But like after any other natural disaster, ecology eventually took over and the area was able to rebound. It took a little help from the right geological circumstances, though.
For example, around that time the glaciers started becoming a little more active and the river nearest to here changed course, putting Ashfall right in its flood plain and thus depositing layer after layer of sand and soil that was much, much more fertile than ash. Then as time passed, the plants came back, and eventually near the top we are once again able to find the fragmented remains of every animal in the ash bed and even some that are only present from before the ash fell.

But before animals can come back, the plants had to return. And we actually find their roots in the side of the hill, still in the sand where they grew millions of years ago.
Side note: in the layer below the ash, we also find plant root fossils, but nothing still in situ. We find little calcifications that formed around the roots and preserved, and we find these a lot when we sort through the material for microfossils.
But back to the recovery layer. This, plus the animal fossils we find in that layer, make it so that, to me, Ashfall doesn't just record a tragedy, but a success story. The world will be fine after a disaster. It just may not always look exactly the same (though for once, here, it did.)
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