BROWNRECLUSE wrote:PSTN wrote:If we're picking apocalypses, I choose impact event. I'm a sucker for the classics. Besides, it's what probably happened in The Road, and that's one of my favorite books.
I thought that it was a supervolcano, seeing as how there was so much description of ash and fire - the people who were burnt and fused into the ground, etc.
You know, I was all ready to argue with you, but upon closer inspection, it appears you might be right. I was thinking about the boat being miles inland, suggesting a mega-tsunami, but I can't seem to find any reference to it in the book. The earthquake is consistent with a super-volcano, as well as the poisonous rain, but there weren't any people fused to the ground, as far as I can remember. Which, if it was Yellowstone, then you wouldn't expect that to happen to people in Tennessee, I don't think.
However, both the book and movie mention that "the clocks stopped at 1:17", which suggests a nuclear war, due to the EMPs. Also the "long shear of light and then a series of low concussions". But I don't think it would trigger earthquakes that long after (or possibly at all), and I don't know if you could survive just wandering around in the fallout for ten years.