Editing 3112: Geology Murder

{{comic
| number    = 3112
| date      = July 7, 2025
| title     = Geology Murder
| image     = geology_murder_2x.png
| imagesize = 327x359px
| noexpand  = true
| titletext = After determining that his body was full of pipes carrying iron-rich fluid, our current theory is that the dagger-shaped object precipitated within the wound.
}}

==Explanation==
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Someone has been stabbed to death and two {{w|geology|geologists}} are examining the corpse. However, rather than using {{w|forensic science}} techniques that might be typical for investigating a murder, they inappropriately apply geological analyses, leading to some unlikely suggestions about what occurred.

Firstly, they note that the victim is lying "uncoNforMably" (not "uncoMforTably") on the bench. An {{w|unconformity}} in geology is a gap of missing strata between an upper and lower layer, in this case implying that there is missing information about how the man came to be lying on the bench, or referring to the discontinuity between the material of the bench and that of the body with its clothing.

The "iron-rich intrusion in his back" refers to the dagger that presumably killed him. An {{w|intrusion}} is rock formed when {{w|magma}} slowly cools below ground, and the geologists are speculating that the dagger formed after steel flowed into place in and on the body (and somehow became dagger-shaped). The dagger is "iron-rich" because it's made of steel, which is composed largely of iron.

"{{w|Clastic rock|Clastic}}" refers to rock made up of broken pieces of older rocks. In this case it would suggest that a {{w|rift}} - a gap or fissure - opened up in the person's back and the dagger fell in. Having long linear gaps appear is something that happens to the Earth's crust, and can lead to clastic rock when other rock is swept into the gap. While {{w|skin fissure}}s are a real condition, and some genetic conditions such as {{w|ichthyosis}} can cause them, they don't normally cause rocks or daggers to collect in people's backs.{{cn}} 

In geology a "pipe" is a structure formed by magma or hydrothermal vents.  The "pipes carrying iron-rich fluid" would be similar to a mineral rich hydrothermal feature like a geyser or a black smoker on the seafloor.  In this case they are the person's {{w|blood vessel}}s, as blood has a large amount of the molecule {{w|hemoglobin}}, which has iron atoms in it that help it transport oxygen. The geologists speculate that the iron {{w|Precipitation (chemistry)|precipitated}} - sedimented out - out of the blood to form the dagger, which is highly unlikely. This is the kind of geophysical process which tends to produce {{w|Vein (geology)|veins}} of minerals in actual geology, but is not generally associated with {{w|vein}}s in the human body. Notably, the {{w|Great Oxygenation Event}}, when oxygen-producing organisms first created an oxidizing environment on Earth, resulted in dense precipitation of iron-rich compounds in the oceans. However, metallic iron was not created; even the environment before the Great Oxygenation Event wasn't reducing enough to create metallic iron.

==Transcript==
:[There's a lab bench with a dead Cueball-like person lying on it, with a dagger sticking out of his back. Cueball is standing to the left of the table, Ponytail is standing to the right looking at the dead body. All three are wearing lab coats.]
:Cueball: We found him lying unconformably on the lab bench. I wonder if the iron-rich intrusion in his back is related.
:Ponytail: It could be clastic. Maybe a rift opened in his body, and the intrusive material later fell into the hole.

:[Caption below the comic:]
:The Geology Department investigates their first murder

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]