3296: Fault Taunting

Fault Taunting

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Title text: One of the first things they teach you is to NEVER play with the geology toy over a mantle hotspot.

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Explanation

This is one of 51 incomplete explanations: This page was created BY CATS, ALL THE WAY DOWN. Don't remove this notice too soon. You can help by editing the explanation!

Tectonic plates are sections of the Earth's lithosphere (the rocky terrain that covers the planet) which move relative to each other. Various forces act on these plates, influencing how they move in relation to each other. In this comic, someone (probably a geologist) describes three of them to an audience, but only the first two are genuine:

• Slab pull: a force exerted by a subducting slab, which pulls higher parts of the slab downwards.
• Ridge push: a force that occurs when the rigid lithosphere slides down the hot, raised, mechanically weak asthenosphere below a mid-ocean ridge.

As presented in the comic, the third supposed force of taunting seems to be the act of dangling something to tempt the plate to lunge upwards in an attempt to grab it, as if it were a cat chasing a toy. This creates a reverse fault that allows them to study the layers of geology it exposes. Geological faults do not really form in this way, since the Earth's crust has no motivation to chase after any kind of bait.^{[citation needed]}

In reality, this would be extremely dangerous, with the force of the rising fault being likely to cause an earthquake. The characters in the comic seem unbothered by this. It is possible that there has been some miscalculation by them, since the dip of the fault (the angle from horizontal) appears to be about 60°, but a thrust fault (which they supposedly have set their taunting device for) should have a dip of less than 45°. The dip angle is what distinguishes a reverse fault from a thrust fault.

The title text lists a further danger. It advises not to try this over a mantle hotspot, presumably because it would result in a volcanic eruption that spews molten lava everywhere.

Transcript

[A cross-section of a portion of the Earth is seen from a distance, with four layers shown. On the surface is a large device resembling a typical fishing-rod-style cat toy, but so large that the people next to it appear as mere specks. Two helicopters are in the air around it. The helicopters are probably included to offer some sense of scale. A voice comes from the specks to the left of the device.]

Voice 1: The key to exposing new geologic layers is understanding the three forces driving plate movement: slab pull, ridge push, and taunting.

[The giant fishing rod starts being wiggled by a hydraulic activator to make the toy dance around in the air. Another voice comes from the left of the first voice.]

Voice 2: Taunting? What do--

Voice 1: Initiate thrust fault pattern!

[The toy continues to wiggle around in the air. A diagonal fault starts to appear underground.]

Sound effect: RUMBLE

[The toy continues to wiggle around in the air. The land at the right thrusts itself above the rest of the land.]

Sound effect: LUNGE!

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Discussion

Does this imply that the Earth is just a bunch of cats? -- Black Hat's Hat (talk) 15:56, 9 September 2026 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Infinitely better than turtles, imho. 7amiþ moi · 💬 · 📊 17:47, 9 September 2026 (UTC)

Everyone already knew cats ruled the world, no one knew just how strong their domination really was. 82.67.98.72 07:05, 10 September 2026 (UTC)

Breaking news: geologists find that the core of the earth is, in fact, very cuddly Black Hat's Hat (talk) 16:30, 10 September 2026 (UTC)

Why did Randall use helicopters in this comic? 2600:1008:B06E:C167:49E7:5D2D:A4BB:E118 20:13, 9 September 2026 (UTC)

Because bicycles can't fly? 78.151.45.228 21:10, 9 September 2026 (UTC)

Why does anything need to be flying in this comic? What does an airplane or a helicopter or a dirigible or any other flying object have to do with the point of this comic? Inquirer (talk) 02:27, 10 September 2026 (UTC)

To offer some sense of the scaleDcdcdc (talk) 03:13, 10 September 2026 (UTC)>

I assumed the helicopters were there to observe and document the effects of the taunting from an aerial viewpoint. Rtanenbaum (talk) 13:49, 10 September 2026 (UTC)

B roll footage 144.121.25.46 14:55, 10 September 2026 (UTC)

Re: "Geological faults do not really form in this way, since the Earth's crust has no motivation to chase after any kind of bait." - How certain are we of this? What baits have been tried? Is it possible that we just haven't found the correct method to engage the predator response for a given plate? 170.176.240.90 16:51, 10 September 2026 (UTC)

I'm used to ish-history where someone notices a consistent pattern, and then someone tries to work out the envelope. I think we'd need the meta-bait of some documented predatory response, before that research would be doable. 112.213.42.56 07:33, 12 September 2026 (UTC)

Re: "over a mantle hotspot" warning, presumably this warning is to avoid large igneous provinces since they are "the worst". --2601:601:600:2B0:F5F8:A911:4D4A:608A 15:04, 11 September 2026 (UTC)

Hmm - seems a bit off to protect a page for 'edit warring' when you're a primary participant in the 'war'. Especially when the 'other side' in the 'war' are actually a bunch of different people who just happen to have tried to make the same joke. And particularly when it's the current comic, which people are likely to want to make other, more constructive edits to. 82.13.184.33 15:43, 11 September 2026 (UTC)

Good point, I didn't realise this was still the current comic. I've unprotected it. But I find it unlikely that the other IPs were all unaware of the previous reverts... FaviFake (talk) 15:51, 11 September 2026 (UTC)
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