Thread by @zeal_a

2 years ago I wrote a story about the science of the 10 plagues of Egypt which likely culminated in a Limnic eruption

facebook.com/892190202/post…

I'll reproduce it here:

THREAD

https://twitter.com/AfricaFactsZone/status/1272238534523523074

1. Though the volcanic eruption was hundreds of miles away, though we only heard about it on the news, little did we know that the impact would be felt so close to home. Well, we were on holiday in a remote town and that was home for now.

2. You see, somehow, the high sulphur content from the volcano found it's way into the natural waterways via what must have been, a mini seabed earthquake & the combination created what I would've thought was a beautiful red hue in the river except for the ensuing devastation

3.That chemical reaction in the water also starved the aquatic population of oxygen & it wasn't long before a lot of the fish that couldn't get away fast enough started popping up on the surface, dead. Luckily, the amphibious animals were able to scamper to land & save themselves

4. Wouldn't have been so bad, but for that time of the year, their breeding season, they were far more than we could bear. As you'd imagine, with dead fish floating, it didn't take long before the horrible stench started and the dead sea animals naturally attracted all sorts of..

5. crawling and flying insects - flies, gnats...all sorts of disease caring creatures feeding off rotting flesh; it was the worst type of nuisance I had ever seen. If they were just a nuisance, I wouldn't have minded so much, but cos they were feeding on decaying fish...

6. and then coming on to land to infect animals and humans, sooner than later, all sorts of skin and digestive diseases and infections broke out with man and animals. It was pathetic watching everyone itch all over as if they had a lice infection. It eventually got cloudy...

7. & given this horrid circumstance we found ourselves, we'd normally welcome rains but little did we know that the volcanic eruption had caused a significant climatic disruption in creating an unnaturally wide range of temperatures that for the first time, we experienced hail

8. Things seemed only to get worse. Eventually all the elders had to meet to discuss what could be causing this and what to do next. It was either they hadn't heard the news of the earthquake or didn't see the possible correlation but a wise old man drew their attention..

9. and mentioned that we were likely going to, in addition to the woes, have a food shortage.
"Amidst all this, you're predicting worse things?"

He mentioned that given all the preceding events and the susceptibility to locusts in the past, he postulated that if the volcanic...

10. eruption was from a certain fertile area, it may have disturbed the locust population and they'd likely head in our direction.

We thought that was rubbish until the very next day.

11. It didn't take long before all that managed to clear up, but the damn volcano that started this issue in the first place, though far away, had spewed so much ash into the air & though it took a little while, the ash got thick so even in day light, we could barely see anything

12. While the old man was speaking, I remembered that I had read about something called a "limnic eruption":

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limnic_er…

& raised it with the elders who all thought I was being dramatic and is I didn't push harder cos I didn't want to sound too much like an alarmist

13. So that night, to be safe, I forced my family not to sleep (the culture was to have firstborns sleep on bamboo beds no more than 1foot high)& as I didn't want to transfer my paranoia, I threw an all night party for close friends & family. We ate, drank and danced till morning

14. Sure enough, by morning time, consequence of the limnic eruption was sadly, evident. A lot of people who slept on the bamboo beds were dead!

Didn't take any convincing that this place was "cursed" and I promptly took everything I had and left without even a look back.

15. On the flight out, I looked down and noticed something odd and luckily, sitting next to me was a well renowned climatologist. The harbour where the ocean met land was completely dry for miles and little kids were playing football on dry land where a deep ocean once sat.

16. He explained that it wasn't uncommon after a hurricane or tsunami, that could have been triggered by a seabed earthquake, the body of water could suddenly completely recede. i didn't believe him, but he directed me here:

mirror.co.uk/news/world-new…