[Tutorial] Using GPlates to model continental drift

[shadixdarkkon]

Hey Charerg, I know that this tutorial is pretty old, but I had a quick question. Do you know if there is any way to create a feature with a conjugate plate ID without having to manually edit the .rot file each time? I've tried setting the conjugate ID when I create the feature, but it doesn't work for some reason, and the feature (in this case of a subduction zone) won't move with the piece of continental crust that it is supposed to be moving with.

[Charerg]

Hey Charerg, I know that this tutorial is pretty old, but I had a quick question. Do you know if there is any way to create a feature with a conjugate plate ID without having to manually edit the .rot file each time? I've tried setting the conjugate ID when I create the feature, but it doesn't work for some reason, and the feature (in this case of a subduction zone) won't move with the piece of continental crust that it is supposed to be moving with.

You could initialize the feature to be conjugated to begin with. For example:

Plate ID	Time	Latitude	Longitude	Angle	Conjugate plate	Comment
100	0.0	90.0	0.0	0.0	200	Plate A
100	500.0	90.0	0.0	0.0	200	Plate A

In the above case Plate 100 would follow the movements of Plate 200. However, if you're just setting up a feature like a subduction zone, you probably just want to give it the same Plate ID as the plate it's supposed to be moving with (in which case you don't need to touch the rotation file).