A geological survey of A Song of Ice and Fire

[zabbarot]

I'm not sure if this is the correct forum or not, since this is real science applied to a fantasy world. :smalltongue:

Over at Generation Anthropocene (http://www.stanford.edu/group/anthropocene/cgi-bin/wordpress/game-of-thrones-geology/) they've worked out the geological events that could have formed the continents of Westeros and Essos. It's a good read.

[Palanan]

This...is just outstandingly cool.

Almost as addictive as the TV show.

:smalltongue:

[Logic]

I'm not sure if this is the correct forum or not, since this is real science applied to a fantasy world. :smalltongue:

Over at Generation Anthropocene (http://www.stanford.edu/group/anthropocene/cgi-bin/wordpress/game-of-thrones-geology/) they've worked out the geological events that could have formed the continents of Westeros and Essos. It's a good read.


This...is just outstandingly cool.

Almost as addictive as the TV show.

:smalltongue:

Yes. Yes it is.

Damn you science! you waste so much of my time!

[Cikomyr]

People put waaay too much scientific thought into Song of Ice and Fire..

wasn't there a point about the world of Westeros having no moon?

[Eldan]

Unlikely, going by place names. I.e. "Hills of the Moon", "Gates of the Moon".

[Cikomyr]

Unlikely, going by place names. I.e. "Hills of the Moon", "Gates of the Moon".

Yhea, nevermind that. I actually went out checking on the SoIaF's wiki. And the moon is actually mentionned quite a while.

[Salbazier]

Awesome work :smallbiggrin: Thanks for sharing

[Jay R]

This is intriguing, but it doesn't account for the fact that the weird weather patterns prove that non-earth-like physical laws are involved. (Winters and summers last several years at a time, in a non-predictable pattern.)

[Killer Angel]

I am a geologist, and this definitely made my day. Thanks! :smallbiggrin:

[MLai]

I read it...
There is NO WAY the author knew of all this. How it all fits is just extraordinary luck.

Though he wasn't completely lucky; he didn't add any earthquakes into his novels, which he very well could have to further add to the world's apocalyptic undertones.

[Tebryn]

I read it...
There is NO WAY the author knew of all this. How it all fits is just extraordinary luck.

Though he wasn't completely lucky; he didn't add any earthquakes into his novels, which he very well could have to further add to the world's apocalyptic undertones.

The apocalyptic undertones aren't really about the world though, they're more about society and the positions people have in it.

[MLai]

The apocalyptic undertones aren't really about the world though, they're more about society and the positions people have in it.
Common literary device is to have the state of the natural world reflect the society and the state of the ppl in it.

[Knaight]

I read it...
There is NO WAY the author knew of all this. How it all fits is just extraordinary luck.

It's not extraordinary luck so much as it being possible to figure out something that would get the desired results. There's a number of bizarre fantasy settings that can be explained if you set up the geology/cosmology/whatever right.

[MLai]

It's not extraordinary luck so much as it being possible to figure out something that would get the desired results. There's a number of bizarre fantasy settings that can be explained if you set up the geology/cosmology/whatever right.
But but even the town names etc turned out to be fortunately correct. I mean what if the author decided hey Winterfell's walls should be made with red rocks cuz it would look atmospheric or whatever. Or the Black Mountains were the wide mountain range instead of the narrow one. Wouldn't randomly-decided stuff like that have instantly blown this earth science speculation off course?

[Knaight]

But but even the town names etc turned out to be fortunately correct. I mean what if the author decided hey Winterfell's walls should be made with red rocks cuz it would look atmospheric or whatever. Or the Black Mountains were the wide mountain range instead of the narrow one. Wouldn't randomly-decided stuff like that have instantly blown this earth science speculation off course?

No, they'd have just speculated a different series of geological events, or done some interpretation of town names slightly differently (there are generally multiple types of stone that fit the descriptions given).

Think of it like curve fitting. If you've got a half dozen points in space, you can probably fit some sort of curve through it. If there's a completely different half dozen points in space, you can probably still fit some sort of curve through it. It won't be the same curve, but it's generally still doable. The same principle applies here.