Yes. That's why it looks like crashed gear. Killing "it" won't take away it's physical form almost instantaneously, I certainly can't imagine in this particular time span.Yeah that's the part that had me scratching my head. Heating it may kill the organisms but they would still be left behind in some visual form.
I didn't wanna chime in earlier and sound like a dumbass but that was one thing that kept irking me.