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Artistic License Geology: Difference between revisions
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This can get incredibly [[Egregious]] at times. Cracks do not chase B actors or swallow entire cities whole without a trace. Ground shaking does not just move from left to right or just up and down. Likewise, lasting a very long time [[Screw the Rules I Have Plot|for dramatic purposes]] kills the science. Extremely long duration quakes are rare and when they do happen they tend to occur only on the largest ones. The Sumatra quake in 2004, which is the 3rd largest earthquake ever recorded, lasted 8-10 minutes. In contrast, the 1994 Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles lasted 20 seconds, and even the "Big One" cannot be expected to last much more than 40 seconds in a nightmarish worst case scenario.
But this is not the only time geology gets failing grades. Volcanoes are another example. [[Outrun the Fireball|Outrunning the Lava Flow]] in [[Real Life]] is as easy as picking up to a brisk walk. Rarely does it move any faster, but it frequently outruns sprinters in TV land. Inversely, you cannot [[Outrun the Fireball|Outrun the Pyroclastic Flow]]. Those travel near the speed of sound and will destroy anything in its path not strong enough to withstand a [[The Deadliest Mushroom|
As a note, this trope also covers other abuses of the field of geology including getting rocks, minerals even whole processes down wrong.
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== [[Comic Books]] ==
* Many old [[Marvel Comics]] stories had characters visiting Subterrania, a land located at "The center of the Earth," which is impossible since Earth's core is ''solid metal'' surrounded by ''molten'' metal. Nothing remotely alive is going to be down there. The place was later [[
* The realm of Skartaris in [[DC Comics]] [[The Warlord]] is located in the center of a [[Hollow World]] Earth.
** Justified in that it is both a tribute to the [[Pellucidar]] novels of [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]] and that it is a [[Magical Land]].
* One dinosaur comic has paleontologists find "the most complete T. Rex skeleton ever", and carbon-date it to make sure it's genuine. Carbon dating is not used on objects older than 30,
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Volcano]]'' explicitly does away with the precursory effects of said volcano despite the fact that Los Angeles is well-monitored for tectonic activity. Likewise, the lava flow going through the subway system moves incredibly fast compared to real lava tubes.
** There are different types of lava. Some run fast as water. See below in the entry for ''[[Congo]]''
** That and in the movie its in a subtunnel... its not as much its speed as its the pressure. Anything can move INCREDIBLY fast under pressure, the pressure
* Like ''[[Volcano]]'', ''[[Dante's Peak]]'' has several moments where the science doesn't add up. (The USGS even disputed a number of parts) Examples here include fluid lava in what is clearly a large explosive eruption, and being able to [[Outrun the Fireball|Outrun the Pyroclastic Cloud]].
** In ''Volcano'' the lava looks basaltic, but all volcanoes on the West Coast are gas rich felsic/intermediate andesitic volcanoes. Not to mention that the Juan De Fuca Plate that is subducted under the West Coast to produce volcanism is too far north to produce volcanoes in LA. In other words NO VOLCANOES IN CALIFORNIA.
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* The volcano part of [[The Movie]] of ''[[Congo]]'' also has this. The lava flow cascading through the buried city of Zinj runs at seemingly tsunami speeds on-camera. To say nothing of other geological [[Incredibly Lame Pun|faults]]. (Diamonds in a basalt flow?)
** It should be noted Virunga region of the Congo is just about the only place in the world where lava actually moves this fast. Flows from Mount Nyiragongo have been clocked at about 60 MPH.
* ''[[Waterworld]]'': If you melted all the ice on the planet you could cause a 60m (180 ft) rise in sea level, which would suck for low-lying coastal areas, but is not nearly enough to create the ocean planet depicted. Also, it would take almost 6,000 years to do it at the current rate of global mean temperature increase. That's excluding reduction in warming rate due to
* ''[[Armageddon]]'''s first scene is a depiction of the meteor/comet collision which is widely believed to have led to the extinction of the dinosaurs, approximately 65 million years ago. Apparently so that we'll know what planet we're looking at, the continents are depicted in their modern positions, as opposed to where they actually were (which was more like [[wikipedia:File:LateCretaceousGlobal.jpg|this]]).
* ''Crack In The World'' movie from 1965.
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[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Did Not Do the Research]]
[[Category:Hollywood Science]]
[[Category:Artistic License Indexes]]
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