3*1126-6417 Gezii Volcanic Disaster (Disgustedorite)

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The **Gezii Volcanic Disaster**, sometimes known as the **Zuana Traps Disaster**, was a supervolcanic disaster and recovery period which occurred on the former colony planet Gezii between 3\*1126-6417. During the disaster, oxygen levels in the atmosphere plummeted, the oceans and weather acidified, and the ozone layer was eroded away, causing a planetary mass extinction event as well as killing hundreds of millions of Gems and nearly all of its roughly 3 billion human inhabitants. The event was global, and it left some parts of the world completely uninhabitable to organic life.

Prior to the disaster, viewing Gezii from space was a spectacle of deep oceans with reddish algal blooms and fertile land dominated by violet plants. Once the volcanic clouds cleared, algal blooms were no longer visible in the oceans and much of the violet “greenery” was replaced by bare, desert-like terrain, with the entire southern half of the continental region Zuana--once densely forested apart from an ugly scar left by Kindergartening--now completely blackened with basalt.

## Casualties

The death tolls can be divided according to Gezii’s 3 groups of inhabitants: Humans, Gems, and the native life.

### Humans

The death toll among human inhabitants when the oxygen levels plummeted is estimated at around 3 billion, as nearly every human on the planet suffocated over the course of a few weeks. The human survival toll, a far easier number to count, was originally estimated at just under 400, that being the approximate number of humans who understood what was happening and saved themselves by either leaving the planet early or making use of oxygen tanks. However, after surveys to determine if the planet was inhabitable again amazingly revealed human populations surviving on its surface, the estimation rose to about 1000 based on their genetic ancestry.

### Gems

The death toll among Gems is estimated at about 362 million, roughly half of whom were trapped in southern Zuana at the time of the eruptions. Most of the rest were caused by the global acid rain. Pearls, Limestones, Chalks, Calcites, Malachites, Dolomites, Azurites, and other carbonate Gem types, as well as a handful of other less acid-resistant gem types such as Larimars, were literally dissolved to death if they failed to take shelter during rain. Among more acid-resistant Gem types, Lapis Lazulis also suffered serious losses, as their use of water caused their gemstones to be constantly exposed and suffer gradual damage which most failed to notice before it was too late. There were also reported losses among Peridots, Turquoises, and Hematites, though not in significant numbers, and losses were also reported but never verified among Obsidians, Quartzes, and Opals. Pebbles were affected in variable amounts, depending on their own individual mineral makeup.

Among Gems who were left behind in the evacuations, it was later reported by survivors that due to volcanic cloud cover some of those with dark-colored gemstones were unable to gather enough energy from light to maintain their physical forms and, eventually, their minds. The exact number who met their demise in this manner is unknown, but by some estimations they may account for up to 15% of Gem deaths that were directly caused by the disaster.

### Native Life

In addition to human and Gem deaths, a vast array of flora and fauna native to Gezii went extinct due to mass suffocation, acidification, lack of sunlight, and starvation. Roughly 97% of macroscopic fauna species are thought to have died out, and not a single one larger than a Ruby is known to have survived. Among flora, most survivors of the disaster were annual plants which were able to survive just long enough to reproduce when the harsh conditions relented for a brief time. Though some large flora survived thanks to their seeds being stored in underground stashes by burrowing fauna, apart from some hardy forest-dwelling species which could weather the acid rain and lack of sunlight, the majority of native tree and shrub species went extinct.

## Effects and Aftermath

When the eruptions initially began, apart from self-evacuation of some of southern Zuana's inhabitants there was little immediate response to the disaster, as Gems--who made up most of the planet’s population at the time--were initially unaffected. However, when the volcanic clouds blocked out the sun, humans suffocated on the streets, and carbonate Gems were corroded to death by rain, there was global panic. The sheer volume of Gems trying to escape by warp pad caused most major warps on Gezii to be trampled to splinters before evacuation was officially called.

### Evacuation Efforts

As soon as news of what was happening on Gezii reached off-world, Gems from nearby colonies arrived on any ship they could spare to evacuate as many of the world’s inhabitants as possible. Flask Robonoids were also deployed to repair warp pads which were damaged in the panic, but the interplanetary warps went down due to lava and acid rain damage as the eruptions continued. The majority of evacuations were done manually by spaceship.

However, as the atmosphere filled with volcanic smoke, it began to interfere with Gem technology, causing several ships to crash and evacuations to eventually halt. In the end, only half of all the planet’s Gem inhabitants were rescued, the rest assumed to have perished from the sunless acidic conditions on the surface.

#### Evacuation of Native Wildlife

Once Gezii’s inhabitants took notice of the fact that the eruptions were also causing a mass extinction event, an effort was also made to evacuate breeding pairs of some of Gezii’s megafauna, which were suffocating en masse similar to the human inhabitants. In a Noah’s Ark-esque rescue mission, breeding pairs of some of the planet’s most iconic creatures were collected and taken to sanctuaries off-world, but in the rush to preserve as many iconic species as possible there had not been proper screening and several died of either disease or stress soon after. The species that were successfully preserved consisted mainly of large predators which were able to handle the stress far better than herbivores, and a number of large herbivores which had already been preserved at an earlier time; many small and medium-sized creatures had simply been ignored in favor of more “interesting” species.

### Survivors

*Main Article: Post-Disaster Gezii Cultures*
Although the planet was deemed uninhabitable, pockets of both human and Gem populations remained long after the evacuations, the former consisting of two distinct genetic lines (one of Earth origin, the other of Zooman origin) who had less demanding food and oxygen requirements and the latter mostly consisting of Gems who were naturally less susceptible to the corrosive weather. Between the two, thanks to their incredible adaptability the humans thrived far better than the Gems did, to the point of even developing a rich history of civilization and culture on this “ruined” planet. Among native wildlife, the majority of surviving fauna were small generalists which, like the human survivors, had low food and oxygen requirements.

#### Physical Effects

Due to radiation reaching the surface of the planet thanks to the erosion of the ozone layer, many Gem survivors suffered physical and mental damage, including corruption-like scarring. Those exposed to the highest levels of radiation, mainly flighted Gems and those living in mountains or along the equator, were completely corrupted, similar to Gems who had been exposed to the corruption attack on Earth, making Gezii the second planet to have any form of mass corruption event--albeit, far more gradually than the first.

With so little light reaching the surface of the planet, Gems, who would normally be active at all hours, were forced to become completely diurnal to the point of physically needing to sleep at night. Even after the volcanic clouds cleared and Gems were able to leave the planet again, those who had been trapped in these harsh conditions for so long were very slow to lose their habit of sleeping.

While the radiation also affected the human survivor populations to some extent, they had adopted a cultural nocturnal lifestyle which protected them from the worst of it--a luxury which Gems, being dependent on what little light filtered through the volcanic clouds in order to live, could not afford. As the event had lasted for so long, both human groups underwent physical changes through natural selection which are believed to have aided them in survival, including smaller size than any known human populations elsewhere in the universe before the disaster and the development of very dark, radiation-resistant skin. After the ozone layer recovered sufficiently towards the end, some groups of humans living in the north eventually re-evolved lighter skin, but a nearly pitch-black skin color remained predominant by the time the planet was surveyed.

## Proposed Causes

As the colony had never been completed, the planet was still volcanically active, which was nothing unusual. However, the world was in the process of forming a Pangaea-like supercontinent at the time it was originally colonized by Gems. The dominant theory is that tectonic activity associated with the formation of this supercontinent triggered the massive volcanic eruptions which covered vast swaths of land in a literal flood of lava, similar to the proposed causes of flood basalts seen on other worlds.

### Conspiracy Theories

However, the suddenness of the disaster compared to similar events on other worlds, the severity of the acid rain, the sheer speed at which oxygen levels dropped, and how quickly it ended has caused some to theorize that the event had an artificial cause.

As there had been a Kindergarten in southern Zuana, theories range from the Kindergarten itself somehow causing it to someone trying to intentionally cover the Kindergarten in new rock so that life could return to the region. Since the disaster caused a mass extinction event, there are also theories that it was intentionally caused by Gems who hated organic life and wanted to see it destroyed.

Because most humans on the planet suffocated, there is also a theory that it was an attempt to purge humans from the planet by Gems who wanted it all to themselves. Alternatively, due to how much better human survivors weathered the effects of the disaster compared to Gems, there is also a theory that the disaster was actually caused by humans who wanted the planet to themselves.

Regardless of who or what caused it, however, it is generally agreed that if anyone intentionally triggered the eruptions, they were probably buried by the flood basalts and either burned, cooked, or melted to death like every other human, Gem, and native creature in southern Zuana.

## Notes

1. ↑ Based on White Diamond being more powerful than other gems, while the only non-fusion *black*-black gem, Snowflake Obsidian, isn't completely black and has white spots. I've concluded that this means that gems with dark-colored gemstones probably obtain energy from light less effectively than light-colored gems, which is inverse from plants (which are also solar-powered like Gems) but coincidentally also matches human skin tone variation for absorbing more UV light.