xkcd #3221: Landscape Features

Title text:

'Well, there's speculation that it's due to a mantle hotspot.' --a geologist who's trying to cover up the fact that they didn't hear your question

Transcript:

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Source: https://xkcd.com/3221/

explainxkcd for #3221

390 points · 14 comments · view on lemmy.world

14 Comments

Rentlar@lemmy.ca · 29 pts · 153d (6 replies)

What's going on in the Adirondack mountain range in upstate New York?

Carnelian@lemmy.world · 40 pts · 153d (5 replies)

Tried looking it up, it’s so new that nobody who knows has made a post about it yet. Slow day at work so I’ll try and crack the case via wikipedia or whatever

Edit: alright so the spot really is freaky

Although the mountains are formed from ancient rocks more than 1 billion years old, geologically, the mountains are relatively young and were created during recent periods of glaciation. Because of this, the Adirondacks have been referred to as "new mountains from old rocks". It is theorized that there is a hotspot beneath the region, which causes continued uplift at the rate of 0.6 to 1.2 inches (1.5 to 3 cm) annually.

The Adirondack mountain range has such unusual characteristics compared to the area around it that it is divided into its own province within the Appalachian Highlands

Basically the mountains from that entire region formed around the same time from the same glacial event but these ones just randomly popped up much later and we really aren’t precisely sure why

saigot@lemmy.ca · 37 pts · 153d

It is theorized that there is a hotspot beneath the region

‘Well, there’s speculation that it’s due to a mantle hotspot.’ --a geologist who’s trying to cover up the fact that they didn’t hear your question

Hmmmmmm

Monument@lemmy.sdf.org · 7 pts · 153d (3 replies)

I’m posting this wild postulation in the hopes that someone corrects me.

Okay, so a billion years ago a volcanic plume tried to fuck up Michigan and failed, causing the Midcontinent rift system. Then it chilled out for awhile before getting squished by glaciers into going east and making the Adirondack mountains about 20 million years ago. Then it went west due to daylight savings time and made Yellowstone about 2 million years ago.

captainlezbian@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 153d (1 reply)

Weird

Monument@lemmy.sdf.org · 8 pts · 153d

Hey, no! You’re supposed to be so upset that I’m wrong that you do significant research for me for free!

Cocodapuf@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 153d

Well, to my exceedingly untrained eye... this all seems to be in order. Great work here. You really made an open and shut case out of it. I guess we're all leaving the office early today, first round's on me!

HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 153d

those are just types of geology you fraud!

demlet@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 153d

New York caused by aliens, got it.

Rhaedas@fedia.io · 5 pts · 153d

Farming really destroyed some of the better areas of the continent.

chuckleslord@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 153d (1 reply)

The driftless region of MN and WI being shaped by rivers isn't... inaccurate, I suppose. More like "rivers due to nearby glaciers" which isn't quite the same thing.

protist@retrofed.com · 7 pts · 153d

Many rivers begin with glaciers. The Colorado, Mississippi, and Rio Grande, for example, still receive glacier melt to this day

Etterra@discuss.online · 1 pts · 152d

Passenger pigeons were responsible for the growth of America's forest before we cut down all the trees and ate the birds into extinction.

Fleur_@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 152d

Mm yes farming...