Despite its scientific analysis, the project is funny and easy to read with plenty of specific Game Of Thrones references. For instance, the passage about the red sands near King’s Landing reads: “The scandalous wedding of young Robb Stark to Jeyne Westerling isn’t the only thing to have been stained red in the history of Westeros.” Puns, science, and an encyclopedic knowledge of Game Of Thrones?Fake geek boys watch out, because the bar has just been raised.

A group of geologists and map designers have reconstructed the geological ages of Essos, Westeros, and other regions described in Game of Thrones. The results are incredible — and reveal just how violent and mythic real-life geological changes can be.

A Song of Ice and Fire is more than just a high fantasy. Over the course of the book series and the development of the Game of Thrones television series, author George R.R. Martin has created a rich world that sometimes feels as if it has just as much history as Earth. Martin has gone to great pains to detail past events throughout the series and worked with illustrators to create maps showing every river and mountain across the land. There’s plenty to research, and scientist Miles Traer dug into several resources to create the geologic history of Westeros.

If there is a middle ground in the GMO debate, I’m not sure where it is or how it could be navigated. It seems that Nathanael Johnson at Grist is determined to find it. (And I applaud him.) The same goes for Miles Traer atGeneration Anthropocene. In a thoughtful essay, he writes: