Jeff Long
"The abyss beneath the Pacific is basalt, which gets attacked every few hundred thousand years by huge plumes of hydrogen-sulfide brine, or sulfuric acid, which snake up from the deeper layers. This acid brine eats through the basalt like worms through an apple. We now believe there may be as many as six million miles of naturally occurring cavities in the rock beneath the Pacific, at an average depth of 6,100 fathoms. That's 36,600 feet below sea level, or six-point-nine miles."
--Jeff Long, THE DESCENT
"Hell exists." He lifted his chin. "A geological, historical place beneath our very feet. And it is inhabited. Savagely."
--Jeff Long, THE DESCENT
In the absence of an actual specimen, scientists had named the enemy Homo hadalis, though they were the first to admit they didn't know if it was even hominid. The secular term became hadal, rhyming with cradle. Middens indicated that these ape creatures were communal, if seminomadic. A picture of harsh, grinding, sunless subsistence emerged.
--Jeff Long, THE DESCENT
The underworld was ubiquitous and surprisingly accessible. Every continent harbored systems. Even cities.
--Jeff Long, THE DESCENT
In his experience, temptation was most preferable. He was adroit, even artistic about it, and his status among hadals reflected it. Several times, near the surface, he had managed to entice small groups into his handling. Ensnare one, and she--or he--could sometimes be used to draw others. If it was a wife, her husband sometimes followed. A child generally guaranteed at least one parent. Religious pilgrims were easy. It was a game for him.
--Jeff Long, THE DESCENT
This was Jonah's vista, the beast gut as hollowed earth. It was the basement of their souls. As children they had all learned that it was forbidden to enter this place, short of God's damnation. Yet here they were, and it scared them.
--Jeff Long, THE DESCENT
The geologists had spoken about ancient paleo-oceans buried beneath the continents, but only as hypothetical explanations for the earth's wandering poles and gravity anomalies. The paleo-oceans were mathematical fancies. This was real.
--Jeff Long, THE DESCENT