed the interview was over. She glanced down and noticed that Rita had stopped her work and caught the tail end of the interview.

  She looked up at Ashby. “Kinda puts it all in perspective, doesn’t it?”

  “It sure does. People have no idea.”

  They both stood silently for a moment as Dusty shook hands with Layla and her cameraman. As he started back toward them, Ashby knelt down next to Rita.

  “He really is a good guy.”

  “I know.”

  Ashby hesitated as she studied Rita’s demeanor. She was watching Dusty approach. “So why do you bust his chops so much?”

  “He likes it,” she replied with a smile.

  Chapter 7

  Yellowstone Volcano Observatory

  Yellowstone

  Rick Younger strode confidently into the newly completed Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. The YVO was built on several acres in Grant Village located near the westernmost part of Yellowstone Lake called West Thumb. Part of the Yellowstone Caldera was a one-hundred-thirty-six-square-mile basin covered by Yellowstone Lake. In 1870, an exploration team named the Washburn Party described the lake as being shaped like a human hand with the fingers extended and spread apart as much as possible, with the large west bay representing the thumb.

  The YVO was constituted in 2001 by the United States Geological Survey to provide a permanent monitoring team for volcanic and earthquake activity at Yellowstone. Several public and private organizations, under the USGS umbrella, worked together to monitor the volcanic system, accumulate and interpret data, and act as a central clearinghouse for dissemination of information to the government and the media. The person in charge of all activities within the YVO was the scientist-in-charge.

  Since the YVO’s inception in 2001, the position had been held by the same man—Dr. Don Peake. Dr. Peake had used his considerable influence in the scientific community to draw the most qualified team of geologists, volcanologists, and seismologists to join the daunting task of monitoring the dangerous supervolcano.

  Dr. Peake’s days as the scientist-in-charge were numbered after historic events in the history of geology unfolded in 2015. That was the year Project Hydro was introduced and implemented. It was an ambitious concept with a hefty price tag.

  Proposed by scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology, Project Hydro was deemed to solve two major issues—provide an engineering solution to the Yellowstone supervolcano threat and, as a byproduct, provide clean geothermal energy to reduce America’s dependence on fossil fuels.

  Despite its naysayers, the concept behind Project Hydro was met with open arms by a presidential administration seeking to leave a lasting environmental legacy. It was also seen as a job-boosting project that was endorsed by members of both sides of the aisle.

  Conceptually, the primary purpose of Project Hydro was to release the stress building underneath the Yellowstone Caldera, theoretically preventing a massive eruption. However, once Washington and the media wrapped its arms around the environmental benefit, the threat to humanity posed by Yellowstone took a backseat.

  With the full endorsement of the president, Congress acted quickly and pleased all of their constituents in the Mountain West states during the 2016 election year. By early 2017, the project was under way and construction began.

  Project Hydro appeared logical and simple—cool the supervolcano down by injecting water into the magma chamber. Yellowstone is an enormous heat generator that leaks nearly seventy percent of its energy into the atmosphere via water, which seeps into the magma chamber through cracks in the Earth’s surface. The remainder, however, remains inside the magma chamber, building up pressure, which enables it to create more energy. Eventually, an explosive eruption would occur.

  The scientists at the JPL proposed a way for the built-up energy to be extracted. NASA estimated that if an additional thirty-five percent of the heat could be transferred into the atmosphere from the magma chamber, Yellowstone would no longer pose a threat.

  Therein lies the rub, Shakespeare’s Hamlet once said. That’s where the problems lie.

  The scientists at NASA came up with a plan. They would drill down into the supervolcano no more than six miles and inject water into the magma chamber below. Water could then be extracted at a temperature of over six hundred degrees Fahrenheit, systematically releasing heat from below the Earth’s surface.

  Once the project was announced, the interest of private enterprise was piqued. A consortium led by Rick Younger stepped up to fund the project by taking advantage of low-interest government loans designed to promote alternative energy solutions.

  Younger was a Stanford-trained geologist who’d spent the majority of his career introducing large oil companies to fracking—the process of injecting liquid at high pressure into subterranean rocks to force open existing fissures, which facilitated the extraction of oil or natural gas. With the jury still out on whether fracking was environmentally acceptable, Younger looked at Project Hydro as nothing more than a large-scale fracking project. The benefit to easing the pressure within the Yellowstone Caldera meant nothing to him.

  One of the most vocal opponents of the project was Dr. Peake. He’d devoted his life to studying Yellowstone and fully understood the threat the world faced from its next eruption. He’d issued several warnings during congressional hearings on the project.

  He warned them against the notion of disturbing the delicate balance within the Yellowstone Caldera. The magma chamber was brittle and prone to breakage. Drilling through the top of the magma chamber would release noxious gases at best and trigger an eruption at worst.

  The scientific team sent to Washington by Younger proposed drilling into the supervolcano from the lower sides, starting outside the boundaries of Yellowstone National Park, on privately owned lands. This would have the effect of extracting the heat from the underside of the magma chamber. In theory, the team assured the members of Congress, the heat would be extracted from below and never reach the top of the chamber, where the real threat of eruption was located.

  Dr. Peake then argued that the undertaking would take many decades to cool the chamber enough to make a difference. Therefore, the risk of disturbing Yellowstone outweighed the benefits.

  In the end, Congress and the public embraced the immediate benefit of a new supply of energy with the long-term ancillary benefit of releasing the heat from Yellowstone. The implications of disturbing the fragile dynamic of the world’s most destructive force was lost in the hype.

  Dr. Peake’s continued opposition to Project Hydro resulted in his being pushed out of a job he’d held for nearly two decades. Today, the new sheriff in town, Rick Younger, was being installed, and he proudly took the podium after his introduction.

  “Thank you. Thank you all very much. I’m honored to stand before you as your new USGS scientist-in-charge. However, before I begin my opening remarks, I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank Dr. Peake for the outstanding work and unselfish sacrifice he’s made for the YVO and Yellowstone overall. Please join me in giving him a round of applause.”

  After the applause died down, Dr. Peake, who wore his civilian attire, which resembled a throwback to the Old West, waved to his former colleagues and took a
seat behind Younger.

  Younger retook the podium and turned to the former scientist-in-charge. “Thank you, Dr. Peake, and thank you for your service to the USGS.” Then he turned to the three dozen employees and members of the media as he resumed his remarks.

  “For several years, great minds have come together to create the most ambitious geological project in the history of mankind. I have been involved with Project Hydro since day one, and today, I’m pleased to announce that the geothermal tubes are producing clean, efficient energy!”

  Younger paused as the group applauded his efforts. “Just a month or so ago, this facility was opened and it’s now operating on all cylinders. Data is pouring into our extensive computer servers and recording the results in real time, revealing our successes. But there’s still work to be done.

  “The geothermal energy has far exceeded everyone’s expectations and the advanced timetable, well, all I can say to you is congrats on a job well done. With your efforts, we’re on course to double the energy extraction over the coming years.

  “I need to provide big congratulations to the engineers at ExxonMobil for devising a way to drill at a much faster pace than ever anticipated by the scientists at the JPL. What was once considered a decades-long process was reduced to a matter of years. Their applied technology from the petroleum sector has brought Project Hydro online decades ahead of schedule and on budget!”

  Once again, Younger paused as he soaked in the adoration from his subordinates.

  “In closing, I’m pleased to be a part of the YVO team and look forward to hanging my hat in this fantastic new facility at Grant Village. I’ll be glad to take a few questions before I roll my sleeves up and get to work.”

  Younger, with a toothy, politician’s smile, anxiously awaited the media’s queries. He’d been raked over the coals for years as Project Hydro came to fruition. Media, congressmen, and corporate executives had all taken a bite out of him. Now was his time to shine and earn the generous bonus, which was part of his contract at ExxonMobil that had survived his appointment to the USGS position. The low-six-figure income his GS-15 paygrade allowed paled in comparison to the under-the-counter bonuses he’d earn from the petroleum industry for fast-tracking Project Hydro’s production.