Reborn Before the Apocalypse: My Backing is the Nation

Chapter 142 Large Low-Shear Wave Velocity Saving
Professor Lu Zhaoming's words plunged the thousands of attendees in the conference room into silence.

We currently have very little intelligence, only a handful of pieces.

First, the location of the hibernation base and the previous doomsday base; second, the doomsday event that could lead to the extinction of human civilization.

Taking these two factors into account, the final answer becomes obvious.

A massive earthquake that covered the entire Earth, leaving no blind spots.

Only in this way can the two existing pieces of information be explained.

Why did both bases, which were located in geologically stable areas, ultimately perish?

Because this was a massive earthquake that affected the entire globe.

Why did human civilization perish?

Also because this was a massive earthquake that affected the entire globe.

This is the most likely hypothesis based on the existing conditions.

Of course, no matter how violent this earthquake is, it will not affect people in space and on the moon—currently estimated to number in the thousands.

However, the survival of these thousands of people does not affect the determination of the extinction of human civilization, just as when I and other astronauts, including Tong Zheng, temporarily survived on the moon during the first apocalypse, it did not affect the determination of extinction.

Because this is unsustainable. Without the support of humanity on Earth, their ultimate fate of extinction is already sealed.

Therefore, it is logically reasonable that an extremely powerful earthquake that swept the globe would ultimately wipe out human civilization.

But... is such an earthquake really reasonable from a physical point of view?

Jiang Yang's mind raced. The countless cycles of hibernation he had experienced in the past, and the decade of continuous learning before those hibernations, while not cutting-edge or rigorous, provided him with a broad enough range of scientific knowledge to make judgments at this moment.

He knew that, under normal circumstances, earthquakes are caused by the release of stress on the Earth's tectonic plates.

It's like a piece of wood fixed to a tabletop, with one side protruding.

If you keep placing heavy objects on the protruding part of this wooden board, it will bend continuously. Until the weight exceeds its limit, it will snap.

The previous bending was the process of stress accumulation. The final fracture was the process of stress release.

The same applies to the Earth's continental plates. The rocks that make up these plates are constantly moving, either subducting beneath other plates or pressing against each other. This process also distorts the plates and accumulates stress.

Until the limit was exceeded, the rocks broke apart, and an earthquake occurred.

This is the most common type of earthquake on Earth. Other types, such as volcanic eruption earthquakes and cavity collapse earthquakes, are not included in this discussion.

Even with Jiang Yang's limited knowledge, he knew that a massive earthquake that swept the globe could not have been caused by conventional reasons such as plate tectonics.

It's understandable for a wooden plank to break under the weight of a heavy object, but can a wooden plank itself crumble into wood chips in a short time also be caused by a heavy object?
So... what caused this massive earthquake that swept across the globe and even affected geologically stable zones?
Of course, the ultimate mastermind is almost certainly the Reaper civilization. But the key question now is, how did the Reaper civilization trigger this earthquake?
Only by clarifying this process can our side find a way to ultimately deal with the apocalypse. Just like in the first apocalypse, our side accomplished the task of fighting the apocalypse by destroying that underground floating city.

Faced with Professor Lu Zhaoming's question, all the attendees turned their attention to the experts in geology, geophysics, and solid-state physics.

The leading expert in the field paused for a moment, then said, "We need to discuss this."

"Temporarily adjourn for one hour."

The participants left the virtual meeting room, each with their own thoughts on the matter.

An hour later, the group reappeared. After an hour of discussion, the leading expert had clearly formed some conclusions.

"After ruling out the possibility of conventional continental plate movement, we came up with two speculations after discussion."

Firstly, extraterrestrial reasons.

Based on the current level of science, we can divide this cause into three possibilities.

The first possibility is an asteroid impact.

If an asteroid of sufficient mass and velocity were to suddenly collide with Earth, it could indeed release enough energy to trigger a massive global earthquake.

According to our simple estimate, a massive earthquake that occurs globally would release approximately 3*10^24 joules of total energy.

一吨TNT炸药爆炸所释放的能量约为4.184*10^9焦耳，这个能量大约等同于720万亿吨TNT炸药同时爆炸的能量，是我们人类文明当前所拥有核武器总当量的1000倍以上。

To release so much energy, an asteroid with a diameter of about 30 kilometers and a mass of about 15 trillion tons would need to collide with it at a speed of 20 kilometers per second.

The second possibility is the tidal force of a massive celestial body.

Suppose a massive celestial body were to approach Earth—its mass doesn't need to be too large, just on the scale of Jupiter or Saturn—it would be enough to trigger a large-scale global movement of matter, and certainly enough to cause this cataclysmic global earthquake.

The third possibility is based on the influence of some unknown principles, such as some kind of high-energy radiation or some influence based on dark matter.

Because of the insufficient level of fundamental physics theory, we are unable to make sufficiently valuable judgments in this regard.

Jiang Yang pressed the speak button.

"I think the possibility of an extraterrestrial cause is unlikely."

In my previous life, after I brought the doomsday warning, we conducted a comprehensive investigation of possible threats, including extraterrestrial factors.

We conducted a massive asteroid search, but until the end of the world finally arrived, we failed to find any asteroids that posed a sufficient threat to us.

Furthermore, there are no asteroids, let alone massive celestial bodies. They are far more conspicuous than asteroids, and if they were close enough, we would definitely spot them.

The expert nodded: "Now that we've ruled out extraterrestrial factors, we can focus solely on factors related to Earth itself."

Based on our discussion and combined with existing geophysical and geological research findings, we believe there are four main possibilities.

First, superplumes.

The Earth is divided into the crust, mantle, and core from the outside in.

The Earth's interior experiences extreme high temperatures and pressures, and its heat dissipation is primarily achieved through mantle convection.

Meanwhile, at the boundary between the mantle and the core beneath Africa and the Pacific Ocean, corresponding to the Earth's surface, modern Earth science research has confirmed the existence of two enormous, anomalously high-density, high-temperature regions, known as large low-shear wave velocity provinces.

From the top of these two anomalous regions, through a series of mechanisms, it is possible for multiple massive high-temperature and high-pressure mantle plumes to rise and directly penetrate the mantle to act on the Earth's crust.

To put it simply, it's like a jack rising from the Earth's interior, directly 'crushing' continental plates, ultimately causing a massive, global earthquake.

……

(End of this chapter)