I can read! You're surprised!

[trinityvixen]

From The World Without Us by Alan Weisman:

Rain, wind, and snow set to work, with freeze-thaw cycles cracking and splitting the basalt pavement, and moisture seeping into the tuff [a kind of volcanic rock] below. As it eroded, in places the ground collapsed. Left standing were hundred of pale, slender pinnacles, each mushroom-capped with a hood of darker basalt.

Tourism promoters call them fairy towers, a plausible descriptor but not necessarily the first one that comes to mind.

Whatever could he mean? ::grins::

I'm loving this book. After reading linaerys's rave about its language (it's incredibly poetic and beautiful), I couldn't resist. It's more interesting than that documentary show about life after people that I watched because of the use of current-world examples of post-human wastelands. I also like that a lot is left up to the imagination. Fascinating stuff.

Comments

[linaerys.livejournal.com]

I was there, in Cappadocia, and saw those fairy chimneys and YEAHHHHH, that is not quite what comes to mind.

I'm glad you're enjoying it so far!

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Fairy towers! That's my new euphemism. It replaces "having coffee" for doing it.