[Award Winner] Using tectonic plates to draw a world map

[dhalsimrocks]

It may be important to remember that plate motion can't really be described by simply drawing an arrow on the plate and saying "it moves that way." Actual plate motion is actually a rotation around a point on the earth's surface. What you really need to know for this exercise is relative motion; it is completely possible to say that plate 1 is moving west (with respect to plate 2) and at the same time moving east (with respect to plate 3). This situation happens all the time.

Excellent information to add to this! Thanks! The plate tectonics rabbit hole goes pretty deep if you really get into it. And there is a lot more that what I said to be considered if you want total accuracy. (which is precisely what I meant when I said a legitimate geologist could find a thousand things I did wrong. )

I initially entertained the thought of taking the rotational motion into consideration, but my desire to have a new map overtook my desire for scientific accuracy, and decided that it would add considerable complexity, and thus time, to my project. So that's why I stopped at the point of drawing an arrow on the plate and saying "it moves that way".

I take that back, I did take rotational motion into consideration for a few of the plates on my map, but I didn't note it. In particular, my southernmost plate is rotating anti clockwise.