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Geology Building

|< < Prev #3284 (August 12, 2026)

Title text: The administration thinks it's weird, but the geologists say it looks normal.

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Explanation

The comic depicts a university building which houses the geology department. The design of the front deviates from a standard rectangle, with all boundaries on the left side of a diagonal line through the middle shifted slightly down and left along that boundary. This mimics the motion of a normal fault plane between two parts of Earth's crust. The caption indicates that the geology department designed their own building, and chose to add an apparent fault plane as part of the architecture.

Since the department's design affected key parts of the building, like windows and roofing, it might extend throughout the whole building. If the fault was formed the way geological normal faults form — with the hanging wall settling diagonally downward due to the extension of the underlying tectonic plate — this would rupture water pipes and electrical wires in the walls, and even undermine the integrity of the building by introducing discontinuities in the building's framing. If, instead, the building was built with the fault plane as part of the layout and reinforced accordingly, it would still be impractical, disrupting the floors and doorways of individual rooms by introducing a step or ramp. It might also be the fault trace is just an aesthetic facade and the interior of the building is normal (in the non-technical sense of the word).

The title text plays on the word 'normal'. To the general public, describing a building as 'normal' would suggest that it conforms to typical architectural principles, which this building does not. In geological terms, a normal fault is typically the result of extension in a tectonic plate, like the East African Rift. This results in the hanging wall of the fault sinking diagonally downwards, creating an inclined fault line similar to the design of the building. (In contrast, a 'reverse' fault is the result of two plates sliding into each other and the overhanging plate rising up the incline made against the other plate.)

The caption uses "free reign", which is a common eggcorn for the correct phrase, "free rein".

Transcript

[Inside of the box, there is a building, seemingly a university, with a fault line going through it. One side is slightly more raised then the other, however this may be a illusion, as the ground is level. The fault intersects multiple windows, as well as the main sign. 3 pillars are located at the top of the building, above the main entrance.]

Sign: Department of Geology [Text has a fault line going through]

[Caption below the panel:]

The Administration regretted giving the Geology Department free reign to design their new building.

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