Editing 3051: Hardwood

{{comic
| number    = 3051
| date      = February 14, 2025
| title     = Hardwood
| image     = hardwood_2x.png
| imagesize = 273x350px
| noexpand  = true
| titletext = They may technically have been softwoods at some point, but they definitely aren't now.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a DIRT FLOOR INSTALLER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Home remodelers, whether contractors or do-it-yourselfers, sometimes seek to remove layers of modifications to restore some previous condition. An example is to remove carpeting or other covering to restore an earlier, perhaps original, floor. Flooring made of hardwood (oak, maple, etc.) panels, perhaps deprecated by earlier homeowners for comfort or style reasons, can be prized by later homeowners as tastes or fashions change. Hardwood floors are currently considered desirable in homes for durability, aesthetic appeal and other reasons, and may have been the original choice for the building, but aspirations constantly change and intermediate decoration may have overlaid carpetting or {{w|linoleum}}/{{w|Sheet vinyl flooring|vinyl}} at a time that this was considered more fashionable or practical.

In this comic Cueball has learned that there is a layer of 'technically hardwood' under whatever flooring is currently installed. The joke is that the 'hardwood floor' is actually a fossiliferous coal seam from {{w|Carboniferous|300-350 million years before present}} that originated as plants and other woody material. This 'floor' probably lies  dozens or hundreds of meters below the foundation of the house, making it impractical, and probably prohibitively expensive, to reach, especially in the context of a 'normal' home remodeling project.

The title text refers to the fact that the {{w|Carboniferous#Plants|plants}} typical of the Carboniferous period of Earth's history would all be classified as {{w|Softwood|"softwoods"}} at best; flowering plants ({{w|Flowering plants|angiosperms}}), the principal source of "{{w|hardwoods}}", would not appear on Earth in any significant numbers for another 220 million years. However, whatever it would be classified as in the beginning, it is hardwood in the literal sense of wood that is hard, as it is now all coal and rock.

[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Geology Geology]-themed comics appear in xkcd with increasing frequency, with 19 of the 51 comics in the category published since the beginning of 2023.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is looking down and pointing with a finger towards the floor in front of Blondie who is facing him. Behind her is a picture on the wall showing seven sedimentary layers above each other, assuming the top of the picture is air. Each layer has a different texture than the ones it borders but two are as white as the air at the top, including the bottom-most layer.]
:Cueball: So you're saying that if we tear up these layers, there's hardwood flooring under here?
:Blondie: ...I mean, sort of...

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Home remodelers learn about the Carboniferous

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]
[[Category:Geology]]