Reply With QuoteI have done some updating. What do you guys think?
First things first, thank you for the image, it is really close to my imagining.
Second, I know what its like to constantly be editing.
Third, g.plates is a program I have never heard of and after a quit look, I will defiantly download and take a closer look.
Thanks!
I have done some updating. What do you guys think?
Last edited by Triceratops; 08-18-2015 at 05:55 PM.
Where is the central plate going ?
If it is nowhere, then how was it created first place ?
Like Pixie said, it is hard to do tectonics without looking at a sphere.
One should NEVER forget that the engine of plate tectonics is the mantle convection. The flow rises on one side of the cell and sinks on another.
The continent is just the thin upper side of a cell which moves with the cell's rotation.
Looking at a sphere adds the 3rd dimension which allows to visualize what the cell is doing inside the planet.
When I use ArcMap I am constantly changing projections, spheres included. I have adjusted them a little since, but they are where I want them. The central continent doesn't have a direction because relative to the other plates, its not really moving, but it is moving south. Also, the south pole is rotating, it is due to magic. The rest is pretty accurate as far as I can tell.
I'm using the plate boundaries to start developing landforms. From there I'll start doing it region to region as needed.
Well if there is something that doesn't seem to be accurate (at least considering that there is no magics governing fluid dynamics at this place) then it is this central plate.
I am talking about the triangular one at about 30° N.
If you say that it moves to the South then the underlying convection cell is going up on the N side and down on the S side.
But if it is going up (hot magma rising) N, then there should be a rift and not a convergent boundary.
And if there is nowhere hot magma going up then there is no convection cell and I don't see how this "plate" could have been moved or even created.
Movement is always relative, In a sphere, when it comes to tectonic plates in particular, what matters is the relative movement of the plates. If that particular plate isn't moving in relation to the other plates around, then they are ALL moving in the same direction at the same speed - in a sphere this is impossible, on the scale of massive tectonic plates, right out impossible!Originally Posted by Triceratops
Why not just place the landforms wherever you want then?... due to magic.
Deadshade, thank you, the specific example illustrated it for me really well. I'll look into it, shouldn't be too hard to fix the boundary on the opposite side, its an area I don't plan on having land anyway.
Pixie, I'm wanting to see how the world would have developed, the magical rotation at the south pole would be a geologically new thing.
I have decided to focus on a region for now. I'm going to do the northeast continent starting with the southern bit. I'm hoping that working on a continental scale will be a bit easier than starting global. I'm going to create some general land forms from a hotspot that passes under the continent causing a chain of shield volcanoes.
Right now I'm working on algorithms to simulate the mountain building.
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