Esfera - Plate Techtonics

[The_Sleeping_Dragon]

Great project, absolutely inspiring
More on mountains

Mountains are formed as volcanic, fold and block mountains. All result from plate tectonics. Compressional forces, isostatic uplift and intrusion of igneous matter forces surface rock upward, creating a landform higher than the surrounding features.

Over the course of many million years, these uplifted sections are eroded by the elements – wind, rain, ice and gravity and either will be found still near the original plate collision or overlap or sometimes a land mass can move away from the plates. I would expect volcanoes in the sea as islands where eruption has destroyed land and you could keep some of the islands if volcanic

The elements and glaciation gradually wear the surface of the mountains down creating a different shape and mountains to shrink but volcanoes can grow again on eruption

Volcanic Mountains:
Volcanic mountains are formed when a tectonic plate is pushed beneath another (or above a mid-ocean ridge or hotspot) where magma is forced to the surface

Fold Mountains:
Fold mountains occur when two tectonic plates collide at a convergent plate boundary, causing the crust to overthicken. This process forces the less dense crust to float on top of the denser mantle rocks eg the Zagros Mts

Block Mountains:
Block mountains are caused by faults in the crust, a seam where rocks can move past each other. Also known as rifting, this process occurs when rocks on one side of a fault rise relative to the other eg the Vosges Mts.




Best wishes

[Deoridhe]

I remembered volcanic and fold, but I'd forgotten block mountains! I'm trying another reworking of the mountain chains, trying for something more responsive to the plate tectonics and a bit more individualized, and adding on some river chains. Adding in the feathered effect of the mountain ranges like Vosges might be a bit harder, though, at least with the method I'm using. I might leave those kinds of details for closer up images, just making a notation level (I have those for a lot of things, like weather flow) but I really appreciate the pointers toward different ranges to look more closely at.

[Charerg]

I might add that fault block mountains generally form as a result to the crust being stretched (in other words, it is an extensional process). So, in a sense, it's the opposite of fold-and-thrust belts, which form as a result of crust being contracted. Keep that in mind when reworking your mountain chains (so you don't end up with massive systems of fault blocks right next to a subduction zone without a good reason as to why they're there).

[Deoridhe]

Okay, I've given the mountain ranges another swing and updated the tectonics to include subduction zones and the direction of movement. I spent a while staring at Earth's plates, but I'm not sure I thought through it entirely - at a certain point my eyes started crossing! I'm also not sure of the continent to continent crush points and how to mark places where they've smooshed together and are moving together. Right now I have them as subduction places, but that doesn't seem right...?

I've also added hot spots, using them to mark where the biggest volcanoes are as well. I haven't added islands for the hot spots in the ocean, and I'm not sure if I have enough or where other ones might show up.

I've also reworked the rivers using a roughed up weather flow based - trying to keep the rivers where there should be enough rain to create them (I'm attaching the rough out of the weather flow, too - the planet is moving in the same direction as Earth for reasons of simplicity). I'm not sure of what will happen between Zingr, the top right continent, and Looevate, the continent right to the left of it; the space between them is narrow so I think it would intensify the movement, but I'm not sure.

Please let me know what you think!

[Deoridhe]

Ok, I started tackling Pixie's applications of Geoff's Cookbook in detail! That helped a lot with the weather (see my rough-out above) and showed me my rivers were entirely wrong! Well, not the ones on Zingr, but the rest of them! All kinds of wrong. Go me!

With my luck I'll deep dive on plate tectonics and find something I absolutely have to change.... but I'm learning as I go, yo. We'll tackle those hills when we get to them...

Here are my weather outlines and winds. I have no enormous continents a la Asia, so I don't think I have any inland high pressure zones. I made guesses as to the inland low pressure zones, and they made areas I wanted wet to be wet, so that was cool.


And then I laid out my shiny weather zones; it only took two tries! I think I started kind of comprehending how it worked as I went, but I'm worried I didn't make things wet enough. I don't know... I may end up redoing the winds above which would shift the wet all around, but for now I think it looks ok.


I'm going to be tackling temperature next, with the added wrinkle that this planet has rings (I know, weird, but I really like it and I want to play with how that will change the mythologies, and I'm making it mostly silicate so I'm not going to make it a complete blackout even in winter and - added bonus! - it means there will be ambient light at night depending on the sun's angle!) so my winters will be colder than Earth's above a certain level.

So it should be fun!

[Pixie]

You might want to look up at Azelor's reviewed version (revamped / improved / version 2.0, may be better terms). My method and Azelor's methods give different results every time. And different people make slight different decisions concerning ITCZ movement, rainshadow lengths, etc, which also yields different results. The best method is to try out both methods and then average out the outcomes. That's what I did (or rather, am doing) in my own conworld.

Also, a simpler note. Working on tectonics will create/delete mountain ranges, continental platforms extensions and even whole continents. Climate will be affected by those changes, which means you either resolve tectonics first or skip the step. But if you dive into climate, you will find it hard to go back into tectonics and throw away climate stuff already decided.

[Naima]

Okay, I've given the mountain ranges another swing and updated the tectonics to include subduction zones and the direction of movement. I spent a while staring at Earth's plates, but I'm not sure I thought through it entirely - at a certain point my eyes started crossing! I'm also not sure of the continent to continent crush points and how to mark places where they've smooshed together and are moving together. Right now I have them as subduction places, but that doesn't seem right...?

I've also added hot spots, using them to mark where the biggest volcanoes are as well. I haven't added islands for the hot spots in the ocean, and I'm not sure if I have enough or where other ones might show up.

I've also reworked the rivers using a roughed up weather flow based - trying to keep the rivers where there should be enough rain to create them (I'm attaching the rough out of the weather flow, too - the planet is moving in the same direction as Earth for reasons of simplicity). I'm not sure of what will happen between Zingr, the top right continent, and Looevate, the continent right to the left of it; the space between them is narrow so I think it would intensify the movement, but I'm not sure.

Please let me know what you think!

Nice world map, my only criticism would be a bit about the continent shapes, they look a bit too uniform in the coastshapes and orientation and its not easy to determine the continental drift directions , I am not talking of mountains or else but purely the coastline shapes. I would apply the concept of a sort of glewed melassa thing like when you have a larger body moving on that viscous liquid would leave behind or on sides ( like the areas with less force interaction) some land parts so to cive more "(" shaped curves on the continents , not all of course but some would donate the coastline more realims in my opinion , other than that keep up the great work .

[Deoridhe]

Pixie: I'm assuming I'm going to do things multiple times; so far I've done every step at least two times, often three, learning something new each time. I'm ok with throwing some stuff away! ^.^

Naima: I'm not 100% sure I'm following you. Are you saying there wouldn't be as many pointy ends because things would have been bent/curved?

[davoush]

Hi Deoridhe, I am looking forward to seeing Esfera's climate zones! I know how it feels having to do every step several times...but as you say, the enjoyment is in the process.

[Azélor]

I looked at your current map and found a few things missing.

Polar current flow in the same direction as the equatorial ones, unless there is a continent. They can flow under ice sheets like in the Arctic.