Floatquakes (known as quakes or land storms) are natural geologic events which often times prove to be closer to natural disasters should they occur beneath skylands with cities or large towns on them.
How They Occure[]
Since floatquakes occure randomly; study of them has been nearly impossible until recently with the creation of the Norivigraph, which aids in the detection of in the shadowlands with a high probability of floatquake occurrence. Floatquakes only occure in the shadowlands, leading geologists and norivologists to theorise that Norivites are produced in veins or vents below ground but are prevented from reaching the atomosphere, the Norivites then accumulate beneath the crust and begin intergrating into the rock. At a certian point the pressure from the accumulating pure Norivites and the decreasing densitiy of the Norivite rich rock is too great for the surrounding rock and the land surges upwards with such force it can obliterate any existing skylands as well as themsevles. The force of the upheaval is often times great enough to send the skyland several hundred tonnets (1 tonnet = 600 mennits) above skylands of smaller sizes, this causes the second greatest danger of floatquakes; if a floating skyland is fortunate enough to miss a floatsam (the land launched upwards during a floatquake) there's a high chance the city will be underneath the path of the floatsam when it falls (due to the sudden wind and Norivite surge, a drag effect is most often the cause).
Theories Concerning Floatquakes[]
The most widely accepted theory that has to do with floatquakes is that every skyland formed because of a floatquake. The evidence supporting this is the fact that often times floatsam will remain a solid mass with only smaller masses being upheaved or breaking off from the main mass during collisons.
Another theory, more popular with farmers or other residents in the shadowlands delves in the prediciton of where and when floatquakes will occure. The theory deals with the local fauna acting strange or abandoning areas all together. Common fauna looked towards when checking for areas primed for floatquakes are Bellow Reamers, which will abandon their cave nests with their eggs and seek other shelter. This goes against normal Bellow Reamer behaivor, which is to stay with the eggs and guard them untill hatching, when the larva are abandoned. (Conserning the bellow reamers; many believe that if a suitable home is not found within several days the parent bellow reamers will simply eat the eggs.) This theory has some merrit, since it is believed that Bellow Reamers and other wildlife in the shadowlands are able to percieve Norivites (or perhaps danger) much better than humans, though during floatquakes people near the source have often noted odd sensations (affected breathing, pressure on the chest as well as sudden soreness in joints, and a feeling that everything including the persons body has become much heavier).
Sources[]
- Existing
- Bellow Reamer
- Phantom
- Norivigraph