Difference between revisions of "3112: Geology Murder"
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
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| − | Someone has been stabbed dead and two geologists are looking at the corpse. As they apparently have no forensic experience or ability, they apply their geological knowledge. The "iron-rich intrusion in his back" refers to the dagger that killed him; an {{w|intrusion}} is rock formed when 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}}", mentioned by one geologist, refers to rock made up of broken pieces of older rocks. In this case she's speculating that a {{w|rift}} - a gap - 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. However, this doesn't normally happen to people's backs.{{cn}} | + | Someone has been stabbed dead and two geologists are looking at the corpse. Take note of the spelling in the dialog, it's "uncomforMably" not "uncomforTably". An "uncomformity" in geology is geologic strata where there is a gap of missing strata between an upper and lower layer. Implying that there is missing information about how the man came to be lying on the desk. |
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| + | As they apparently have no forensic experience or ability, they apply their geological knowledge. The "iron-rich intrusion in his back" refers to the dagger that killed him; an {{w|intrusion}} is rock formed when 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}}", mentioned by one geologist, refers to rock made up of broken pieces of older rocks. In this case she's speculating that a {{w|rift}} - a gap - 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. However, this doesn't normally happen to people's backs.{{cn}} | ||
The "pipes carrying iron-rich fluid" are the person's blood vessels, as blood has a large amount of the iron-rich molecule {{w|hemoglobin}} to 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 of course ridiculous. | The "pipes carrying iron-rich fluid" are the person's blood vessels, as blood has a large amount of the iron-rich molecule {{w|hemoglobin}} to 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 of course ridiculous. | ||
Revision as of 22:02, 7 July 2025
| Geology Murder |
 Title text: 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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This is one of 57 incomplete explanations: This page was created by an IRON-RICH BOT. Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page! |
Someone has been stabbed dead and two geologists are looking at the corpse. Take note of the spelling in the dialog, it's "uncomforMably" not "uncomforTably". An "uncomformity" in geology is geologic strata where there is a gap of missing strata between an upper and lower layer. Implying that there is missing information about how the man came to be lying on the desk.
As they apparently have no forensic experience or ability, they apply their geological knowledge. The "iron-rich intrusion in his back" refers to the dagger that killed him; an intrusion is rock formed when 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. "Clastic", mentioned by one geologist, refers to rock made up of broken pieces of older rocks. In this case she's speculating that a rift - a gap - 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. However, this doesn't normally happen to people's backs.[citation needed]
The "pipes carrying iron-rich fluid" are the person's blood vessels, as blood has a large amount of the iron-rich molecule hemoglobin to help it transport oxygen. The geologists speculate that the iron precipitated - sedimented out - out of the blood to form the dagger, which is of course ridiculous.
Transcript
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This is one of 30 incomplete transcripts: Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page! |
[There's a lab bench with a dead Cueball lying on it, with a dagger sticking out of his back. Another Cueball is standing to the left of the table, Ponytail is standing to the right. They're each wearing lab coats and looking at the dead body.]
Cueball: We found him lying uncofmortably 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.
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Is it just me, or is xkcd.com being non-responsive? Obviously, it has been successfully grabbed from by the BOT, and I even checked a few "is it down" sites... which say that it's up. But I'm getting nothing back but spinny cursors, going to either xkcd.com or any xkcd.com/<number> ...with no other reason to believe that 'it is just me', like other clearly running places also not being reachable in my own case. 92.23.2.228 20:09, 7 July 2025 (UTC)
- It worked fine for me on the first attempt, so I guess it's just you. But when I was submitting the transcript here I got a "make sure you're logged in" error. Resubmitting (without having to re-login) worked. Barmar (talk) 20:25, 7 July 2025 (UTC)
- And I got the same error when first submitting the above comment. Barmar (talk) 20:25, 7 July 2025 (UTC)
- The transcript silently corrects the spelling error (?) in uncomformably. 208.82.100.219 21:00, 7 July 2025 (UTC)
- The transcript has been fixed, and it was not a spelling error - it's a geology word. 208.82.100.219 03:52, 8 July 2025 (UTC)
- It's been intermittently non-responsive and/or landing on error pages for over a month. Speculation ranges from issues with the server to issues with the content-delivery-network (CloudFlare), to a deliberate attack, to AI-scraping bots, to an iron-rich penetration from an alternate universe (just added that one to the list), and probably more. 64.201.132.210 21:07, 7 July 2025 (UTC) [Update: I meant explainxkcd is intermittently non-responsive. xkcd seems as responsive as the rest of the web lately. 64.201.132.210 16:08, 8 July 2025 (UTC)]
- Unless you mean explainxkcd.com (which I know is suffering, in those ways, but for longer), I actually haven't seen xkcd.com itself be like this. Recently or otherwise. Anyway, still not working for me, still is working for the "is it down" sites. Nor have I got anything strangely redirecting in my
hostsfile, etc. Also can ping (www.)xkcd.com perfectly happily, tracert gives no particular surprises (e.g. signs of being inconsistently MITMed), and I seem to get 100% connectivity with a different device at the same time as 0% with this one. So, it looks like "it's just me" in a weird way that ...I shall have to spend some personal time/effort getting a rational explanation for. Hmmm. 92.23.2.228 22:06, 7 July 2025 (UTC)- >"100% connectivity with a different device at the same time as 0% with this one." This month, Cloudflare has been snooty, just at my favorite desktop. And on several sites, from APnews to odd hobby sites. All my newer laptops get in fine. I think Cloudflare is complaining about my aging O/S, which is silly (I am gonna infect them??) However I usually get the same robot-check, not a stall or spinner.
- Unless you mean explainxkcd.com (which I know is suffering, in those ways, but for longer), I actually haven't seen xkcd.com itself be like this. Recently or otherwise. Anyway, still not working for me, still is working for the "is it down" sites. Nor have I got anything strangely redirecting in my
- I haven't noticed xkcd.com being non-responsive but I have noticed this site non-responsive from time-to-time. 47.248.235.170 22:05, 7 July 2025 (UTC)Pat
Hmm. If material from the banded iron formations was mixed with coal, and subjected to the heat and pressure that create metamorphic rock, would iron be created? There would still be the problem of keeping it free of ground water so it didn't go back to iron oxides. BunsenH (talk) 04:48, 8 July 2025 (UTC)
Honestly, it feels like the level of evidence and rigor for a lot of evolutionary theory is about on par with the title text. Though I doubt that that was Randall's intent. 2001:8003:6490:9700:66ED:199B:93A7:45ED 06:43, 8 July 2025 (UTC)
Haemoglobin is not particularly iron-rich - it contains a single atom of iron. Blood is iron-rich because it contains a lot of haemoglobin. 148.64.15.78 07:54, 8 July 2025 (UTC)
- Each Heme group has a single iron, but there are multiple hemes(/haemes/hæmes) in a full hemoglobin(/haemoglobin/hæmoglobin) protein structure. (Yes, vastly outnumbered by the rest of the carbons, etc, but still not a singular iron.) 92.23.2.228 20:50, 8 July 2025 (UTC)
- The Earths crust is about 5% iron by mass. To a geologist "iron rich" would normally be somewhat over that, say 15%. In comparison the human body is below 0.01% iron (4g/50kg) and blood is perhaps 0.1% iron. Not sure if a geologist would be impressed that blood is perhaps 10 times the concentration of the surroundings, or so depleted compared to most of the materials they study.76.180.44.2 18:30, 12 July 2025 (UTC)
Would it be worth pointing out that geologist are unlikely to act with the urgency required by a murder investigation?2602:FF4D:128:D56:11B8:2B25:5D50:F4D5 23:56, 8 July 2025 (UTC)
- They'll get there eventually. Implacably. Leaving no stone unturned. BunsenH (talk) 04:32, 9 July 2025 (UTC)
Where does the part about "pipes carrying iron-rich fluid" come from? I don't see that in the comic or title text or transcript. Bmwiedemann (talk) 06:40, 9 July 2025 (UTC)
- Check the title text on the comic: "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." 163.116.145.31 14:20, 9 July 2025 (UTC)
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