Well, creating a nice (I think) tectonic map is really simple.

Unlike dhalsimrocks' tut, which is tectonic map --> world map, this is world map --> tectonic map.

For this tutorial to make sence, it's best to not have finished your maps yet. The mountain ranges must be in chains and, well, the map should simply follow the laws of geology.


(Note: If you allready know where you want your fault lines / plate boundaries to go, skip to step 5)


1) First study the way plate tectonics work. There are three basic types of fault lines: Transform Faults, where tectonic plates slide past one another (eg. the San Andreas Faultline and the Middle-Eastern part of the Great Rift Valley); Divergent Faults, where pates spread (eg. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge and Africa's part of the Great Rift Valley); and Convergent Faults, where tectonic plates crash into each other. There are three basic types of Convergent Faults: Mid-Ocean Subduction Faults, where oceanic crust (thin crust) colides and the one plate slides underneath the other - this plate can then melt under the other plate. The material can then rise as volcanoes, forming volcanic islands next to the fault on the "top plate" (eg. The Indonesian Islands and much of the rest of the Pacific islands); Coastal Subduction Faults, where oceanic crust colides with continental (thick) crust. The oceanic crust slides under the continetal crust. The same volcano-forming prossess can now take place, only instead of forming an island chain in the ocean, it'll form a volcanic mountain range allong the coast of the continent (eg. The Andes Mountains in South America and the Rocky Mountains in North America); then there are Continental Colision Faults, where continental crusts colide. It's now alot harder for one plate to slide below the other, so both plates take the obvious route: up. This forms huge non-volcanic mountain ranges (eg. The Ural or Himalayan Mountains).

Now that that's sorted, find simmilar features on your map. Look for mountain ranges, island chains, ridges and vallies.


2) Found them? At this point, I usually coppy my map (with the needed features) down on paper. I then look for the most likely fault zones (based off the above information) and draw lines where they would be (note: Never draw your fault lines over mountain ranges unless it's a continental colision fault. Same goes for island ranges. The only point at which faults can go through mountains or islands is when it's a transform fault. For vallies or ridges, draw the fault line directly down the middle).


3) Now, to complete your plates, it's a simple prossess of connecting the lines. See what I did on my map. There are some points where faultlines follow no apparent landmarks. These will usually be transform faults. Note that some faults you drew earlier may be seperated form everything else. On Earth, this does happend. Many faultlines do not count as plate boundaries. Examples of these are the Baffin Rift Zone, the Great Glen Fault and the Ural Collision Fault. It's ok to have these on your map. Even I've got quite a few of those on my map.


4) Now, you may want to add features allong your faults that weren't there origionally, simply to make the tectonic map seem more believable. These features would be things like volcanoes, ridges or anything like that. Use my map as an example if you wish.


5) Now it's time to put this on your computer (unless you want to keep it a drawing, that is. If so, you're done! ^^). If your origional map was on the computer, you may want to keep your tectonic drawing nearby for this step.

First, right click your map (if it's allready computerised. Otherwise you'll need to skan in your drawing) and select "edit". You should find yourself looking at your map in MS Paint in a few seconds.

Now, select the colour you want to draw the faults in with. I used red (I darkened it abit by going to the top menu bar (--> colours --> edit colours) after selecting red). Now, use the "line" tool. Select your line width and start drawing in your fault lines where they are meant to be straight. (Note: If you added features to your drawing, you may want to add these to your computerised map before starting with the fault lines).

Where the faultlines bend, it's allitle more tricky. Select the "curve" tool (make sure the line width is the same as your other lines). Now, the curve tool can make lines with at most two curves ("S" shapes), so make sure you use it as such. Click where the curve/double curve in the fault system stars and drag the curser to where it spans its maximum of two curves. Now, you can only edit in the curves twice (that's why it can only make two curves), but MS Paint counts using the curve tool, like any other tool, as one move, so pressing ctrl-Z to undo a curve you didn't really want will mean you'd have to redo the curve.

Now, when you've drawn the line, click somewhere allong the line (NOT the middle!) and drag it in the direction of your first curve. It doesn't really matter where the line ends up yet. Making the second curve does. Now, click on the oposite side of the line and drag it in the direction of your second curve. Concentrate here. Drag it untill the line followes the curves in the fault line. If it doesn't yet, try again.

Now repeat the prossess untill your whole fault system is complete.



Hope that helps. If you have any problems with this technique, I'll be happy to help.