Chapter 69 Chapter 58: Ice and Fire

Before Jupiter exploded in the late 20th century, few scientists believed that life could have flourished on Europa, so far from the sun.But for at least five million years, the unknown oceans of Europa were at least as varied as those on Earth. Before Jupiter exploded, Europa's icy crust separated those oceans from the vacuum of space outside the planet. In most places, the ice was several kilometers thick, but there were also weaker spots that were damaged by impacts. After that, it split, and then, these two hostile factors that could not be reconciled, a war broke out here, and this kind of direct confrontation has never happened in the solar system.This ocean-space battle is always in a stalemate, with exposed water boiling and freezing simultaneously, keeping the ice as resistant as possible.

Without the influence of nearby Jupiter, Europa's ocean would have completely frozen over.The gravity of Jupiter is constantly rubbing at the core of this small world, and the forces affecting Io are also affecting here, but less violently.This tug-of-war between planets and moons produces a succession of undersea earthquakes and avalanches, both of which sweep through the plains beneath the deep ocean at incredible speed. Scattered among these abyssal plains are innumerable oases, each hundreds of meters in size, surrounding areas where large quantities of mineral brine erupt from within, and these massive sedimentary compounds are tangled and piled up in complex tubular and Upright columnar (sometimes resembling a fallen castle or a Gothic cathedral); these black, seething fluids flow out in a slow, melodic rhythm, as if compressed by a gigantic heart .Like blood, this is the best proof of signs of life.

Equally important, the boiling liquid that gushes from above through leaks and flows back down into the icy world forms warm islands on the sea floor, bringing all the life-related chemicals out of Europa's interior.In this potentially utterly dangerous environment, there is also an abundance of energy and food.Such geothermal holes are also found in Earth's oceans, and at the same time as when humans first saw the Galilean satellites. The warm area near the geothermal hole is decorated with countless fine and slender creatures. Most of these plant-like things have the ability to move.Strange slugs and bugs roam the area, some subsisting on "plants" and others getting their food directly from the gushing mineral waters.Farther from heat sources (undersea fires that keep sea creatures warm), there are more robust creatures, much like crabs or spiders.

Many biologists could spend their entire lives studying a single little oasis.Unlike the marine paleontology on Earth, the hidden ocean on Europa is not a stable environment, so the evolution of creatures here is very fast, and many strange forms have been produced, and these creatures are all in an unstable state Evolving, therefore, every life becomes weaker and weaker and eventually dies when the forces on which they depend are shifted elsewhere.This is a tragedy that happened in the chaos. There are bone roads and trace fossils formed by minerals in the limestone, but the life there has completely disappeared.

There were huge shells that looked like trumpets bigger than a man, clams of various shapes (with two or even three petals), and spiral patterns, each several feet wide, It looks just like the beautiful ammonites that mysteriously disappeared from Earth's oceans at the end of the Cretaceous period. In many places, river-like hot lava flows along the sunken valleys, creating scars several kilometers long. At this depth, the pressure is so great that the water in contact with the hot magma will not be released. Instantly vaporized, the two liquids coexisted in a tense state. In a world where something like Egypt happened before man came, just as the Nile brought life to a long strip of desert, so these warm rivers brought Europa to life.On this sandy beach narrower than one kilometer, you can see traces of the evolution, reproduction, and extinction of various life forms. Some of them formed fossils and piled up one by one, or carved strange-shaped ditches on the seabed and left some remains.

In the depths of the desert, along this fertile strip, whole cultures and primitive civilizations arose and fell, while the rest of the world never knew their rise and fall, for all warm oases and planets alike each other are isolated from each other.Creatures that warm themselves by the heat of lava rivers and feed around geothermal holes cannot cross beyond their solitary islands.If they ever produced historians and philosophers, they would all believe they are unique in the universe. Every civilization perished here, not only because the energy sources it depended on were scarce and constantly changing, but because the tidal forces that made them grow were also constantly weakening.Even if they did develop intelligence, the Europas would surely perish when their entire world froze.

They were caught between fire and ice until the magic star exploded in their sky and opened up their universe. There was a huge rectangle as black as the night sky, forming off the coast of the new continent.