[WIP] World of Aduhr

[Charerg]

Right, so about those geologic features:

Generally speaking, present-day Akanrias is a tectonically sleeping land, the only active boundaries it has are located in the westernmost margins of the subcontinent. As such most of Akanrias is fairly low in terms of elevation, and lacks any truly high mountain ranges. The single most important event responsible for the present-day geography is the dissolution of the ancient supercontinent of Panwara, so it is worth looking at the process in a bit more detail:

Akanrias 200 Mya, just before the breakup of Panwara:
Akanrias 200 Mya.png

Akanrias 175 Mya:
Akanrias 175 Mya.png

Akanrias 150 Mya:
Akanrias 150 Mya.png

Speaking from a world-building perspective, Akanrias has always been a fairly difficult region. Those who have followed the thread for a while may remember how it played a key part in my rework of the tectonic layout back in February when I made that big post regarding tectonics. What I eventually ended up doing for this final version, is a mix of the prior two tectonic models to some degree. So, we have the Great Akanrian Trough opening between Akanrias and mainland Eocidar via a hinge-type rotation. In the northern end of the trough, I ended up with a large system of fault blocks, similar to the Basin and Range Province (although older and more heavily eroded).

Another major geologic feature from this period is the East Akanrian Shear Zone (EASZ), a major transform fault that occurred when the Tamanaro Craton slided eastwards along with Anapar during the breakup process.

As a sidenote, I think may adjust the shape of the subcontinent a bit further. It looks good on an equirectangular projection, but looking at these orthogonal pics, the "stomach" of the continent is too strongly curved, resulting in an overly artificial-looking shape. Oh, and I plan to rework Anapar and Nomune when I eventually get to those continents. As can be seen here, the shape of Anapar obviously needs to be adjusted to fit the updated tectonics.

Btw, I figured out that it's actually possible to automatically locate mid-oceanic ridges using the "flowlines" feature of GPlates (you can see this from the pics, where I've tracked the creation of new crust between Anapar and Eocidar). Similarly, it's possible to directly create hotspot tracks using the "motion paths" feature, as can be seen here with present-day Eocidar:

Hotspot Trail:
Hotspot Trail.png

I'll have to adjust my bathymetry accordingly, since I seem to have the trail a bit off. These features will definitely make it a lot easier to both generate hotspot trails and locate those mid-oceanic ridges, especially if I make some further adjustments to the movement of the continents. Makes me think that maybe I should've read those GPlates tutorials beforehand, I could have saved myself quite a bit of work .

Okay, back on topic:

Geologic features:
Geo.png

So, the above map covers the major geologic features. Originally I planned to include information of the age of the various fold belts and igneous provinces in the map itself, but it ended up being too messy and hard to read (the above map is probably messy enough already ). Here's a rough timeline regarding the ages of the various features:

Ancient Eon (NA-750 Mya):

- 1200-1000 Mya: the Central Akanrian Fold Belts are formed with the collision of West and East Akanrian blocks, creating the core of the subcontinent. Presumably Nomune is likewise accredited into the palaeo-continent as part of the process.
- ca. 900-800 Mya: the East Akanrian Belt is created as the Tamanaro-Anapar block (including the East Eocidarian Craton) collides with Akanrias-Nomune. The resulting continent is called "East Panwara" as it will eventually form the eastern portion of the supercontinent.

Old Eon (750-250 Mya):

- ca. 600-500 Mya: the Western Pan-Eocidarian Belt is formed as the L'kyano Craton collides with West Panwara.
- ca. 500-400 Mya: the Eastern Pan-Eocidarian Belt and the L'kyano Arcs form as East and West Panwara collide, forming the supercontinent (the South Eocidarian block is a smaller piece that was squeezed between the two main blocks).
- ca. 300 Mya: the island of K'yatahi is formed. The Northern K'yatahi block detaches from Akanrias (similar to Borneo detaching from Vietnam in most tectonic reconstructions, this one for example), colliding with the Southern K'yatahi block.

Middle Eon (250-100 Mya):

- 200-150 Mya: the breakup of Panwara. The Great Akanrian Trough opens, along with the creation of the East Eocidarian Fault Block complex. The Tamanaro block splits, with the northernmost part undergoing an eastward motion along the EASZ, generating a mountain range in eastern Akanrias. Numerous LIPs (Large Igneous Provinces) form along the margins of Akanrias and Eocidar as a result of volcanic activity associated with the breakup of the supercontinent.

Young Eon (100 Mya-Present):

- 50-30 Mya: the C'thuana block collides and is accredited to Eocidar, creating a major fold belt in SW Eocidar, and forming a part of the long island of T'kalo.
- 30 Mya-Present: the Trans-Eocidarian Rift begins to open, and intra-continental volcanic activity is initiated in the the L'kyano Metacraton (partly destabilizing the craton, hence the label "metacraton"), eventually forming the M'alabar LIP. This is a comparable formation to the Tibesti Mountains in Africa.
- 20 Mya-Present: the T'kalo block collides with Eocidar, forming a large portion of the island of T'kalo. A very young and immature collision, only at it's beginning phase.

Well, that ended up as a big wall of text. Kudos to anyone who has the patience/interest to read through all that. Hopefully my rambling was at least somewhat coherent. As usual, feedback and questions are appreciated, and I hope you found this interesting!