The eruption of Rakatan Mons in 2273.
Rakatan Mons was the largest stratovolcano known to the Federation in the 23rd century. It was an inhabited, active volcano located on the planet Rakatan in the Ordover system.
History and specifics[]
The base of Rakatan Mons was equivalent to five-eighths the surface area of Australia, large enough to influence the weather. Under normal conditions, portions of its mountainside were covered with ice. A number of smaller volcanoes populated its upper slopes, where smaller eruptions occurred, its peak often hidden behind clouds. It drew magma from deep within the planet's mantle. Its last major eruption was 15,000 years ago.
In the 2250s decade, the Johnston Observatory on the moon Skaftar began monitoring Rakatan Mons and other geological phenomena on Rakatan.
In the year 2273, geologists thought they might have detected signals coming from Rakatan Mons. But a group of Elasians established a dilithium mining camp 2,237 meters above the volcano's base, preventing the geologists from getting additional data. Seven weeks later, Rakatan Mons erupted, displacing 25 cubic kilometers of debris and ash into the atmosphere and even jettisoning some debris into space.
Following the eruption, computers aboard the Federation starship USS Enterprise determined that magma reverberations within the volcano were the language of a sentient civilization of "magma creatures", a species based on partially coagulated silicate molecules. Its society influenced the movement of magma within the volcano and its eruptions to control the spread of their colonies. (TOS novel: Firestorm)