3218: Subduction Retrieval
| Subduction Retrieval |
 Title text: Aww, the oceanic crust and the continental crust are getting married! |
Explanation
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This is one of 74 incomplete explanations: This page was created recently by a SUBDUCTION LICENSE. Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page! |
This comic is a public service announcement (PSA) telling the reader to stay out of the Pacific Ocean on the current day. The reason for this is explained to be that someone has lost their wedding ring in a subduction zone. A subduction zone is a boundary where two tectonic plates in the Earth's crust collide, and one plate dives beneath the other into the Earth's mantle. Given that the rate at which this occurs is of a few centimetres per year at most, and assuming that the characters shown are drawn to scale and are of average human stature, it can be estimated that the ring has been in the subduction zone for about 200 years. Possibly this time has been needed to localise it and then deploy the heavy engineering displayed.
As a result, the USGS (United States Geological Survey) is "pulling the plate back up" to retrieve the ring.
The joke is that this would be a ridiculous idea, since no man-made machine like the one depicted in the comic is capable of moving entire tectonic plates [citation needed]. Additionally, even if it were possible, it is unlikely that the USGS, a national organisation, would invest the time and effort required for such an operation for the relatively trivial purpose of retrieving a wedding ring.
The title text jokes that since the wedding ring lies on the lower (oceanic) plate, the oceanic crust and continental crust are "getting married".
Transcript
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This is one of 46 incomplete transcripts: Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page! |
[Caption below panel:] PSA: Please stay out of the Pacific Ocean today. Someone lost their wedding ring in a subduction zone and USGS is pulling the plate back up to retrieve it.
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I win. 2603:7080:5240:fa00:f571:792f:a287:3b07 (talk) 03:21, 12 March 2026 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
- I lost The Game. 2A04:4E41:320E:C27C:0:0:885F:A27C 04:47, 12 March 2026 (UTC)
- @&$! 47.146.30.92 05:33, 12 March 2026 (UTC)
- Nope - you are disqualified for not signing your post. 82.13.184.33 09:14, 12 March 2026 (UTC)
By some coincidence this article https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy03jw0pwx1o was on the BBC news website Wed 11th March (UK)- the evening before (9pm local time) this was added 2A00:23C7:B524:F801:4041:29F9:A548:6CDE 06:08, 12 March 2026 (UTC)
I added my first explanation on this website! Please feel free to correct/improve it. 2401:D002:8404:C900:E8CD:26D1:3D16:F675 06:33, 12 March 2026 (UTC)
A rough estimate of how fresh this news is would be 200 years: size of people allows to estimate ring has been carried down 12 m, and then I used 6 cm/year subduction rate. 152.77.153.162 08:04, 12 March 2026 (UTC)
Chances are that the ring melted being down that far. Dogman15 (talk) 08:58, 12 March 2026 (UTC) Add comment
