The Volcano That Changed The World Read Online Free PDF Page B

given the storm. At the entry to the AMGRF, he grabbed a coat and punched in the security code.
    Whoosh ! A familiar blast of cold air hit him in the face. He entered and the door automatically closed and locked behind him. Motion sensors detected his movement and overhead lights flickered on, bathing the outer chamber in a florescent glow. He donned the warm coat over his well-worn FSU tee shirt.
                  Walking to the door leading into the inner chamber, Mark suddenly thought the familiar lab felt eerie, even the hair on his arms stood up. It wasn’t because it was so late at night—he had performed research at all hours before, with no one else around. The quiet didn’t bother him either; though tonight the lab felt different for some reason. Maybe Bolton’s antics were making him paranoid.
    T he only sounds were his footsteps and a low electrical buzzing from the lights and some of the lab equipment—even the storm outside was silenced by the insulation of the core lab. But still a sudden chill came over him despite his warm coat. He stopped and glanced around the empty lab. Everything appeared normal; no one was there. He shook off the strange feeling and grabbed a pair of latex gloves and a medical mask.
    Oddly, an image of Gene Wilder in a lab coat from the movie Young Frankenstein popped into his head. Smiling, he thought maybe it was the storm outside. Or maybe it was his brain’s way of telling him not to take his work so seriously. Whatever the reason, he shook his head and forced the image out of his mind and returned his focus to the task at hand.
    Abruptly the room went dark and all the equipment stopped running. Within moments, the lights flickered back to normal and the scientific instruments began resetting themselves. The storm must have knocked out the power and the generators automatically activated, Mark thought. “The backup system works,” he said aloud. “That’s good.”
    He headed toward the door to the inner lab. Repeating the entry process into the inner chamber, Mark stepped through the second door. This time the air that hit his skin was even colder. As he entered the room, the overhead light responded to his motion and immediately the moisture from his breath became a visible white cloud as it froze in front of his face. Out of habit, he set the two-hour timer, although he planned to exit well before then. Gathering the shards he needed would only take a few minutes. He then signed the logbook, quickly describing his planned activities.
    He pulled on the latex gloves and placed the mask over his mouth. Heavier gloves and clothing were available outside the chamber, but since he was planning on being in the chamber only a little while, he didn’t bother to bring any additional protective clothing in with him. His legs were cold; he looked down and realized he was still wearing khaki shorts and tennis shoes over white cotton golf socks, his normal attire when he was not teaching. He knew he was violating health-and-safety protocol, but he shrugged his shoulders, reminding himself he’d be out of there soon. He headed toward the rack containing the ice core of interest.
    From a drawer, h e retrieved the appropriate segment of the Crete ice core. Only a few hours ago, he had cut a thin section from this core where the Thera ash layer was visible. He now carefully removed that same thin section. Placing it under a high-powered microscope, he bent over to examine it. He immediately saw what he was looking for: the familiar small, curved glass shards. While peering through the microscope, he used tiny sterilized tweezers to remove several shards and placed them in a sterile container. He made sure to close the lid; it was critical that the glass shards not be contaminated with outside chemicals that might invalidate his trace element analysis.
    Next he returned the thin section to the draw er and closed it. He removed the latex gloves and mask and discarded them. As he