this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2025
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xkcd

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The biggest expense was installing the mantle ducts to keep the carbonate-silicate cycle operating.

https://explainxkcd.com/3078/

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Who's going inside to hold the bolt? Should have used a T-nut.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

Just ask the mole people.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Someone make use of AI and show us some coastal scenery.

Maybe with a nuclear rocket drill to fasten it.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 week ago (2 children)

There's no way that's going to hold, right?

[–] [email protected] 45 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

If that picture is to scale, those bolts are ~5km thick. Put enough of them and it should hold.

That said, the crust probably starts crumbling somewhere else creating new mountains or islands

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 week ago (1 children)

After a certain point, the material around the bolt is more brittle than the bolt itself.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Often is, but you can alleviate this with large washers like in the picture, and also by adding more bolts closer to eachothers

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Would you say tectonic plates are more like wood or metal? There are different standards for both.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago

I'd think they're more like cookies, but idk I'm not really a geologist 😅

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I think double-sided tape would be better. Or maybe we sew the plates together?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Drill holes and zip tie the tectonic plates together

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

Tectonic drift stitches. We'd have so much street cred in the galactic neighbourhood

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Too many bolts too close and you’ve just got a perforation.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

the crust ... starts crumbling somewhere else creating new mountains or islands

Exactly. The oceanic crust will (in geologic time) crack in front of the bolts and be dragged down parallel to the bit that was bolted, stacking the oceanic crust with the newer bit under the older one.

The cracking and stacking happens naturally and this creates stacks of many oceanic crust sections moving to the left of the picture.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 week ago (1 children)

At geological timescales everything is a liquid

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago

I took an atmospheric science class in college and the professor described the field as “fast geology”, I like your description though that geology is the study of slow fluids!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago

Something like a Tapcon would seem more suitable for the job

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago

Problem. Plates are still moving apart. Earth is increasing in volume, but no mass.

Floats away

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Someone else remembers that episode of the Ghostbusters cartoon.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Does anti-subduction = abduction?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

No domduction