World Map WIP: Mountain placement

[Certhbor]

That Arctic 'continent' had been bugging me quite a bit already (at the time I posted the map I intended to remake it so that it was nothing but the 'peninsula', stretching across [going north, over the pole, and back south on the opposite side], but I had not yet got around to fixing that), and the more I look at it the more I feel it has to disappear. I may simply remove all of that landmass north of about 45°N, and I may possibly expand the remaining piece of land to the southwest somewhat, so it's less of a strip.

As to projection distortion, I've been thinking about it, and forgetting about it, as I generated the coastlines. I'll try to keep it in mind more for my next iteration of the map (the projection of which I haven't decided upon yet), as well as figuring out just how I want the coastlines to look 'in reality', as it were.

I'll also try to read up on/get a better a grasp of tectonics, which is something I've tried to think of when placing the mountains, but felt fairly inept about, which means that the mountain placement isn't entirely random, except in the sense that that's where I wanted mountains, trying to figure out why/if they belonged there. The coastlines by the sea between Northania and Southaria will be made to fit the two continents together better as well.

Speaking of which, those worn-down mountains, would they be on either side of the sea, or only the one?

[LindaJeanne]

I'll also try to read up on/get a better a grasp of tectonics, which is something I've tried to think of when placing the mountains, but felt fairly inept about, which means that the mountain placement isn't entirely random, except in the sense that that's where I wanted mountains, trying to figure out why/if they belonged there. The coastlines by the sea between Northania and Southaria will be made to fit the two continents together better as well.

Speaking of which, those worn-down mountains, would they be on either side of the sea, or only the one?

The oversimplified cliff-notes version :

Things that cause mountains:
* On the front edge of a moving continental plate (for instance: the Andes continue to grow, as South America continues to push West, further away from Africa, which it used to be connected to.
* Were two plates are rubbing against each other going in opposite directions, causing them both to "scrunch" up a bit (for instance: California, around the San Andres fault)
* Where a continent is colliding with another continent (example: India's in-progress collision with Asia, which is creating the Himalayas)
* Volcanic activity (which also usually occurs near fault lines at the boundaries of plates)

Old-worn-down mountains are from places where these things took place in the geological past, but now things have changed:
* Example: the Appalacian Mountains were created when proto-north-america collided with proto-Africa. Later, the mid-atlantic rift opened up and they started moving in the other direction, and have been eroding ever since
* Exampe: The Ural mountains, formed when proto-europe collided with proto-asia. The plate has since fused solid, so there is no longer a fault there, and the mountains have been eroding ever since.

Continental plates can fuse together (e.g. Asia and and Europe, at the Urals) or break apart (i.e. Africa's Great Rift Valley), which changes where the fault lines are. New mountains occur near current fault lines, the old worn down ones places where there used to be a fault line, but isn't anymore.

That is... way over simplified. To the point that someone will probably point out some gross inaccuracies . But it may be helpful as a high-level overview.


Edited to add: I managed to say all that without actually answering your question . If you look at Africa/North America/Appalachian mountains as a model, they are on one side. The continent is probably going to split where the crust is a bit thinner, not at the peak of a mountain range.

[Hai-Etlik]

Speaking of which, those worn-down mountains, would they be on either side of the sea, or only the one?

My understanding is they would tend to occur on both (Old convergent boundary re-opening) or neither (A new rift opening), though they might be more pronounced on one side or the other, or the subsidence as they rift might flood the mountains on one side but not the other.