Editing 3162: Heart Mountain

{{comic
| number    = 3162
| date      = October 31, 2025
| title     = Heart Mountain
| image     = heart_mountain_2x.png
| imagesize = 669x272px
| noexpand  = true
| titletext = Even geology papers about Heart Mountain are like, "Look, we all agree this 'volcanic gas earthquake hovercraft' thing seems like it can't possibly be right, but..."
}}

==Explanation==

The structure of the {{w|Heart Mountain (Wyoming)#Geology|geology of Heart Mountain}}, in Wyoming, is a geological anomaly whose current best scientific explanation is highly unusual. This is humorously summarized as, "49 million years ago, Heart Mountain, Wyoming slid sideways 15 miles like a giant stone hovercraft", with a similarly oversimplified functional diagram. Those not following the evidence that leads to this unusual conclusion may decide those involved do not have a normal state of mind ('are not doing ok'), and potentially sliding into pseudoscience like that of {{w|Pyramidology}}. The geologists acknowledge this, but ask, "Hey, you come up with a better explanation!" - as all more 'reasonable' explanations have been eliminated, and only the seemingly absurd remain.

The main anomaly is that the rock at the top of the mountain is far older than that of its base. There are {{w|Nappe|other processes}} that can result in such {{w|inverted stratigraphy}}, but in this case the evidence does indeed seem to suggest that sometime 48-50 million years ago (most likely 48.9 Mya) a massive landslide was rapidly (in parts at the quoted speed of 90 mph (145&nbsp;km/h), or more, lasting perhaps just ''half an hour'') forced to slide a significant distance over younger rocks, through the contribution of one or other volcanic processes on and above a near-horizontal {{w|Fault (geology)|geological fault}}. 

While the comic implies the mountain by itself levitating on volcanic gasses as it moved across the ground, Heart Mountain is in reality a remnant closer to the leading edge of a massive landslide (the Heart Mountain Detachment) that covered several thousand square kilometers of the Absaroka basin. It would have accompanied and been partially or fully buried by other, looser debris before being uncovered by erosion. However, the remainder of the landslide debris over younger rocks either did not remain upright during the landslide or has been eroded away. Many of the other remaining upright formations did not slide nearly so far, still remaining above older rock formations. Therefore, Heart Mountain remains as the main rock formation with the anomalous inverted stratigraphy caused by the landslide.

<!-- Maybe better reinserted, after the Transcript, as ==Trivia==? -->As an added bonus, the first 'European<!-- as distinct from anything that precolumbian natives might ever have already had, non-orally, hence feeling the necessity to have scare-quotes -->' maps of the mountain also {{w|Heart Mountain (Wyoming)#Hart Mountain|may have placed it}} in the wrong position, but this was purely human error and totally unconnected to the prehistoric rearrangement of material.

==Transcript==

:[Cueball is on the left, Ponytail is facing him from the right.]
:Cueball: We haven't checked in on the Geology Department for a while. I wonder if they're doing okay.

:[Ponytail is walking to the right.]
:Ponytail: I'll go see what they're up to.

:[Ponytail is now seen having opened a door at the left side of a room, within which White Hat, Megan and another Cueball are looking at a chart on the wall, the other Cueball gesturing towards the chart. Most of the chart is illegible, but near the top it says "90 MPH", and below that there's a diagram of geologic strata, with the label "Bighorn Dolomite", upon which a sharply rectangular and isolated rock 'block' is depicted. The rock block has speed-lines indicating its rapid movement from left to right.]
:Cueball: 49 million years ago, Heart Mountain, Wyoming slid sideways 15 miles like a giant stone hovercraft.

:[Ponytail walks back to the Cueball from the first panel's scene.]
:Ponytail: ... They're not okay.
:Voice from off the right side of the panel: Hey, '''''you''''' come up with a better explanation!

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Geology]]