Procedural Generation of Physical Geography for Palaeogeographic Reconstruction

[h_trismegistus]

Hi Everyone,

New here - I am a life long map enthusiast. I began by collecting every map I could find in my grandparents' National Geographic collection starting from the 30s, and today I work in GIS and Data Visualization and Web Development, doing interactive web-based geospatial visualizations and the like. However, another one of my lifelong interests is Geology, and I am looking to transition my career more directly into the Earth Sciences, and I am specifically interested in Plate Tectonics History and Palaeogeographic Reconstruction.

I have started a project to create highly detailed palaeogeographic maps based on Plate Tectonics reconstructions. I don't know if anyone is familiar with the history of this endeavor, but proper attempts at reconstruction of palaeogeography go back about 30 years, and since then many great tools have been developed, and the amount of data available for reconstruction is ever expanding. There are a number of good reconstructions out there, specifically Christopher Scotese's palaeo map animations, and Ron Blakey's physical geographic 'art' maps of palaeogeography, but Scotese's maps, while rigorous in their scientific underpinning, are merely diagrammatic in style and lack detail, while Blakey's maps are highly detailed, but essentially arbitrary artistic products - he basically takes the plate tectonics reconstructions that people like Scotese does and photoshops in, using hundreds and hundreds of layers, modern-day geomorphological features onto the palaeo geometry of the terrestrial land mass and ocean floor.

My project is to use the data available in the plate tectonics models, which simulate geological processes such as orogenesis, rifting, seafloor spreading, subduction, etc as well as the host of geological and palaeoclimate data out there, to procedurally generate physical detail on to the plate tectonics reconstructions to generate maps with a level of physical detail that approaches Ron Blakey's maps, but that are based on actual data and physical laws as opposed to artistic license, modeled by computer processes to simulate deformation, erosion, river incision, subsidence, uplift, orographic preciptation, climate, etc.

I have a lot of experience in programming for the web (full stack development) and also for data visualization (r, d3, javascript), but this project will be new territory for me, and basically I am looking for help on where to begin. I would like to begin by conducting several experiments and trying to develop models and ways to simulate geological processes, but I really have no idea where to begin. So far I have been inspired actually by the plethora of Fantasy Map generators online, since a Palaeogeographic Reconstruction of the world in geological history is essentially a kind of fantasy map, except that it has real world data as inputs.

Perhaps I should start by asking a more specific question to help me get started: Let's say I have a geometry of shorelines as a vector shape file, and perhaps another vector shape file that traces out the deformation fronts of mountain ranges. How could I generate a realistic looking physical geography for the land masses? I have the elevation model - I mean in terms of graphics programming, how do i go from the elevation and basic geometry to a rendered physical map with rivers, erosion, hillshading, etc - I will figure out the physics, crustal and lithospheric properties, isostatic adjustment, etc. Though I suppose I could use some direction in how to filter the basic elevation model (based on uplift, crustal thickness and isostasy) to procedurally generate realistic mountain terrain taking into account erosion, river incision, orographic precipitation, etc. Really I just need to know what tools I should be using and what are the essential techniques, and I can figure out the way to model it.

Thanks for your help, and if anyone is interested in this project, please let me know.