[WIP] World of Aduhr

[shadixdarkkon]

Okay, last question, I promise. So, I pretty well understand *most* of the tectonic processes, but there is one thing that I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around, and I've asked around on Reddit a bit to no avail. My question is what causes the breakup of supercontinents. I browsed the stuff from Scotese, but the only thing of substance I saw was that subduction is main driving force for plate movement. Buuutt when you look at tectonic reconstructions basically none of the plates that include a landmass are being subducted when Pangea breaks apart. This linkhttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...entered-en.svg shows that even today the the plates that hold the major landmasses are moving even though most of them aren't subducting anywhere. So is there any information on what made Pangea break up the way it did?

[Pixie]

Okay, last question, I promise.

If that's your only big question, then you're up to date with the current science . The mechanics of supercontinent breakup aren't well established yet, most likely there's a sum of several processes over various places in the continent. To start a con-world I think it's safe to establish initial cratons more or less randomly and then break it anyway you wish.
Also, don't forget that there are subduction boundaries that turned into continent-continent collisions.

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[Charerg]

As Pixie remarked, the "true nature" of tectonic processes remains somewhat elusive, there are many questions yet to be answered. However, if a plate is under slab pull, it's basically guaranteed to be dragged into a subduction zone. And that mechanism definitely did play a big role in the formation of Pangaea (and Eurasia). Even in the breakup phase, several movements can be explained through slab pull (Africa [more recent movements], Arabia, India and Australia). But you're correct that it doesn't explain everything.

Like Pixie said, you can make some breakups semi-arbitrary, without any slab pull in play (like the opening of the Atlantic), just keep in mind that if a plate does get subjected to slab pull, that's going to have a major effect on the movement (both direction and speed). I don't know if you've checked my GPlates tut, but I did a semi-accurate table there averaging plate velocities for the past 50 million years, that probably gives a better idea of the relative speeds than just looking at the velocities of present day plates.

[NadirtheFox]

Big thanks for sharing with us your wilbur process Charerg I personaly haven't had time yet to try it out but I am sure that many people will find it usefull. Oh and I saw that you're working on Central Eocidar now - I can't wait for results One question though: how are you going to handle distortion on a globl map? Are you going to erode high latitude areas in polar projection and then try to connect everything somehow (what I can imagine beeing a tricky task) or you are just not using wilbur for global map?

[Charerg]

Big thanks for sharing with us your wilbur process Charerg I personaly haven't had time yet to try it out but I am sure that many people will find it usefull. Oh and I saw that you're working on Central Eocidar now - I can't wait for results One question though: how are you going to handle distortion on a globl map? Are you going to erode high latitude areas in polar projection and then try to connect everything somehow (what I can imagine beeing a tricky task) or you are just not using wilbur for global map?

I'm basically just creating the height maps for each region separately and then I'm going to blend them all together into the global map. So no, I don't plan to use wilbur for the world map, I'll make the height maps for each area separately, roughly dividing large continents like Eocidar based on the drainage basins.

For example, the map of Akanrias was actually in Equirectangular Oblique projection (just as polar and even mid-latitude areas will be). Whereas the map of C. Eocidar I'm working on (though only sporadically right now) is in standard Equirectangular (and you can see part of Akanrias there, now reprojected back into Equirectangular).

[Pixie]

I'm basically just creating the height maps for each region separately and then I'm going to blend them all together into the global map. So no, I don't plan to use wilbur for the world map, I'll make the height maps for each area separately, roughly dividing large continents like Eocidar based on the drainage basins.

For example, the map of Akanrias was actually in Equirectangular Oblique projection (just as polar and even mid-latitude areas will be). Whereas the map of C. Eocidar I'm working on (though only sporadically right now) is in standard Equirectangular (and you can see part of Akanrias there, now reprojected back into Equirectangular).

I have been toying with the idea of using Wilbur to expand the resolution of my heightmap one it's finished. But it seems to me that it would be better to use equal area projections, particularly in higher latitudes.. I haven't yet come to a conclusion about this, specially since it's pretty far away down the line. Thoughts?

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[Charerg]

I have been toying with the idea of using Wilbur to expand the resolution of my heightmap one it's finished. But it seems to me that it would be better to use equal area projections, particularly in higher latitudes.. I haven't yet come to a conclusion about this, specially since it's pretty far away down the line. Thoughts?

... sent from mobile ...

Well, equal area projections have their own distortions, so I'm not sure if it makes as much of a difference as one might think. I believe the key is to just split the world map into smaller chunks, then you can either use equirectangular oblique (centered on the area you're working on), or really any other projection that works for you. Because if you try to process the whole world at once it's still not going to produce good results even if you do use an equal area projection, since then the distance and shape will be distorted (which will make it more difficult to work on the map also).

[Pixie]

Well, equal area projections have their own distortions, so I'm not sure if it makes as much of a difference as one might think. I believe the key is to just split the world map into smaller chunks, then you can either use equirectangular oblique (centered on the area you're working on), or really any other projection that works for you. Because if you try to process the whole world at once it's still not going to produce good results even if you do use an equal area projection, since then the distance and shape will be distorted (which will make it more difficult to work on the map also).

I wasn't thinking about processing the whole map at once, but only making those chunks in equal area projections.. Using an oblique equirectangular is almost the same, I guess, and easier to reproject into the original. I'm glad I asked for your thoughts cheers!

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[Charerg]

I thought I'd post another update of sorts.

I'm still not quite finished with the low-res map of C. Eocidar, though it's getting there. Here's the current state:



This hasn't been run through Wilbur yet, so this is all basically hand drawn stuff so far. Also the below sea level areas are exaggerated on purpose since I know those regions will get partially filled, and also the endorheic basins of the interior likely have water levels below sea level like the Caspian Sea (due to the arid climate). Those regions I envision as largely dried up at present day, though formerly they formed a large inland sea connected to the ocean. They have since become isolated due to the eruption of the M'alabar flood basalt (the blob of volcanic mountains), generally dropping sea level (colder climate and big glaciers in the north), as well as the accretion of the C'thuana terranes to the southwestern margin of Eocidar (which resulted in orogenic uplift). I might post something more detailed about the whole process at some point.

I adjusted my process a bit in the sense that I only plan to make two resolutions: the low-res and the high-res. With that in mind, I've aimed towards greater detail even at this low-res stage (saving myself work in the future when the time comes to work on the high-res map), which is one reason this is taking a while. Additionally the Eastern Pan-Eocidarian mountains (the big plateau in the center of the map) have been a bit of a headache. That's one area that I didn't really have clearly sketched out, and I'm still not quite 100% happy with it (though it's getting better compared to my earlier iterations). Aside from that, I'm fairly satisfied how the map is turning out though, and hopefully I'll be able to move on to the high-res version in the not too far future (though I hesitate to make any predictions since that damn plateau seems to be taking lots of scrapped sketches and revisions, though I'm confident I'll "get it right" eventually).


Edit:
As a mini-update I went and dropped the elevations of the aforementioned plateau drastically. Things are immediately starting to look a bit more balanced and plausible, given that this should be a heavily eroded area (though I'll probably re-uplift some regions).

[davoush]

Wow - amazing as always. I can really picture Aduhr as a real place. Do you make the elevation in raster or vector?