Chapter 159: Plants And Trees Extinct
The change from solid to gas means extreme expansion in volume.
At this moment, the underground space is limited. Moreover, extremely high-pressure argon gas is blowing out from the drill bit area, forcibly pushing away the rock steam trying to expand.
The only available space left is the annular gap between the drilling equipment and the well wall.
Thus, the high-pressure gas explosively spreads upward along the well wall.
At the same time, a thousand kilometers away from Crust Base No. 1, the refrigeration pipes laid on the ground, occupying hundreds of thousands of square meters, along with the condensing towers that can discharge hot air into the sky, combined with condensation nuclei, refrigerants, and others scattered by airplanes, successfully lower the atmospheric temperature in this area.
Lowering the temperature means lowering the pressure, which means the surrounding air will flow here, thereby forming wind.
At the same moment, inside Crust Base No. 1, those giant argon gas separation equipment are also operating at full power.
Argon gas is an inert gas with extremely stable chemical properties. It is also the most abundant rare gas in the air, accounting for about 1% of the air.
At this moment, those argon gas separation equipment continuously separate argon gas from the air, then pump it directly into the drill bit area via high-pressure pumps. While cooling the rock steam and protecting the drill bit, it also forms a high-pressure airflow, prompting the tiny dust after rock steam condensation to rush straight upward.
The “waste gas” after separating argon gas is then fiercely blown toward the drilling wellhead together with the other gathered air, under the drive of the specially allocated “wind wall” that is dozens of meters high and has a total area of thousands of square meters.
This wind wall is divided into dozens of small grids by people. Each small grid is installed with a giant fan more powerful than a jet airplane.
Dozens of giant fans starting together produce airflow strong enough to blow a small car into the sky.
Thus, in this irresistible hurricane, the rock condensation dust, toxic and harmful gases, and others that just rushed out of the wellhead are directly blown to one side of the wellhead.
After being blown hundreds of meters, the wind force from the wind wall weakens and can no longer carry these dust particles. But no problem, the “natural wind” created earlier by using condensing pipes, cooling towers, airplanes scattering condensation nuclei, and various other means takes over, continuing to blow part of the rock dust to distant places.
Amid the huge roar, under the surging energy supply comparable to the total electricity consumption of an entire large city, endless gray-black rock dust and gases, like a giant dragon, continuously roar at the wellhead trying to rush out, but are always forcibly dispersed the moment they just emerge from the wellhead, then scattered and discharged into the vast natural environment.
Outside the base, giant trucks keep arriving continuously, and employees continuously connect one drill pipe after another amid the gale and noise.
On average, every minute, this giant drill pipe descends about 0.7 meters, meaning one drill pipe can only last less than two hours and must be followed by the next drill pipe.
At the same time, a descent rate of 0.7 meters per minute also means that approximately 55 cubic meters, with a mass of about a hundred tons, of rock, soil, water, and so on are directly vaporized by the ion drilling equipment every minute, then turned into gas and ejected from the wellhead.
Under the plasma high temperature of thousands, even nearly ten thousand degrees Celsius, no matter what substance is ahead—whether basalt, obsidian, soil, iron-bearing, copper-bearing, aluminum-bearing, gold-bearing ore, and so on—no matter what it is, there is only one ending.
Instant vaporization, turned into gas.
No material that humans have mastered can resist such a level of incineration.
Crust No. 1 equipment starts up, the backup thermal power station is also quickly activated, and the originally somewhat fluctuating global power grid returns to stability.
Then, Crust No. 2 equipment can also start up.
The ultra-supercritical units of the thermal power station continuously increase power, correspondingly, the number of ion drilling equipment entering working state also increases.
Finally, after three days, all equipment is fully activated.
And the global power grid withstands this wave of impact without major fluctuations.
At this moment, electricity equivalent to half of the national electricity consumption of the Eastern Country decades ago continuously surges into these 500 electricity black holes, continuously vaporizing the hard rock ahead—which would require frequent drill bit changes if using ordinary drilling rigs with not long intervals—and the huge drilling equipment itself continuously advances deeper.
In just one day of work, the excavation depth of Crust Base No. 1 reaches 1500 meters.
Correspondingly, about 160,000 tons of rock particles, toxic and harmful gases, and others are discharged into the atmosphere around the base.
At this moment, the sky above the base has turned from the previous deep blue to gray and hazy.
The originally clean factory building roofs also begin to accumulate large amounts of dust. The air is filled with a choking smell; if leaving the factory building to move around, people even have to wear gas masks.
This is still the situation after using artificial wind to purify as much as possible.
Downwind from the base, in just one day, the originally lush green grass has withered and yellowed, the trees’ lush branches and leaves have largely fallen off, and even the clear river water has begun to turn turbid.
Fish after fish float belly-up on the water surface, birds flying over here cry mournfully and fall down, small animals like wild rabbits and pheasants stagger a few steps and collapse on the ground, completely losing their lives.
On the land, in the sky, everywhere is gray and hazy.
But this is not the most serious yet.
The dust formed by rock steam condensation is inherently a type of condensation nucleus. The massive appearance of condensation nuclei now leads to rainfall even larger than previous artificial rain.
At this moment, this falling rainwater is not ordinary.
They are acid rain with strong corrosiveness.
Under the gray hazy sky, rainwater patters down into the village, falling on those exquisitely styled houses.
In the past, the countryside in the rain always had a special beauty. But now, the beauty has completely disappeared, replaced only by solemn and killing dirtiness.
Fortunately, all surrounding villages have been relocated in advance. Otherwise, this acid rain and severe air pollution would not know how many people it would kill.
The head of Crust Base No. 1 stands by the window, dazedly looking at the gray hazy sky outside.
He knows that before long, around Crust Base No. 1, at least within a radius of dozens of kilometers and hundreds of square kilometers, vegetation will be extinct, beasts gone, fish and shrimp dead.
And places like this exist 500 on Earth.
But… so what?
The head turns around, his expression full of seriousness: “Notify all units and systems to ensure excavation progress and ensure normal operation of respective modules!”
“Yes!”
