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Thread: Does this planet map outline look correct? (Mostly about mountain ranges)

  1. #1
    Guild Novice Technocolor's Avatar
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    Wip Does this planet map outline look correct? (Mostly about mountain ranges)

    Hey, been lurking for a little while now since I recently-ish decided I should probably make a world map for the fantasy story i've been writing because just having a vague idea of the country the main characters live in is limiting especially now that I wanna take it in a more adventure direction. My idea is for it to be a pretty large planet with a lot of untamed wilderness, even up until the time period when the story takes place which has very similar tech levels to us. (in some ways better, some ways worse) Following along Artifaxians world building guide I made the radius 1.33 Earth and wanting similar gravity a mass of 1.75 Earth's putting this planet almost-ish at a super Earth size. (along with a solar system but thats not relevant right now : P)

    Im wondering if the mountain ranges are appropriate in scale as well as well as okay in position. Thinner lines being either older more weathered mountains or just thinner ranges. Ive also thrown in a large river outline which I'd like to start initially from a big lake maybe. My intent for the largest continent was to have it almost split entirely by mountains making the middle of the continent extremely hard to cross with the largest gap in the north being maybe Siberia esq in climate so yeah pretty poor for traversing. (the planet on average is colder then earth, maybe 7*c? So itll start getting colder at lower latitudes compared to Earth) Oh and I was also thinking maybe the two large continents were pretty recently connected by a land bridge (maybe 500ish years or so?) but then that like flooded over and/or a huge volcano erupted like Krakatoa did in 1883 but larger near the halfway point destroying the land bridge. Idk I wanted to avoid the situation that happened when Europeans started migrating to the Americas and bringing their plagues which wiped out almost the entire native populations. I could of course have it be that God got angry and blew it up but Id rather that be a myth and then have an actual possible scientific reason behind it. (a theme Id like to have across the map, fantastical landscapes that could be explained by science but maybe not entirely as thats a theme in the story itself) And let me know what kind of adjustments I should make to the land mask. I feel like I need more islands and inlets in the polar regions maybe because thats what an ice age does apparently but idk if those would even be large enough to be seen on a world map this size. (lmao idk what the map scale here even is, Id prefer to not get over 10,000 pxs in length. Nasa's blue marble Next Generation images are 21,600 pxs in length and are 500 meters/pixel according to its info page so thats a scale of 1/500 at the equator in an equirectangular map I think??) Oh and also how much surface area should the ocean cover and to determine if my map reflects that do I use G.Projecter to get an equal area map and see what percent of total pixels of the map is black? And does it need more water because its more massive or slightly less water because the gravity is slightly lower? (about 98 though
    Thanks~ And I think Ill name it Paradoven
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    Last edited by Technocolor; 11-01-2017 at 12:28 AM.

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    Guild Novice Technocolor's Avatar
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    Okay so around a month and lots of reading later Ive revised quite a few things things. Based on Eric Gaba's map Ive done a very rough outline on some plates and shaded in some mountanious/orogeny zones. Im wondering how this looks so far. I tried mimicking things that are happening on Earth as that map displays it. These are just really general outlines and a lot of those subduction zones are probably coming from more then just one oceanic plate subducting. I just want to know if Im on the right track here. Btw Im not sure what to make of the whole super Earths may or may not be more geologically active thing. I think I've been imagining Paradoven to be more geologically active but Im not sure if that would be the case or not. OTL

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    Guild Grand Master Azélor's Avatar
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    I was also thinking maybe the two large continents were pretty recently connected by a land bridge (maybe 500ish years or so?) but then that like flooded over and/or a huge volcano erupted like Krakatoa did in 1883 but larger near the halfway point destroying the land bridge.
    Recently would be more like 50 million years ago because this is a big gap.
    An ice age would have the effect of lowering the sea level, exposing even more land.
    A volcano does not destroy land, it helps creating more. The top of the volcano is likely to explode but overtime, the lava flow from multiple eruptions will have created land around it.
    Even if you have separated islands, they are too close to completely prevent migration. Some species were able to travel to South America from Africa, a few million years ago.


    Idk I wanted to avoid the situation that happened when Europeans started migrating to the Americas and bringing their plagues which wiped out almost the entire native populations.
    The firsts migrants came from Asia and they also wiped out most of the humans already present.
    Europeans did the same thing but they had boats and more advanced technology.
    At a certain point of history, this migration will become inevitable.

    I feel like I need more islands and inlets in the polar regions maybe because that what an ice age does apparently
    Not really. Ice age means lower water level and thus more land, everywhere, not just small islands. Continents would spread further away form actual coastline for example.
    What the ice age did on Earth was done when the ice melted. As glaciers melt and move, they grind away the rocks and create fjords like scars. Just look at the coast of Norway for example.
    But during an ice age, all these islands, fjords, canals and else are all covered in ice. You don't have to think about it too much.

    Oh and also how much surface area should the ocean cover and to determine if my map reflects that do I use G.Projecter to get an equal area map and see what percent of total pixels of the map is black? And does it need more water because its more massive or slightly less water because the gravity is slightly lower? (about 98 though
    The oceans can cover as much as you want. The planet is larger and so are the continents. You are likely to have more extreme climates.
    Strong monsoon but also very harsh deserts when there are no precipitations.

    Your planet is larger but has a lower gravity than Earth, so a much smaller density. Which mean that it is made of lighter elements.
    So you would need to replace a lot of the heavy stuff with lighter stuff like water. I don't know how much. You would probably need very deep oceans and the surface land would be smaller, maybe just limited to mountain tops.
    Larger planets usually have higher gravity but I could be wrong.

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    Guild Novice Technocolor's Avatar
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    I was thinking about the hypothetical 'land bridge' being from an oceanic plate subducting under/converging with the two larger plates that are separating and then later I guess that oceanic plate separating massively in some dramatic earthquake but yeah thats extremely unrealistic in movement for a plate cus they don't suddenly change direction so drastically like that and even if they did it would take a long time to even see a gap forming on the surface. I think i'll have there be a lot of volcanic island up there with either a small plate rifting away from the two larger plates and subsequently subducting under the plate at the pole or just one bigger pole plate moving in such a way to cause a rift in that location.

    Gravity on a planet is related to both its mass and radius. But the difference was only about 2% less then Earth so it's not a big deal, I was just curios if that meant there should be about 2% less of the surface covered in water. And because the radius is larger then Earth's but still has practically the same gravity that makes the planet less dense so yeah MUCH deeper oceans. I guess that also means less islands though because they would need to be even taller to reach the surface?
    Last edited by Technocolor; 11-02-2017 at 09:45 PM.

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    Allllllrrriiiiiigghhht almost a month later and Ive got this now. VERY general and basic but it gets what I want. Might make plate C be in early stages of separating. From what I understand the plates on Paradoven would be thinner then the plates on Earth because of its larger circumference and mass, thus in general they break easier and move faster.

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