[WIP] Building a world from tectonics onward

[Charerg]

Looks good, though I'd drop the subduction zone extending westwards. This scenario would place the adjacent oceanic crust under slab pull in both directions, forcing a new ridge in the middle of that sea. That would also conflict with continent A shifting direction and breaking apart (as it would no longer be under slab pull in this scenario).

[MrBragg]

That would also conflict with continent A shifting direction and breaking apart (as it would no longer be under slab pull in this scenario).

Doh! It's so obvious after you point it out...

Ok, so with the offending subduction zone removed, at 100 Mya I end up with the following scenario. Moving forward, since C has lost most of its northeastern slab pull forces, it changes direction to a more northerly vector. This, in turn, changes the nature of the C-B interaction from being simple convergent subduction to a retreating subduction zone. My current thought is to treat that as something of a Kermadec-Tonga situation where a piece of B--likely including a chunk of the continent in the south--gets ripped off and a new spreading center opens. That will evolve for a while, until I can think of what else to do with it.

100Ma_bab.png 95Ma_bab.png 80Ma_bab.png

[MrBragg]

Alright, so continuing to hack away at this and (hopefully!) make some progress. This is the current whole-world state of things at the "present" age; all of the boundaries in the saturated colors seem to check out as reasonable from gplates while the lighter boundaries are places not fully fleshed out and are more just rough ideas (dashed red are incipient or recently failed rifts). In particular I don't really like all of the intra-oceanic subduction happening in the far north and far west of the map as those types of boundaries don't really seem occur so extensively on earth. The northern subduction arises from when the supercontinent over the north pole breaks up, so I'm not quite sure what to do there other than keep extending the subductrion zone as the fragments drift apart. I'll keep thinking about this region, but if anyone has any brilliant ideas for how to handle it--or to tell me it's fine and to stop obsessing --I'm all ears!

currentState.png

[MrBragg]

I've finally gotten around to cleaning up the last tectonics iteration and have something that I like a bit better than my previous attempt. The history at least is more consistent and I've gotten rid of some of my all-land-is-surrounded-by-subduction problems. The boundaries here are still roughly depicted, but if anything seems grossly implausible please tell me before I settle on this as "final" and then discover something off in a year

map6_newPlates_rough_small.png
Attachment 131668

[Tiluchi]

Looks great overall! I'm assuming that tectonically complex bit around the equator will turn into an Indonesia-style archipelago of microcontinents, yes? I've also struggled with random oceanic subduction zones going off the edge of continents in my own world, and it can be frustrating, but I think what you have there is fine. Perhaps an Alaska-style peninsula on the northwest of that western continent would help it look a bit less incongruous? Otherwise hard to say without seeing the GPlates animation.

[MrBragg]

Thanks Tiluchi! You're right about that messy area being an Indonesia / Oceania style archipelago, I just haven't actually added the land there yet.

I like the idea of trying to add in a peninsula to the northwestern continent. I can imagine that kind of thing being consistent with either an original part of the continent that split off during the breakup (rough gplates sketch) or as being something that accumulated over time as a series of terrane collisions a la real Alaska. Added to the to-do list!

fakedAlaska.png

[MrBragg]

It's been forever, but I finally "finished" version 2.0 of my tectonics. I think I've fixed most of the ugly stuff, so now I just need to not stare at this for too long before I find anything else I don't like

map6_plates_small.png

[Charerg]

Definitely a great improvement! Kudos for sticking with it all the way to the end, I know getting a satisfying tectonic layout can be a huge pain.

Great work and looking forward to seeing more .

[MrBragg]

Thanks Charerg! Definitely wouldn't have been able to get here without all the help I've gotten from you and others on here, so kudos back

It's only a relatively small perturbation from the last round, but while I still have ambition I've tweaked the currents / pressures to account for the modified landmasses.

Currents:
map6_currents_small.png

Pressures (Jan / July):
map6_pressures_jan_small.png map6_pressures_july_small.png

[MrBragg]

Sure, it's mostly water, but there's also some experimenting with island topography in here. The intended scale is a ~1750 mi / side square, so none of these are supposed to be all that big.

lots_o_islands.png