Pangea Ultime, 250 million AD

[acrosome]

Another thread led me to consider this as a mapping challenge (assuming that it hasn't been done before). How about a map of PangaeaUltima- the supercontinent that will form in 250 million years or so?

This would clearly be a project for the crunchy science folks rather than just the artistic folks. You'd need some idea of plate tectonics, and maybe even working out Koppen climates.

[Gamerprinter]

Not that that's a bad idea, but generally I never map the Earth, nor care to. I prefer to make maps of my imagination, and Earth isn't a part of my imagination. Also, while I take tectonic faults into consideration in my maps, I generally hand-wave it and not think to too deeply on it. I'm not too concerned about continental drift. So how the Earth will eventually look, or how it looked in the distant past is of little consequence for me, so pursuing that in a map is not something I care too much about. Others may think differently, and that's fine. I just wanted to explain, my vote of "no".

[acrosome]

I hear you. No offense taken. But I would point out that we are talking far enough in the future that this is essentially de-novo worldbuilding. Mountains would be totally different, etc. There are even multiple disagreements on what this might look like- in particular, whether the Americas will head east to smack into EurAfrica or head west to smack into Asia, as well as just what the Antarctic plate will do.

So, you'd really just need to figure out the shape of the continent, which plates make it up, and go wild. You'd likely NOT be able to pick the modern continents out of it- sea level will be different (especially if the Antarctic ice sheets have melted), plates would have subducted, new sedimentary layers would have formed, etc. Apparently, for odd reasons the Earth's inner temperature would rise, leading to extensive volcanism. Hell, throw an asteroid impact in there if you like. We're due for an extinction event, anyway. Or, include some posthuman mega-engineering (which might be indistinguishable from high fantasy)...

Really, when I thought of it, this idea got me fired up at the prospect of what you gurus could do with it. (Lord knows, I'm struggling just to make my first map.)

See also: here, for yet another take on what the continent might look like. Now that I'm looking I keep finding stuff about this- but no maps that are up to the standards of this forum, frankly..

[Gamerprinter]

Granted it would be speculation, so any generally correct geology would be close enough. As stated, I have no interest in mapping or playing on the Earth. When I play historical fantasy, it isn't really the Earth either, always generally if comparable to the real world at all, its an analog setting.

[madcowchef]

There isn't a vote for "I'd like to see other people do this". I think its a fun idea for some of the more scientific types, as you point out, and would love to see their results.

[spannclann]

I have always used this idea for my D&D world. I would love to tackle it myself, but I don't know the first step.