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Add New Jersey to the glacier region.

Looks like a whole lotta water if you ask me

The Wichitas didn’t make the cut but they are beautiful bones of ancient mountains.

THAT explains a lot.

Okay I need to know what landform in upstate New York is being referenced by "???", I think I know all the others

Also, there's a really weird area here in Northern Utah that looks like the bottom of an inland sea would look. Silt hills and everything. It's along 191/6, I think. We went through on a roadtrip a few weeks back. It's wild.

There's a little slice of Northern Michigan that's also volcanos

Excellent description of a karst landscape. 😆

??? is the great convexity/concavity

??? = This land is older than bones, and connects directly to the Summerlands. I know. I grew up inside that circle.

I love this. Thank you!

I love that the Adirondacks are just "We have new mountains from old rock. Ida know? Maybe there's a hotspot underneath?" Anyways, 20% of the state is a single forever wild state park so that makes it ok in my book.

Been reading a lot of Michael McDowell; Florida just doesn't belong to humans, is the reason

Ny is collision and glacier!

@futur.blue title text bot is missing

This is Niobraran Sea erasure

THAT's the word I needed the other day. "Not geology. Morphology? No, I don't think that's the right thing, exactly, either." I used morphology. It's sci-fi so I can make it up as I go along, right?

I am so here for your geology era. Or epoch. Whatever.

CANADIAN SHIELD

Not a great choice, their defense just dissolves away under pressure.

Just all of the Ozarks vaguely hand waved as "geology"

broke: "this landform was created by glaciers" woke: "we built this city on rock and roll"

Randall decided to nerd-snipe geologists today. “Someone on the internet is wrong. About ROCKS!”

???

I wonder who lives in there

Minor nit: glaciers reached NE Kansas. kgs.ku.edu/glaciers-kan...

Although that one you can also blame on big space rock

*waves back from Appalachia*

Don't forget the ones in northwestern Africa!

Add the New Madrid earthquake to the lower Mississippi

And the New Madrid Seismic Zone got off completely. Unlike the plates, it didn't have to reveal anything. That's a relief, for the zone. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Mad...

Best explanation of Bills fans

I thought the south east coast was conflict of water, sand and the continental plateau shape?

This snarky reply brought to you by Nick on the rocks

Geology did it. Gotta remember that one for later use.

now do Australia!

Those weird question marks are supposed to say Native American Permaculture. That's where the Iroquois confederacy is still located.

What a delightful science communication, HUZZAH!

“gEOLoGy”

The Adirondacks are indeed mysterious.

I’m originally from limestone versus water

Seconded!!!!

??? = Beavers?

You forgot asteroid impact

LOL! Thanks, Peggy!

I love how upstate NY is just a mystery, because not even us locals know what the fuck is going on

I think you drew the line a bit too high in Ohio. As I understand it, the Ohio River Valley was carved by glaciers, or by a combination of glaciers and rivers.

Some spectacular stuff in Alaska

You have some fine karst topography areas (limestone + water) -- sinkholes, caverns, etc. www.usgs.gov/media/images...

And then there's the time a house in Nachterstedt, Germany suddenly disappeared down a lignite hole one night. They never found the bodies.

This is fun: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driftle...

Gold

*draws additional circle over Eastern WA for "oh gods so much magma it's everywhere"*

See chilean geography is su much easier cause its all continents colliding in all of it

Oh hey! The Llano Escatado!

Is the alt-text specifically about the Ozark Plateau? Because yeah, I grew up in the northeastern foothills of the Ozarks other than the fact that it's the oldest dry land in the western hemisphere, nobody I've asked has the slightest idea *why* it was poking out the water that long ago.

In Iceland the answer varies wildly between "glaciers", "volcanoes", "annual frost", "geology", and "the Danes."

lol .. stupid America didn't they know wearing a friggin hat made out of Metal & Gold would squish their big dumb head.

Love that upstate New York is just a mystery

New England is also volcanoes (yes, really, I grew up near the core of an ancient one), but they’re so old and worn down (glaciers! lol) we mostly don’t recognize them now.

I feel this one in my bones. Florida is exactly that. It's gonna go away, but will it flood when the ice caps melt? or sink when the last of the limestone sponge we're sitting on disintegrates? It doesn't help that all our drinking water is being siphoned off and sold.

Title text: "'Well, there's speculation that it's due to a mantle hotspot.' --a geologist who's trying to cover up the fact that they didn't hear your question" Alt text: https://explainxkcd.com/3221#Transcript

I’m intrigued by the question marks on the Adirondacks.

This map makes me happy 🥹 Now do Europe 😼

And politics. Lots of them.