The fascinating lands of the Lost World

[waldronate]

I'm going to ask an unpleasant question, so please don't be overly offended here: how important are the world's tectonics to the stories you want to tell? Not all maps need to be physically plausible and most maps made by characters in semi primitive cultures are going to be wildly inaccurate.

That giant continent in the middle is going to have deserts the likes of which earth hasn't seen for millions of years (assuming earth size and equirectangular projection).

[Neutron_22]

I'm going to ask an unpleasant question, so please don't be overly offended here: how important are the world's tectonics to the stories you want to tell? Not all maps need to be physically plausible and most maps made by characters in semi primitive cultures are going to be wildly inaccurate.

Hi waldronate!
Don't worry, this is a question I have asked myself several times! In fact, my story focuses mainly on the southeastern continent, and I don't know if it will ever reach the shores of the central one.
The point is that I would like to know the geography of the whole world, and for this to be at least plausible.
I know it might perhaps seem like a waste of time (and indeed it has been for many years now, because it has distracted me from writing those stories), but I make no secret of the fact that it would be wonderful to see the whole world come to life. That's why I finally decided to abandon GPlates and do the work by hand-it seemed like an acceptable compromise.

That giant continent in the middle is going to have deserts the likes of which earth hasn't seen for millions of years (assuming earth size and equirectangular projection)

Yes, I realize that the central continent is huge, considering that the planet has a larger radius than the Earth, it should have an area of about 91 million square kilometers. Actually the huge desert might be an interesting feature (or just very unrealistic?), I don't know. Any suggestions?

[Naima]

Hi waldronate!
Don't worry, this is a question I have asked myself several times! In fact, my story focuses mainly on the southeastern continent, and I don't know if it will ever reach the shores of the central one.
The point is that I would like to know the geography of the whole world, and for this to be at least plausible.
I know it might perhaps seem like a waste of time (and indeed it has been for many years now, because it has distracted me from writing those stories), but I make no secret of the fact that it would be wonderful to see the whole world come to life. That's why I finally decided to abandon GPlates and do the work by hand-it seemed like an acceptable compromise.



Yes, I realize that the central continent is huge, considering that the planet has a larger radius than the Earth, it should have an area of about 91 million square kilometers. Actually the huge desert might be an interesting feature (or just very unrealistic?), I don't know. Any suggestions?

I do the tectonic work by hand too , I find Gplates an useless overburden that takes too much time to learn and even more time to use in a proper way when I can do all what I need by simply applying logic and some Tectonics knowlegdge.

Usually Tectonics are usefull for two reasons to me :

1 Create plausible position of orography like mountains, basins, underwater features and continental shapes.
2 Have an idea of where to position world resources like from Oil to Gold and so on.

That's all for me , some people might want to delve deeper and have all the geological evolutionary stages of the continental drifts but this really depends on the needs I think and for most uses , to have a tectonic map is more than enough to have very plausible and realistic world.

[Neutron_22]

I do the tectonic work by hand too , I find Gplates an useless overburden that takes too much time to learn and even more time to use in a proper way when I can do all what I need by simply applying logic and some Tectonics knowlegdge.

Usually Tectonics are usefull for two reasons to me :

1 Create plausible position of orography like mountains, basins, underwater features and continental shapes.
2 Have an idea of where to position world resources like from Oil to Gold and so on.

That's all for me , some people might want to delve deeper and have all the geological evolutionary stages of the continental drifts but this really depends on the needs I think and for most uses , to have a tectonic map is more than enough to have very plausible and realistic world.

Yes, GPlates is very obtuse in some circumstances. That's why I think maybe I'll only be able to come to grips with this project by moving away from it.


Quick update, I tweaked the tectonics a bit, specifically trying to create a Pacific analogue and introduce a divergent continental rift to recreate a situation similar to the Rift Valley in Africa. Then I started refining the coastline, adding island arcs in the vicinity of subduction zones and adding a small inland sea in the central supercontinent, which could be an ancient trapped ocean remnant of a very ancient collision. I have also tried drawing fjords and glacial archipelagos, although I am not very convinced....

TECTONICS SKETCH 2.png

LANDMASSES SKETCH 1.png