Realm VII of VIII
The Ember Reach
Rivers of fire beneath black spires
To the southeast the land turns to dark stone and fire. Jagged spires rise from fields of glowing lava, and molten rivers wind between them like veins of light.
Even here the falls run with water, white against the red glow, and a stone bridge crosses toward the gardens of the south. Three fairies brave the heat, among them the largest in all of Aetheryn.
Look closer
- Lava rivers glowing between the spires
- A white waterfall against the ember light
- The bridge to the southern isle
- The great fairy with wings of blue and violet
Three fairies hide in this realm.
In our world
Two kinds of lava, two Hawaiian words
Geologists use Hawaiian names for the two main kinds of basalt lava flow. Pāhoehoe has a smooth, billowy or ropy skin; ʻaʻā is rough and broken into sharp, loose clinkers. The two hardly differ in what they are made of. The difference lies in how fluid the lava is and how fast it moves, and a pāhoehoe flow can turn to ʻaʻā as it loses heat and gas or runs down a steeper slope, though it does not turn back.
Sources
Lakes of lava and storms of ash
A few volcanoes hold lakes of molten rock for years at a time. Erta Ale, a shield volcano in the Afar region of Ethiopia, has held lava lakes for most of the time since at least the late 1960s, and observers saw one as early as 1906.
Eruptions can also make their own lightning. Ash and ice colliding in the plume build up electric charge until it discharges, a display known as a dirty thunderstorm. Choose a storm over the Ember Reach at night to see lightning above the lava.
Sources