Dear Reader,
As kids, we revelled in animated series and films, and paid scant attention to the backdrops and landscapes that they were set in. Thankfully, one doesn't grow out of animation (or is it just me?), and the joy in revisiting old favourites or stumbling upon new series is tinged with a new-found appreciation for the spectacular settings.
Animated landscapes are often inspired by real-world geology, which are sometimes rendered with striking accuracy, and often, with a creative twist. This edition will look at some examples of geological formations featured in animated series, break down the deep-time processes behind them, and provide examples of where on Earth they can be found.
Memorable Landscapes in Kiddie Animation
Of animated landscapes, I believe the Pride Rock in Lion King is the most memorable. It was inspired by the volcanic landscape of Hell's Gate in Kenya (I've written about it in a previous blog: Kenya's Mosaic Landscapes). The scene where Musafa tries to save Simba from a stampede is set in the Ol Njorowa Gorge, and the sulphuric effects that set the scene for Scar’s villain song, ‘Be Prepared’, resemble the bubbling hot springs in Hell’s Gate.
For more animated volcanic landscapes, look closely at the island scenes in Disney's Moana; there are some spectacular examples of ropy volcanic formations called pahoehoe. The fictional Motunui is based on the Polynesian islands in the Pacific Ocean.
Disney/Pixar's The Good Dinosaur is an animated film that hinges on geology. The trailer starts with the question, “What if the asteroid that destroyed the dinosaurs missed?” This refers to the End-Cretaceous mass extinction roughly 66 million years ago, when an asteroid created a 180 km-wide Chicxulub crater in the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico. While several other theories for the extinction of the dinosaurs are gaining prominence, in popular culture, the asteroid continues to be the key suspect.
As for animated series, think of the desertscapes in the Roadrunner Show, with jagged, gravity-defying rock formations sculpted by the wind, cacti, and mesa formations (beep, beep). Similar scenes also featured in Wacky Races, though we were perhaps too distracted by the crazy cars, snappy commentary and dastardly deeds, to pay the scenery any heed. A lesser-known Disney film, Home on the Range, features an amusing cast of dairy cows, a bounty hunter and a gang of cattle rustlers, and their adventures in the desert-and-ranch landscape of North America.
For a quirky take on palaeontology, we had Flintstones set in Bedrock, where humans had an incredible range of gadgets and gizmos and dwelled alongside dinosaurs. The film Ice Age features a sabre-toothed tiger or smilodon, a woolly mammoth, and a sloth, with a plethora of probable and improbable prehistoric creatures.
Beyond Western animation, Studio Ghibli’s fantastical stories and characters are brought to life by the incredible landscapes of Japan: the ancient forests in Princess Mononoke, the seasonal changes across the farmlands in My Neighbor Totoro, the futuristic landscape in Castle in the Sky, or the post-apocalyptic world of Nausicaa.
In animated video games, the Pokemon universe has been lauded for being rather accurate with regard to geology despite being a fantasy game. Pokémon Legends: Arceus, based on the real-world island of Hokkaido, Japan, has been used to teach volcanology, economic geology, and hazard mitigation.
While each of these backdrops deserves an in-depth feature, I want to focus on a couple of examples where I can explain the geology rather than the landscape as a whole. Perhaps, someday, I can revisit this theme and explore other animated series.
Karst Towers in Avatar: The Last Airbender
The geography in the Nickelodeon series, Avatar: The Last Airbender is critical to its storyline. The water tribe strongholds are situated at the North and South Pole, with some tribes in sporadic swamplands. The Fire Nation is located along a volcanic archipelago with islands like Ember Island and Boiling Rock. The Earth Kingdom’s terrain comprises mountains with treacherous passes, canyons, caves and deserts. Some cataclysmic events also play a role: the separation of Kyoshi island from the mainland, Sozin’s comet which gives the Fire Nation unimaginable power, and the volcanic eruptions at Makapu island (Ep 14: the Fortuneteller), and Roku’s island.
As fascinating as the geography is, I know that not everyone may have seen the series. So, I’d like to focus on a specific geological formation: the karst towers in the Wulong Forest which form the fiery backdrop for the final battle in the series.
Landscapes of chalk and limestone, known as karst or calcareous landscapes, are exceptionally susceptible to rainwater due to calcium carbonate, which reacts rapidly with rain or river water. Upon contact with water, calcium carbonate reacts to form mild carbonic acid which further dissolves the mineral. Hence, karst landscapes are created by the dissolution of rocks like limestone, dolomite or gypsum by subterranean drainage systems into formations known as speleothems. You would be familiar with stalactites (on the ceiling) and stalagmites (on the ground), which are some of the commonly occurring speleothems. The shape of speleothems depends on the environment and time over which they were deposited.
I’ve written about karst formations before, as a landscape etched by rain, and of the lessons to be learned from two geoheritage sites in the Philippines.
Incredulous as it may seem, the tower, pinnacle, or cone karsts featured in the series are not exaggerated. These typically occur in tropical or subtropical climates, where near-vertical fractures in the rock are eroded downwards, leaving behind jagged, tooth-like pillars. There are places in the world where one can see such stark, jagged tower formations, with natural bridges, gorges and large cave systems:
Shillin, Guilin and South China Karst sites in South China: Several locations in China have made it to the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites for their spectacular examples of tower karst. Interestingly, the Avatar film by James Cameron is also said to have drawn inspiration for Pandora’s floating mountains on Pandora from the spectacular tower karst formations in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in China.
Tsingy de Bemaraha and Ankarana Reserve in Madagascar: The word ‘tsingy’ in the local Malagasy denotes a place where one cannot walk barefoot. It is reminiscent of the word ‘masungki’ in Tagalog, meaning spiked or crooked, jagged teeth (as featured in the 13th edition of Geosophy). Both words beautifully describe the appearance of tower karst and the difficulty in navigating it.
Halong Bay and Trang An Landscape Complex in Vietnam: At both locations, less jagged tower karst formations resulted from years of weathering and represent the final stages of geomorphic evolution. The Trang An landscape has been inhabited for over 30,000 years and echoes stories of the Neolithic and Bronze Ages to present-day agrarian communities.
If you know of any other tower karst formations, please leave a comment.
Columnar Basalts in The Wild Robot
The Wild Robot (2024) featured the misadventures of a service robot, shipwrecked on an island and unexpectedly tasked with raising an orphan goose. We mostly associate islands with sandy beaches, and while the columnar basalts aren’t featured much in the film, the painstaking and beautiful rendition in the initial scenes gives us a sense of this island being rather different. So how do columnar basalts form?
When a thick lava flow cools rapidly, which may result from contact with water, the outer layer of rock cracks and contracts. As the outer layer cools at a different rate from the inner layers, the rock begins to shrink into a hexagonal or near-6-sided pattern to optimize the stress. As cracks develop perpendicular to the direction of heat loss, hexagonal columns begin to appear.
You can also find examples of columnar basalts:
The Giant’s Causeway, Northern Ireland: An expanse of 40,000 interlocking basalt columns created during a ~60 million-year-old volcanic fissure eruption, the causeway is recognised and protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The dramatic formations inspired legends of giants, like Finn McCool, striding over this causeway (hence the name) and across the sea to reach Scotland.
Other noteworthy locations across Asia include Padang and Gunung Kelud in West Java, Indonesia; near the Teck Guan Cocoa Village in Sabah, Malaysia; Jeju Island in South Korea; the Da Dia Cliff in Phú Yên Province, Vietnam; and the Basalt Rocks Natural Monument in Sinop Province, Turkey.
I’ve also written about one beautiful example of columnar basalts in south India, which provide evidence of how the India and Madagascar plates unzipped ~88 million years ago.
If you know of any other columnar basalt formations, please leave a comment.
As I was writing this, I could think of several more animated series with incredible landscapes. Perhaps, someday, I can revisit this theme and explore other animated series.
That’s all for now, folks!