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qmackie @qmackie.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Geologists in movies: an analysis of gender, cause of death, etc. 35% of them die. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... 🏺🪨⚰️⚒️

From the linked article, Figure 3, as described below:

The manners of geologist deaths fall into eight categories (Fig. 3), described below:

Category 1: Murder. A good example is the fatal elimination of ‘baddies’ by heroes such as James Bond, such as in the movie Dr No (1962), where ‘007’ kills the evil petrologist, Prof. Dent.
Category 2: Work related. Typical examples are being hit by a volcanic bomb, falling into a crater or an opening fault, drowning in quicksand or lahar, and incineration in an oil pit. Grim stuff.
Category 3: Killed by or because of Extra-Terrestrial encounters. That is, being killed directly by aliens or assimilation by aliens and consequently killed by former colleagues, such as the geologist in Prometheus (2012).
Category 4. Miscellaneous accidents. Such as being crushed by falling crates as in Deep Star Six (1989).
Category 5. Traffic accidents. Killed in exotic events like crashing with a spaceship on the asteroid in Armageddon (1998).
Category 6. Health issues. Such as heart attack suffered by the geologist in Equinox (1970).
Category 7. Suicide. Where it all gets too much, as in Walkabout (1971).
Category 8. Unknown. A good example is the fate of the geologist in Gold (2016): suicide, or did he fake his death?

The causes of eternal passing are highlighted in the bar plot in Fig. 3. Murder is the most common, with 30 of 69 deaths. The numbers for the second and third reasons are close together, with deaths caused by interaction with extra-terrestrial creatures and unforgiving objects leading to 12 of 69 deaths, and with geological hazards (work related) coming in at 12 of 69 deaths. Accidents, traffic accidents and health issues make a total of 9 of 69 deaths. Notably, we count only one clear case of death by suicide, though in three cases, the fate of the geologist is unknown.

Iain Davidson AU @archaeoiain.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Aha. That's lovely. So will you follow up with archaeologists? Hope you are well

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