Kaië Ryio'qi

Kaië Ryio'qi
Kaië Ryio'qi erupting in 2014
Highest point
Elevation	385 m (1,263 ft)
Geography
Location	Western Azmir, Trellin
Parent range	Vekra Yarsali
Geology
Mountain type	Stratovolcano
Last eruption	6-7 September 2014

Kaië Ryio'qi (Trellinese, meaning Ryioi's Fire) is an active stratovolcano in the Trellinese province of Azmir. The most active volcano in the Trellinese Empire, it has erupted several times in modern history. In 1993, two villages were destroyed by lava flows which killed 78 people. This disaster was later eclipsed by an eruption which occurred on 6-7 September 2014, causing lahars which killed 863 people and generating an ash cloud that reached as far as Haguenau, with the financial toll running into the billions of rasnen and dollars.

Toponymy

Kaië Ryio'qi is a name in Trellinese which literally means "Ryioi's Fire". It is named for Ryioi, the Ethlorek god of the earth, who is said to live deep inside the earth. When the volcano was first discovered by Ethlorek settlers it was still smoking from its eruption in 56 BC.

Pre-modern eruptions

In 1191, an eruption at Kaië Ryio'qi ejected tremendous quantities of minerals and nutrients into coastal waters, including through undersea geothermal vents. These contributed to an explosion in marine ecosystem productivity that enriched western Azmir and the islands to its west for the following two centuries.

2014 eruption

Fumaroles recorded on Vekh Torsalë, 4 September 2014

The eruption began on 6 September at about 10:31 a.m. local time (TCT; about 11:31 a.m. (UTC)) when the volcano's cone was suddenly blasted out, sending up a large plume of smoke and pyroclastic debris. Locals and nearby fishermen reported seeing the summit of the volcano seem to fall inwards shortly before the eruption. Seismologists and vulcanologists had been monitoring smoke from nearby Vekh Torsalë, expecting that volcano to erupt, and were surprised by the eruption of Kaië Ryio'qi though they said it had not been ruled out as a possibility.

Between twenty and thirty minutes after the initial eruption, lava began pouring out of vents on the side of the cone, mostly on the landward side. This lava mixed with mud, caused by heavy rain a few days beforehand, to form a deadly lahar which rushed down the slope at speeds of up to 50 km/h. Initial estimates of the death toll quickly climbed to three hundred, with another thousand reported missing as several villages and the town of Marzisa were destroyed by the lahar. Several countries reacted with immediate pledges of aid, including the Aurora Confederacy, Nikolia and Woodstead. but rescue efforts were severely hampered by the thick mud and the continued threat of a lahar.

Destruction in the aftermath of the main lahar

The volcano's ash cloud rose quickly to the altitude of the West Astyrian jet stream, which caught the plume and carried it northeast along the coast. By 4 a.m. (TCT) on 7 September, satellite imagery was showing the cloud as having gone over Martheqa and Arimathea and reached Sycoon. By the late afternoon it had already reached New London, capital of the Dangish Empire. As a result, several airports cancelled all flights a number of and airlines were also forced to redirect or cancel flights. Before it finally dissipated, the ash cloud had reached as far as southern Haguenau.

The final death toll, eight hundred and sixty three, makes the eruption the deadliest in modern Trellinese history. More than half of the dead were from the town of Marzisa, where the lahars sat four metres deep. The remainder of the dead were from nearby villages Mret Iqoi, Orik and Txisna, the latter two of which were left almost entirely depopulated as a result of the eruption.