Trails: First Generation

Carrizozo, New Mexico, The Valley of Fires State Park and Sierra Blanca

Carrizozo, New Mexico, The Valley of Fires State Park and Sierra BlancaAmber checked her phone for a message from Karen.

Nothing. Karen wouldn't be beside her to watch the numbers typed into the computer. Sometimes, they reversed themselves and her answers didn't match expectations. Karen always found the mistake and pointed it out.

Amber climbed into the van and slid into the middle seat. Backpack between her knees, she wrapped the phone in her pillowcase and zipped it shut.

Alex rustled the map as he opened it.

"Where are we going today?" Corbo started the van.

Alex rotated the paper map in his hands. "Let me find Valley of the Fires."

He paused a moment as Corbo drove to the park gates.

"We need to go to Sierra Blanca first. It's further away. Then, tomorrow, we may have to hike through the Carrizozo Malpais fields to decide where best to place the other equipment." Alex folded the map up into a wrinkled square. "Of course, as new readings come in, and things change, we may have to move the monitoring equipment."

Amber reached over, grabbed the map, and refolded it neat and square. She slipped it into her backpack under her phone. "I'll keep the map. Wish I had printed up to date geological maps of the area."

"We can do that tonight, or maybe Dr. Rebecca has one we can carry with us. We really didn't have time before we left," Alex said.

Corbo drove southeast from the park towards Sierra Blanca.

Amber observed the scenery along the way. Two days ago, she had watched a documentary about The Great Inland Seaway, which had once submerged this area. She recognized a few rock formations that resembled the ancient coastlines, from the show's maps estimating the shores of thousands of years ago. If the faults continued splitting, it could return, drowning the military base lands. That should take millions of years, based on most current scientific thought. Quakes in the wrong place at the wrong time, could cause instant change.

She tried to imagine how this desert like landscape would be altered if water permanently returned. It would modify far more than the land. It would change the people too. How, and where they lived, would have to be adjusted. Some alterations would occur instantly. Others might progress for years before reaching a stable point. A house built next year might be underwater in five, or maybe a hundred, depending on rain, and snowfall to the north.

The airport brochure map of the region was a colorful touristy type. Not geologically complete. Dots represented the volcanoes, and volcanic fields. Lines portrayed major known earthquake rifts. The San Andres Fault was in the middle, with a half ring of extinct volcanoes to the east, a large volcanic caldera to the west, and a supervolcano to the north.

"Alex, how much do you know about the interaction of volcanoes and earthquakes?" Amber asked as she glanced up at him.

"Probably as much as you. What are you thinking?"

"The volcano sites, with the major faults splitting several volcanic zones are not a good picture. One strong quake in the wrong place could set off a massive chain reaction." She handed the brochure to Alex.

Alex studied the map. "Dad thinks all the little quakes have caused magma chambers to rebuild in places where everyone thought the hot spots had moved on."

"Are there many?" Amber asked.

"That's what Tom and I came to verify. I hope the equipment that measured the lower magma levels before was malfunctioning, or not strong enough for good readings. If not, there have been massive changes." He drew lines with his fingers on the map.

Alex let out a low whistle. "Dr. Rebecca knows how the faults wrap around the volcanic areas. I wonder what she thinks."

Amber leaned over the map. "She didn't say. I guess she is more worried about the earthquakes at the moment, than the believed extinct volcanoes. Even though there have been a lot of tremors lately, they haven't been strong enough to make national news."

"The government is worried, or they wouldn't have called for all of us to come help Dr. Rebecca." Alex raised his eyebrow.

"White Sands, and so many other places are in danger, to themselves, and to the communities, if the quakes worsen." Amber took the brochure back.

The earthquakes so far, had been low magnitude. Small signs of earth movement were visible, though most people wouldn't recognize them as such, without special training. Stones had adjusted position, small rock falls under hillsides, and even plants showed signs of geologic stress. The trees on one embankment hung upside down by roots, the leaves beginning to curl.

Corbo pulled into a space at the edge of a hiking trail. "This is as close as we can drive."

Alex opened the back door.

It would be a long haul with the seismometers.

Corbo pulled out a small wagon to carry some of the equipment. "The trail is steep in places. We'll all take turns."

He and Alex loaded the equipment into the wagon.

"I'll pull it first," Amber said.

Everyone carried what they could in their backpacks, and started up the trail.

"How far up?" Corbo asked.

"We need to place the seismometer as close to the peak as possible. This is one sleeping volcano I really look forward to seeing. I haven't seen many extinct volcanoes," Alex said.

"Didn't you travel all over the world studying them?" Amber asked.

"No," Alex shook his head. "Mom and dad went a lot. They left me in charge of the field in Hawaii. I've only actively studied Hawaiian volcanoes."

"Surely, you've studied others." Amber stopped on the trail. This wasn't good. If he only knew a few volcanoes, why had they sent him?

"Oh sure," he turned to her. "Reading, seeing pictures, and even video isn't the same as being there. The noxious, deadly odors of the various gasses are missing. Dried lava beds, some rough as a sponge, others smooth and slippery under your feet. Pictures don't let you see and appreciate the depth, and beauty of what's left of the volcano. The local's tales of their homes being swallowed by lava are all second hand. I couldn't ask the locals questions that mom or dad didn't ask for me. Maybe they would have told me something that my parents missed, or didn't think to ask."

It must have been devastating to stay behind during events as they occurred. And to miss the real life stories, those had always been her favorite part. Even the time the elderly grandmother told of being sixteen and losing her first child in a mudslide caused by an earthquake. "By the time I was four or five, mom and dad took me on their trips, I reckon."

"Sure. Earthquake studies are different. They have already happened when you explore them. Volcanoes could erupt at any time. Sometimes the extinct ones wake up unexpectedly as well, though fewer people study them."

"Earthquakes repeat too, and there are more warning signs with volcanoes than earthquakes."

"True. Mom and dad might camp out for a month or more. They preferred researching active volcanoes. They couldn't leave the equipment at the top of the volcano to take me to safety. And they wanted to be in the action. That's how mom died. If only she had liked sleeping volcanoes, I might have been able to go along." His head drooped.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know."

Alex's voice quivered as he said, "Dad can't hike anymore. So he sent me. I have all of their knowledge, though not their life experience. And more than many graduate students, except Tom, of course." He stopped for a moment.

Amber reached out to him.

Salsa music blared. Corbo grinned as he answered his phone. "Sure, Livia. We are on the Sierra Blanca Peak. Not sure when we will be back at the camp. Okay, see you later then."

Corbo turned back to everyone. "Sorry about that. My girlfriend, Livia, doesn't like it when I miss a rally. She won't be happy. That's okay though."

"What kind of rally?" Amber asked.

Corbo closed his eyes. "A group of people who gather and talk religious nonsense."

The sky, trees, and nature all around were the only religion Amber needed. There didn't seem any point in talking about it to others.

"How long is the hike, do you think?" Tom said.

"A couple of hours. Maybe longer with this equipment. Amber, you may want to trade off. Don't want to wear your arms out," Corbo said.

"I'll take it," Alex said. He reached for the wagon handle. "Let's rest for a minute, so Tom can take my pack too."

"Wish we had a mule, or even a large dog to pull the wagon," Tom grinned.

"Not a bad idea," Corbo said. "I may be able to find a dog for tomorrow, or whenever we do the lava fields."

"Do you think we need to put a seismometer in the Datil-Mogollon Volcanic Field, or the Aden Lava Flows?" Amber handed Alex's pack to Tom. Though heavy, only her pack would be a break from the loaded wagon jerking her arms on every bump and twig.

Alex pulled the wagon around a stand of young trees in the middle of the path. "I don't have enough equipment with me. We'll check with Dr. Rebecca, and see if she can find some more equipment to set up. Maybe have some of her students place some up there. We need all the help we can find, in a hurry."

Chapter 6