#peter posts

[bellshazes]

"omg did you know the hopper clock was invented so that etho s. lab could give his invention wilson a working heart, so it's like this immense act of love" no i didn't because he invented the hopper clock to have a thing to do unethical experiments about how neglectful can you be to a tamagotchi before it dies. for funzies. the hopper clock is tool of evil. so jot that down

[piperedpeter]

aromantic culture is reading a fic and getting more excited at the 'best friend' stage than the 'boyfriend/girlfriend/partner' stage

[good-night-space-kid]

Geology and The Terror

As a geologist who is incapable of turning off their geology brain even while watching shows for fun, one of the things that baffles me a bit about The Terror is why they continuously refer to the landscape as shale when both King William Island and the filming location in Pag, Croatia are dominated by limestone. Given the desolation of the landscape, the geology is rather at the forefront of many scenes so it was fun to try and parse it out as I watched.

King William Island, Nunavut, Canada

According to the official map of the bedrock of the region as published by the Canadian government (Harrison et al., 2015), the entirety of King William Island is mapped as dolostone, dolomitic limestone, and limestone with only minor components of shale, sandstone, conglomerate, and breccia. This is a shelf marine deposit dating back to the Late Cambrian, so this is very old sedimentary rock but younger than most of the surrounding hard rock that composes various parts of the Canadian shield. Notably, the pink units mapped on the Boothia Peninsula are Paleoproterozoic in age (2.5-1.6 billion years old), potentially up to 2 billion years older than the limestones of King William Island.

(This is an absolutely massive .pdf file with some scaled features so I would recommend viewing via the official publication to actually read anything or see fine details: publications.gc.ca/pub?id=9.557274&sl=0)

Notably, this map was published in 2015, 8 years after the novel was written. However, according to the bibliography for the map (which can be accessed via the previous link) a preliminary geologic map has existed for the area since at least 1967, though I was unable to track this publication down online. The novel was clearly thoroughly researched and Dan Simmons could have easily accessed this publication and others through multiple institutions.

The surficial geology of King William Island has also been mapped, and is predominantly glacial, as one would expect given it's location. For those unfamiliar with glacial geology processes, this is basically saying that the bedrock is buried under a bunch of glacial deposits. Glacial till is composed of rocks and sediments plucked from the bedrock and ground up. This is why the surface of the island is not one big rock, but a bunch of smaller pieces. Interestingly, the material on the southern part of the island is sandier because it contains more material derived from the Canadian Shield further south. If you're interested in glacial geology, I highly recommend zooming around a bit on Google Earth because the features here are GORGEOUS.

(This map is absolutely massive and the lines scale with zoom so it's hard to see at this resolution, access it here: publications.gc.ca/pub?id=9.834073&sl=0)

(Google Earth Pro, satellite imagery from 2020)

According to the surface geology map and Google Earth, the actual landscape of King William Island is much more water logged than it appears in the show. It's not entirely impossible that there has been some geomorphological change since 1848, but most of the features mapped would have been formed during the last ice age and as the glaciers melted and not more recently. This would have been handy for the men of the Franklin Expedition because each of these pools is filled with freshwater.

Pag, Croatia

Tracking down a geologic map of Croatia was somewhat challenging as I don't speak Croatian. I was able to find a map of the whole country, and while it's all in Croatian the symbol for the geologic time periods is universal so time periods can be correlated. This shows that the units that make up Pag are Cretaceous and Paleocene-Eocene in age.

(Map accessed here: https://www.hgi-cgs.hr/en/geoloska-karta-republike-hrvatske-1300-000/)

I was able to find a .pdf (access here: http://kig.kartografija.hr/index.php/kig/article/view/158/274) that had a bit more information on the map above but at a lower resolution. This states that the Cretaceous units are dominantly carbonates from the Adriatic sea and the Eocene units are also carbonates. This makes sense as both the Cretaceous and Paleocene-Eocene boundary/PETM are times of increased global temperature correlated with increases in global sea level.

As always, the best geology website out there, Macrostrat, also came through on the unit lithologies. I was unable to access the source listed on Macrostrat, but both the Cretaceous (green) and Paleocene-Eocene units (orange) are listed as limestone.

(Source: https://macrostrat.org/map/#x=16&y=23&z=2)

One of the best views that we get of the geology on Pag is the last scene with Bridgens in episode 9. During the zoom out of this scene we get a really nice view of the bedrock and debris covering it.

Given all of this, I'm really not sure where the landscape description as shale came from. If there is historical precedence for calling the rocks on the island shale, let me know! I have read a few books but none of the primary sources from the expeditions to this region, so if it comes from that I wouldn't be surprised.

Overall though, I have to say that the filming location was well chosen given the similarities it holds to the geology of King William Island.

[spankoffskithroughspace]

[A nerdy-looking teen in a bowtie stands at the edge of the Hatchetfield Witchwood, looking exhausted and mildly confused. ...Had he been there before? Where did he come from?]

[Peter leans against a tree, catching his breath.]

[petrparkr]

least favorite superhero??

right now? ironman. he won't let me in the intern labs rn cause im a "bad influence" and i "keep blowing things up." i think he's just a wuss though

[just-beyond-ecoust]

pressure machine (album) by the killers x bj

in another life / s8ep22 / pressure machine / s8ep22 / in another life / s8ep22 / in the car outside / s8ep6 / in another life / s10ep17 / in another life

[pirepoumon]

lately my grandmother (who i adore, who was my first roommate when we both moved out of my parents' house during college) has been responding to my texts mainly thru emojis which is very cute but. g, what's up. what are you meaning here.

[thankstothe]

folk hero really

[wukongfeetpics]

characters have to be a little bit awful in ways that you cant defend. its good for the ecosystem. your honor he did do that. He did in fact do that

[smoky-moka]

[gibbearish]

love when ppl defend the aggressive monetization of the internet with "what, do you just expect it to be free and them not make a profit???" like. yeah that would be really nice actually i would love that:)! thanks for asking

[bellshazes]

future addendum to the reference list:

hcs5 you fill in holes BDUBS no he's been getting better

1.13 i'm filling in all the void spaces BDOUBLEO

nothing is filled in AAHHHHH

etho critiques bdubs' wheat

mindcrack s3 why didn't bdubs fix his water!!! (bdubs is not present)

mindcrack s4 complaining abt bdubs' holes (bdubs is not present)

mindcrack s4 you're etho. it's perfect

hcs9 needed dirt will clean up later love bdubs

hcs10 etho HATES my texturing

i've never known you to only make one story

like bdubs always says: when in doubt smooth it out

as bdoubleo says fiddlefartin' around

bdubs plays on 30 brightness

mindcrack nether hub. LOVE the guy. but

mindcrack s4 you genius

i noticed even during ooge you don't like to wear armor

nighttime rolls around, etho's almost happy, me pure fear

etho's probably gonna carry around a fishing rod

mindcrack you want my pants don't you

chainmail pants glitch

mindcrack chainmail is breezy

lacy chain mail

s8 i'm pulling a bdubs [chainmail armor]

bwbs3 you know what's a bigger armor flex?

s9 granny armor - we could be twins

bdubs we need you [to sleep!] i'm on it

etho: you're amazing! bdubs: oh i get it. you wanna hire me don't you

i feel like a father would, bdubs got his first complaint

UNRELATED,... UNLESS? we can tell each other the truth like that

for bdubs when he dies, he needs all the help he can get

you're always so considerate. i care!

i'll take care of etho's snail + protect me i'm low/have some dripstone

you're trying to initiate war with me!

hugs and kisses

you testing me bdubs?

smack me!

bdubs wants me to build a tower out of copper...

wanted to one up you for ONCE in my life

i've been this way with you my whole life (leads to chest memory testing)

wrong trust

look at me when i'm giving you something! >:[

heal job...

bubbles! bdoubleo!

etho has more deaths than meeee :)

speaking of genius [etho mention]

what would it take to get rid of YOU

let's not bother etho OHHH

a caring man makes a staircase. an even more selfish man uses an enderpearl

you're gonna try and kill me. mayyyybe

looks like the hammer found a nail!....... oh NOOO

luv professionally bdubs

etho's a great builder (algo-rimth)

[piperedpeter]

if you have ever drawn mcd zane ro'meave specifically with his little veil mask please know that i love you so much and im giving you a kiss on the head

[good-night-space-kid]

I want to see meteorites

well lucky for you, i just took a whole class on planetary geology, so here's a couple of fun meteorites.

but first, a definition. meteorites are fragments of the primordial solar nebula that were not accumulated into the present planets or come from planets in our system.

widmanstatten structures are very cool and present in many meteorites and look like the photo below. they are brought out by acid etching meteorites after cutting and polishing them. they are thought to be formed in the centers of planetary and smaller bodies, and probably what the earth's core looks like.

stony-iron meteorites are popular favorites for slabs because they often are a mix of, as you might guess, iron and olivines. they look like this:

among the famous meteorites is allan hills 84001, a carbonaceous meteorite found in antarctica and from mars made famous for the potential biotic (made by living creatures) structures. this one has been the subject of heated debate, but personally i'm not convinced that it's biotic.

and another famous meteorite, angra dos reis. this is one of 6 meteorites classified as an angrite, a meteorite that (might be) from mercury. angrites are cool as hell and there's a lot out there about them and why they may or may not be from mercury, too much for me to discuss in this post, but i definitely recommend looking into them because they're really interesting.

meteorites are super cool! if you want to learn more, looking into the research around the two meteorites is a good intro to how meteorite research works, the challenges that comes with studying extraterrestrial objects, and the rigorous scientific debate that occurs within the planetary geology community. enjoy!

[spankoffskithroughspace]

Tinky got to you, huh?

@space-drifter-angie

You know it.

[petrparkr]

Peter, you’ve been seen side by side with all the other Avengers but how come no ones seen you in a room with Spider-Man ?

cause i sometimes wear peppermint cologne to specifically scare him off