Esfera - Plate Techtonics

[Deoridhe]

I'm still here, but I ended up not happy with my climates (very small or missing tons of interesting ones!) so I've decided to dive into tectonics again using Gplates. The learning curve is a bit intense, but the ability to draw directly on a globe and set up my plates etc... is amazing! I'm getting a much better sense of how things could be moving and should be moving, and the dragging edges of things as they move.

I've also upped my number of plates significantly and for now am leaving the island chains out until I have a sense of how the plates are moving against each other. I haven't figured out how to export what I'm making into something equirectangular yet, but I'm sure it's coming! Just isolating the plates is taking a long time, and then I have to start playing with trying to reconstruct a pangaea or a couple of continents in the past before dragging the whole mess forward again! Once I can make pictures, I'll share.

[davoush]

Hi Deoridhe,

Glad to hear you are still working on this! I am looking forward to the next iteration of your map. This is just a thought so feel free to ignore it, but it's something I experienced - the learning curve for G. Plates does seem quite steep and time-intensive. Of course, I don't know the level of detail and 'back story' you're going for with the tectonics, but I soon found that it was faster to just draw land-masses and seas with vague tectonic processes in mind, and then work it out by hand which gave more-or-less OK results as long as I was willing to rework certain areas (although you may be creating a much more detailed and complex map than I was, in which case, enjoy G. Plates!).

[Deoridhe]

Thanks, Davoush! I'm having a lot of fun, even though parts of it are really tedious!

Yeah, at least two of my continents require several iterations of push and pull to form their final forms, and I'm finding that's a lot easier to imagine on a globe than not. Similarly, I want to end up with two fairly sizable island chains (I think I've given up on Continent Serenthia; it was always too bulky and kist looked wrong where it was), and being able to move the points around as I play with continental plates and suchlike is proving to be really useful. I think both of the island chains will end up being shredded bits of lost continent left behind as the two most complicated and fractured continents take shape, and trying to imagine that in a flat setting has never seemed to work. They seem far apart on a flat map but are surprisingly close together on a globe, and I think the push/pull of them will end up making their final shapes plausible, even if unlikely, and as a bonus will give me my plausible Serenthia set of islands.

I've got the plates mostly laid out (modifying as I go) and I've been setting up the coastlines and subduction centers. I will probably end up breaking the subduction areas up into a few different "ages" as different parts of the continents move and change, and when parts of them become stuck together. Even if I end up not actually using the movement over time features, just being able to scroll effortlessly around the globe is proving to be really valuable. I think I'm getting a sense of the "drag" effect on the ends of things as they move together and apart, even! And the fact that the lines are point based makes it easy to make modifications on the fly; I had a lot more difficulty doing that with drawing in Gimp. It's weird how different global versus flat visualization is.

[Pixie]

Go on and show us what yo've got, Deoridhe... this is a WIP (Work In Progress) thread, isn't it?

[Deoridhe]

Ok! I figured out how to export it - kinda! 8D

GPlates Esfera.png

Each circle is a separate plate (kinda). I started with a rough outline of each subsection of the different continents and am in the process right now of setting up the subduction zones and building the coastlines (which is seriously time consuming, but I think will be worth it in the end because I'll be able to change the shape of the continents as I go). I'll be adding in a separate level for the submerged continental edges as well (I'm not sure what to call it, since I think plates include ocean shelves as well and crantons are significantly smaller). I want to use those to shape out the island ends that came from the continents being pulled by the subduction zones, so that my edges seem more natural as someone suggested earlier in this thread. I think the "drag" effect should actually make the continents look a lot cooler even while keeping my bizarre teenage fascination with ALL THE PENINSULA! ALL OF THEM!! MORE PENINSULA!!! THE PENINSULA SHOULD HAVE PENINSULA!!!! *cough cough* sorry

You may have noticed the number of plates has increased - I'm planning to try to sketch out three or four different ranges of subduction, with the subsequent sections of plate fusing and moving together (e.g. the top right continent's first subduction came in from the side, they got stuck together, and the whole thing moved north for a long while. This is what we call "currently the simplest continent because omgwtfteenagers".).

The un-plated continent is where I'm going to try to make a second chain of islands once I've stretched out the existing plate edges to meet each other, and will probably include at least one added purely ocean plate - more if I'm feeling frisky! My general mindset is that there's been a lot of techtonics at play, so things have smooshed and re-smooshed several times leaving us with a variety of much smaller plates to justify the odd continental shapes and my need for shiny islands clusters.

I clearly need more formal language to differentiate things, but I think you get the general idea!

[davoush]

Hi Deoridhe,

Nice to see your update on this. Is this most recent map an example of plates still moving towards the desired land shapes? I think they are slightly different from your original maps?

Some things I learnt from some members' expertise and reading around the subject which might be of use - seem of those big oceans are likely the result of mid-oceanic ridges (seafloor spreading) which you don't seem to have accounted for. Some of those more or less continental plates should contain a lot of ocean on either side as well (for example: the mid-atlanic ridge). This also means that as they rift in one side, they (probably) subduct on the other.

If earth's current state is anything to go by, it seems more likely that there would be a few large plates which determine the overall motion of things, with smaller plates cropping up. Perhaps Pixie or someone more knowledgable could tell us whether having so many small plates made of mostly continental crust has been attested? It seems that your landmasses are either currently all in the process of converging or rifting which will impact the oceans.

I have drawn a rough example (hope you don't mind!) of where mid-oceanic ridges look like they would be appearing. The pink lines indicate that as one side spreads, it will likely subduct on the other side depending on the movement of the neighbouring plate:

GPlates Esfera Suggestions.png

[Deoridhe]

Hi Davoush! Thanks so much for your feedback on the seafloor! Right now I'm trying to focus on the continental plates, though, since the current continents are so complicated. I figure the ocean crust is the last thing for me to worry about, since geologically it's significantly younger than everything else and created by the current movement of the continental crust sections.

The outlines are meant to be the current continental crust, giving me rough outlines I can roll back through two or three rounds of subduction and rifting to for the "lots of small plates" configurations I need to account for my unrealistic continents. I'm imagining most of the continental crust on the large continents are fused and moving together currently, but I think subdividing and ascribing some of the divisions to rifting caused by continental drag will give me options for accounting for my peninsulaphilia.

Esfera 2017-07-30.png

I've changed some of the continental crust pieces and tried to figure out how they could move to create the final continents. The double blue arrows are the directions I postulate each continental section are moving currently, though those are pretty preliminary and subject to change. Once I figure out how to move the plates themselves (youtube videos and guides are a go!) I'll try to do a single step back to the previous snapshot in time and see what I think.

If anyone sees any glaring errors, I'd love to know! This is really complicated but oddly fun to try to imagine.

[Deoridhe]

I ended up going back about six iterations to find a Pangaea and to map out different pieces moving about, and I have a final result I'm pretty happy with! It only took me three tries! I've added in island groups again, remaking Serenthia and Thyslin in a way which is hopefully a little more realistic. I'm least certain of the hot spots - I know they tend to for opposite a subducton zone, so I placed them there. I'm debating one or two Hawaii-esque middle-plate hot spots as well, but for the moment this will do.

I've already mapped out my mountain ranges using the movements of the plates and I'm starting to make the maps prettier again. Once the mountain ranges are in, I'll get started on some weather. Woot~!

Esfera - Plate Tectonics.png

For comparison - here's where I started:

Attachment 95926