this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2025
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xkcd #3159: Continents

Title text:

The inflection point was probably in late 1966 or 1967, so when Neil Armstrong flew to space on Gemini 8, plate tectonics was not widely accepted, but when he landed on the Moon three years later it was the mainstream consensus.

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Source: https://xkcd.com/3159/

explainxkcd for #3159

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[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 36 points 1 month ago (2 children)

"isn't it amazing how Africa and South America seem to fit together? I wonder what caused that"

"I dunno, probably magic"

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

I mean, this is directly one of the main observations that led to plate tectonic theory...

[–] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 0 points 1 month ago

I mean anything we can't explain out in space is just dark matter or dark energy. We could just call it magic, cause that's about our level of understanding.