WIP- unnamed fantasy world

[su_liam]

Hi. That was my awful blog.
I'm glad to see you got that rot-file working. It took me a few errors to get it working myself.
The most likely problem is that you need at least to lines for each plateid. One for the initial time and one for the final time.
Positions are interpolated, but gplates can't extrapolate. Neat thing is that gplates will automagically create new lines when you move plates around.
I tried to be pretty thorough(boring, longwinded, dull as slow-moving brown mud), but if I missed anything, questions could help.

[ascanius]

I'll have to have a look at G Plates - looks like a great tool. As for the dark path - the force is strong down that way and I assure you there's light at the end There are great tectonically-aware maps popping up in the guild - groovey's, akubra's, yours.

Now, as for your changes:
- the divergent boundaries are better placed, but you have to consider the same reasoning when placing the subduction between the two oceanic plates that are converging. The one that is "sinking" should be disappearing, hence, should be narrower. Also, keep in mind that oldest oceanic crust goes under, younger stays atop.
- it isn't necessary to continue that divergent line into the continent, you can consider that the continental plate moving southwards is "covering" that magma source - but you can continue it if you like, that sort-of-peninsula could pass for a breakaway "craton".
- zone A still doesn't convince me.
- for zone C (and overall, for the plate over the south pole) I really recommend that you make a stereographic projection of the zone and try groovey's technique of having a semi-transparent layer on top of it rotating. Plate movement close to the poles is hard to visualize.
- mini-continent E should be as far from the divergent line as much as the large continent to the west, assuming that is a breakaway plate. On its east boundary, however, there's no reason to have such a wide front of oceanic crust. Either you make the east boundary close to the land mass or you keep it where it is and you add a big underwater continental area, with a mature island-arc at its limit.

Overall, ascarius, great improvements, but I wonder how it will look if you use g plates. kudos for finding that gem!

Hey Pixie, Thanks for your help. Sadly I've been trying to figure out gplates..... and well I've got a whole new map. It's a really interesting program, don't know if you've checked it out yet but I say give it a try. Hopefully if I'm not too busy stop wasting time a get the above map on gplates and see how it works. I will say the Euler poles on gplates works really well, you can get a lot of different results by using a pole that I never would have thought of. Got some screenshots of what I've done in gplates so far. I've noticed that by doing a time progression you can figure out really well where islands are even those left over from previous plate interactions that are no longer there.

150M yrs ago .
prvw 1 150ma.jpg

169 M yrs ago showing a oceanic ridge(s) and corresponding plates.
169 Ma preview 4.jpg

140 Ma yrs ago same area
140 Ma preview 6.jpg


Ok now I'm done playing back to work

Hi. That was my awful blog.
I'm glad to see you got that rot-file working. It took me a few errors to get it working myself.
The most likely problem is that you need at least to lines for each plateid. One for the initial time and one for the final time.
Positions are interpolated, but gplates can't extrapolate. Neat thing is that gplates will automagically create new lines when you move plates around.
I tried to be pretty thorough(boring, longwinded, dull as slow-moving brown mud), but if I missed anything, questions could help.

My compliments on the tutorial, your blog helped a ton. The problem I was having with the rot files was a simple one. My text editor deemed rot extensions beneath it's lofty notice and was adamant about deciding which extension to use. In the end I used the humble notepad.

Not sure if you know but in the latest version of gplates you can now create and modify the rot file in the program without having to use a text editor, very handy. Do you know if it matters if you save a feature as unkown or fault or coastline? So far it doesn't seem to change anything.

Edit: No idea where that thumbnail came from.

[groovey]

Wow, this stuff with GPlates is miles away from my comprehension, too complex for me to even try it, but it's blowing my mind a little, I can't believe a software that does this stuff exists, it's wonderful.

Can't wait to see more of your experiments with it and how will all translate to your new map.

About thumbnails, that happens to me when I load an image and then I delete it for whatever the reason. What I do is "Edit" the post and then "Go Advanced", then scroll down a bit to "Manage Attachments", click that button and it will lead you to a window where in the bottom it shows the images attached to the post. If you stop your cursor over the one you want to delete, in your case, the one attached below your post, you'll see on the right corner of the image an "x" appears, and clicking that deletes it.

[ascanius]

Thanks groovey got rid of the thumbnail. The only problem with gplates is there is a learning curve and its very time consuming. What I do like however is that running 8 plate movements through time I'm starting to see the logical places where plates will form along with the places that simply don't make sense. I've had to delete a few plates already because there was no explanation on they formed. They looked good at the beginning and they made sense but once I simulated the movements of the plates I realized they're location and movement was impossible. It's a nifty program if I was confident in my python programing I would totally create an extension that simplifies things a ton.

Edit: Does anyone know if it's possible for two plates to fuse into one?