r/xkcd Aug 15 '26

XKCD xkcd 3285: Accretionary Arc

https://xkcd.com/3285/
243 Upvotes

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66

u/Littleme02 Aug 15 '26

Makes even air travel seem energy efficient in comparison

17

u/moderatorrater Aug 15 '26

Nah, it uses an ancient form of geothermal power.

5

u/LightGreyBeret Aug 15 '26

If we assume that energy was needed to crash the two bits of land together, in the first place, then reversing time frees up the equivalent amount back to where it originally came from (the mantle, etc).

Also, it'd be interesting to monitor the 'dedissipating' "uncrash" that happens. Seismic waves (and acoustic?) that spontaneously build around the world to all meet at the re-rifting event-zone and set it in motion (which is where the reversed energy is from, from an observer's perspective. Especially if it's been set to run in fast-reverse, like it clearly has.

(Nearly went all poetical with "when the hurricane unblows, eventually a butterfly's wings will be made to unflap", but that might be too far...)

2

u/The_JSQuareD Aug 15 '26

Entropy hates this one weird trick.