Functions

What is GPlates?

GPlates is desktop software for the interactive visualisation of plate-tectonics.

GPlates offers a novel combination of interactive plate-tectonic reconstructions, geographic information system (GIS) functionality and raster data visualisation. GPlates enables both the visualisation and the manipulation of plate-tectonic reconstructions and associated data through geological time. GPlates runs on Windows, Linux and MacOS X.

What is a plate-tectonic reconstruction?

The motions of tectonic plates through geological time may be described and simulated using plate-tectonic reconstructions. Plate-tectonic reconstructions are the calculations of the probable positions, orientations and motions of tectonic plates through time, based upon the relative (plate-to-plate) positions of plates at various times in the past which may be inferred from other data. Geological, geophysical and paleo-geographic data may be attached to the simulated plates, enabling a researcher to trace the motions and interactions of these data through time.

The goals of GPlates are:

• to handle and visualise data in a variety of geometries and formats, including raster data
• to link plate kinematics to geodynamic models
• to serve as an interactive client in a grid-computing network
• to facilitate the production of high-quality paleo-geographic maps.

The GPlates program is accompanied by royalty-free data. Work is currently underway on a comprehensive user manual.

What can GPlates do?

As of GPlates 0.9.4, GPlates functionality includes:

• loading and saving data:
  • loading geological feature data from the following formats:
    • GPML / compressed GPML
    • Plates4 line-format
    • ESRI Shapefile (including the ability to map shape attributes in a Shapefile to feature properties in GPlates on a user-specified, per-Shapefile basis)
  • loading reconstruction poles (finite rotations which enable geological features to be reconstructed through geological time) from the following formats:
    • GPML / compressed GPML
    • Plates4 rotation-format
  • loading raster images in JPEG format, including time-sequences of raster images, to enable visualisation of “gridded” geophysical data such as mantle density anomalies, mantle convection-driven dynamic surface topography and the crustal age or spreading rate of the ocean floor —
    • both global raster images, which are assumed to cover the whole globe, from -180 to +180 degrees longitude and -90 to +90 latitude
    • and smaller rasters with a user-specified surface extent
  • saving geological feature data in the following formats:
    • GPML / compressed GPML
    • Plates4 line-format
    • GMT “xy” format, with a variety of options for headers
  • saving reconstruction poles in the following formats:
    • GPML / compressed GPML
    • Plates4 rotation-format
• viewing data in a graphical display:
  • displaying a 3-D orthographic projection of geological, geographic and tectonic features, and raster images, on the globe
  • reconstructing features to a desired geological time-instant, or animating over a period of geological time
  • moving and re-orienting the camera (the viewpoint of the user), by “dragging” the mouse on the globe, using the keyboard arrow keys, or specifying the desired viewpoint in a dialog box
  • zooming the camera, using the scroll-wheel of the mouse, the click-to-zoom tool, the slider on the right-hand-side of the reconstruction view, or the zoom buttons in the toolbar
  • choice of different colouring schemes for features
  • exporting a 2-D geometry snapshot of the current orthogonal-projected contents of the reconstruction view in Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format, for later viewing in a web-browser or vector-graphics editor such as Adobe Illustrator
• interacting with features graphically:
  • choosing a feature, to query or edit its properties, by clicking upon its displayed geometry
  • digitisation of new geometries for the creation of new features
  • modifying the geometry of a feature interactively by dragging vertices
• tabular display of data:
  • listing tables of reconstruction poles (finite rotations) for the current reconstruction time:
    • relative and equivalent rotations for each plate
    • a tree-like representation of the rotation hierarchy
    • the circuit between any plate and the stationary reference frame
  • exporting tables of reconstruction poles in CSV (comma-separated value) format, for later viewing in a spreadsheet such as Microsoft Excel.
  • listing tables of Shapefile attributes on a per-file basis, with one attribute per column
• modifying reconstructions graphically:
  • manipulation of reconstruction poles by dragging the mouse cursor to move plates

What's next in GPlates?

We are currently working on the following functionality:

• interactive graphical manipulation of the geometry of a feature (in a manner similar to that provided by a typical vector-graphics application)
• a variety of map-projections (in addition to the current 3-dimensional orthographic projection of the globe)
• interactive plate-boundary closure, enabling GPlates to generate plate-tectonic boundary conditions for geodynamic models in software such as:
  • the widely-used, open-source, spherical mantle convection package CitComS
  • the next-generation AuScope-funded spherical mantle convection package Underworld

Future functionality will include:

• editing total reconstruction poles and sequences (in tabular form)
• saving data in Shapefile format
• calculating velocity fields using plate-reconstructions
• layers