Tarakona Riri

• This is a very remote tropical island that consists of a large volcano that is not erupting but is still very tectonically active. It trembles every hour or so, which is extremely unnerving to any people or animals who are on or near the island. It could literally erupt at any moment.  It truly is an exercise in contrasts; lush, verdant tropical forest full of breathtaking flora (including a corpse flower that puts messages into bottles and sets them out into the ocean to lure prey to it), offset by ground tremors, and the occasional cloud of ash or toxic gas belched up by the volcano. When will it erupt next? How big will the eruption be? Will it explode into a million pieces, or will the lava flow actually make the island grow larger?  The animal species on the island will not have much opportunity to evolve if they are constantly being wiped out by natural disasters.

Geography

• This location is a volcanic island, 4 square kilometers (1.5 square miles) in size.
• It is located approximately 25 miles south of the planet's equator.
• The peak of the volcano rises 3,398 feet (1,036 meters) above sea level.
• The terrain is as rugged as it is dynamic.

Ecosystem

• The island exists within an equatorial tropical ecosystem.
• The flora and fauna are diverse.
• The weather is as intense as it is consistent; hot, humid, and very, very rainy.

Ecosystem Cycles

• This island is located approximately 25 miles away from the planet's equator; as such, there is no seasonal variation in the ecosystem; it is hot, humid, and rainy all year long.

Localized Phenomena

All phenomena on the island are directly related to the volcano that created it:

• Frequent ground quakes (about once every hour)
• Constant threat of ash eruption
• Constant threat of geyser eruption
• Constant threat of lava eruption
• Constant threat of rock eruption
• Constant threat of tidal waves caused by the ground quakes
• Constant threat of toxic gas release

Climate

• Precipitation: Rainfall ranges from 65 - 205 inches (165 - 520 centimeters) per year; this results in a lot of mud and landslides on the mountainside.
• Pressure: The high heat causes the air to rise, which results in low air pressure, which results in high amounts of rainfall.
• Sunlight: On the island's coastline, the sun beats down hot and heavy from dawn to dusk. Within the jungle, 90% of the sunlight never breaches the canopy, yet the air is still stiflingly hot there.
• Weather: Average temperatures range from 75 - 95 degrees Fahrenheit (24 - 35 degrees Celsius the temperature only drops a few degrees when the sun goes down at night.
• Wind: On the island's costline, the wind speeds average 25 kilometers per hour (15.5 miles per hour), which provides a mild cooling effect to combat the heat of the sun beating down from above. However, the average wind speed inside the island's jungles is 10 kilometers per hour (6.2 miles per hour), which does nothing to ameliorate the stifling heat and humidity.

Fauna & Flora

• Animals: Crocodiles, Giant Leeches, Scorpions, Sea Turtles, Snakes, and Seagulls
• Insects: Dozens of varieties of tropical insects, many of them venomous
• Plants: Tropical plants, such as banana plants, birds of paradise, and bromeliads, and one intelligent corpse flower (the most intelligent permanent resident of the island)

Natural Resources

• Animal: The crocodiles and sea turtles are edible, although there are not very many of them on the island (because they possess the ability to leave the island via the ocean).
• Geothermal Energy: The island has this resource in abundance.  If someone could figure out how to harness and exploit it, it might actually reduce some of the pressure and stress on the volcano.
• Plants: Bananas and coconuts are available for consumption, although, since the island is small, they are not abundant.
• Potable Water: The volcano has a large caldera, which fills up with water from the constant rain.  This results in a small freshwater lake, good for drinking.  However, one must ascend the steep quaking volcano to get to it, and sometimes bubbles of toxic gas will rise up from the lake bottom, so there are significant risks associated with retrieving it.
• Soil: Rare minerals are brought to the planet's surface via the volcano's vents, which make the soil rich and verdant.  The pH level is above 6.0, which is excellent for planting coffee beans here.

History

• The natives who used to live here called the place "Tarakona Riri", or "Dragon (who is) Angry" in their language.  They lived on the island for over 400 years (amazing, how did they sleep through the tremors?).  Then, one of the island's periodic large eruptions wiped them out.  However, there are still signs of their civilization here and there, so the eruption that wiped them out was not too destructive.
• Nowadays, because the island is remote, uninhabited, and not suitable for creating a city there, it is an ideal hideout for cutthroats, pirates and other people wanting to avoid authorities and governments.

Tourism

• The constant, unnerving tremors make people want to leave as soon as possible.  As such, it is not an ideal place for tourism.  Pirates use it as a place to repair their vessels, reprovision, and store their booty specifically because most people would not want to venture near it.  In fact, most maps don't have this island listed, since it is so small and remote.

Image generated by DeepAI. (2024). AI Image Generator. DeepAI. https://deepai.org/machine-learning-model/text2img

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Kahmarak