GPlates: The First 100 Million Years - Worldbuilder’s Log 11

[@Kunabee]

For Windows, to change the extension of a file, you can right-click and directly select 'rename...' from the menu. It will ask if you're sure because changing the file extension can break it. Also, if you don't want to download anything, regular notepad comes with Windows by default. Notepad++ has some fancy things it can do, including reading and understanding code like Python, C++, Javascript, etc. Regular Notepad will work just fine.

[@Dark0Storm]

Just make sure you have file extensions visible in file explorer.

[@GeneralVexis]

@@Dark0Storm Which if you don't know how to do, in File Explorer click the view tab and check "File name extensions.". You can then just F2 to rename - end key and replace the extension from .txt to .rot

[@CatoConroy]

Also a thing of note, GPlates seems to be finicky with having paragraph spaces separating each craton on Windows, at least if using base text editor. I got errors with them but upon removing the paragraph spacing, the errors did not occur.

[@spaceguy20_12]

you have to uncheck the "hide known file extensions" fist, otherwise it wont work

[@scurly0792]

34:32 "These things can, like, slow up or speed down" -Artifexian, 2022

[@felipeviana6215]

Truly one of the phrases of all time.

[@yarlodek5842]

This caught me so off guard, probably the hardest I’ve ever laughed at an artifexian video

[@Artifexian]

Haha! Wait did I say that! Lol … the joys of not having a script to read from. XD

[@arondioszegi8607]

@@Artifexian Can you add an impact crater from a MASSIVE object crashing down maybe into plate 300

[@LexisLang]

This is such a good series. In the past, you've mentioned and worked with GPlates a little, but this is so much more in-depth and easy to follow along. I'm very in-depth when I worldbuild and I want to get it right; this series might just give me the kick I need to get going again.

[@LearnRunes]

If a plate tectonics simulator yells at you, does it cause an earthquake?

[@spaceguy20_12]

im pretty sure it would if the plate was big enough

[@Khitiara_]

every time i see someone using gplates i get tempted to try and write my own software to be more user-friendly to this use-case. glad these tutorials exist given how much a pain gplates can be

[@Dryym]

I feel you. I have recently been trying to learn QGIS for fantasy mapping. And I *know* that it is theoretically perfect for my purposes on paper. But there's so few tutorials around which address anything I can adapt to what I want. And it's just really annoying that things have to be this way.

[@TAP7a]

@@Dryym i only tried to use QGIS for a couple of weeks at university nearly a decade ago and I'm still traumatised by it. Like I'm sure all the geography and geology students with their training find it good and useful, but as a schmuck in the general public it made about as much sense as serving asbestos for dessert.

[@swaree]

I'd be so in for this, I hate gplates ngl

[@Khitiara_]

@@swaree the problem of course is i am nowhere near good enough at user interface stuff to pull it off without it being just as bad

[@Dryym]

@@TAP7a It sucks how obtuse it is. Because it is *literally* perfect for my purposes. I can have infinite detail and import raster heightmaps for individual continents and islands and whatnot. but the issue is actually figuring out how to use the damn thing for those purposes.

[@MichChats]

Now imagine doing all of this for like 18 cratons on 5 to 7 major continents for 1000million years in 50 mil intervals.

[@jeremypatterson71]

and then running a campaign or writing a book where literally no one else will ever know or care. that is dedication to the craft

[@TripleTSingt]

welcome to world building ^^

[@autolykos9822]

Yup, I'd probably go with cutting out pieces of paper and tracing them with a pencil. That tool is way clunky. OTOH, it's important to get the slow physics with trees on top exactly right ^^

[@ciderilion6920]

@@jeremypatterson71 lol. couldn't agree less

[@arthurmachabee3606]

Sounds like a good reason to call in sick at the office lol

[@saturnhex9855]

I JUST went back to your channel to see if I missed an upload and was sad I hadn't. Then the second I go get some food and come back, you've uploaded. I'm so lucky today lol. Thanks for the hard work as always!

[@kinalisolakhi8991]

The plates probably move back to their original position because the rotation data for 0 Mya is the same as 1000 Mya.

[@ColinPaddock]

When he’s done doing the full Ga, that’ll be fixed. Right now, he’s only set the movement frames for the earliest 100Ma. Be patient grasshopper.

[@caloob_]

@@ColinPaddock it seems like he didn’t know how to fix it, which is why he had to insert the “drift correction” line in the rotation file

[@jeremypatterson71]

@@caloob_ as someone who spent too much time building a planet based on Edgar's first tutorial videos this program doesn't have "a way to fix" the drift issue, because the whole purpose of the program is studying earth. The 0 MA date is supposed to be modern earth/ modern planet of what ever your working on, and then you work backwards. This program was not designed to work forward in time, so the final result WILL ALWAYS be the initial drawing loaded into the program

[@kinalisolakhi8991]

@@jeremypatterson71 What would happen if the drift correction was inputed in the end state 0 Mya?

[@Jpteryx]

You could avoid this issue by starting your simulation at 0 mya, and then making plates go "backwards," so that 100 mya in Gplates is actually 100 million years after the start of your simulation. The one issue I can imagine is that Gplates would animate your plate motion in reverse.

[@jonas-by5uc]

dam i really love how you went from your old gplates tutorials that were basically just drawing on a sphere to doing really awsome stuff, you're channel is awsome, thanks you for the amazing inspiration, can't wait till episode 12 !

[@MCPhssthpok]

It would be interesting to see the world that Worldbuilding Pasta is making for you at the same stage as the tutorial world at the end of each video so we can see what a more complex reconstruction looks like.

[@Artifexian]

Yup! That's what's gonna happen.

[@ChanyeolsHaneul]

Thank you so much for your hard work. All your videos are so helpful. I'm going to create my own world too.

[@scptime1188]

if anyone's wondering why gplates decides to let you move poles like that instead of just, you know, giving free movement, it's because it encodes motion through "finite rotations" according to euler's rotation theorem, where any motion in 3d space can be encoded as a set of rotations around a set od axes. specifcially on a sphere, this makes things easier it seems for gplates, so you have to specify a pole to rotate around and an angle to rotate by, and you can thereby encode any translation motion by way of "finite rotations". cool stuff

[@TheZetaKai]

Hit F to pay respects to this continent, which we are going to rip apart.

[@mosterchife6045]

F

[@emilyrln]

F

[@charles3840]

F to select which continent you tear asunder.

[@pointyorb]

​@@charles3840 South America

[@TAP7a]

I've honestly been checking several times a day since the weekend for this, very excited

[@lucas_e_jones]

Same lol, I’m following along with these as a sort of tutorial for a world I’m building.

[@alexwildner6369]

Same

[@Squbber]

I hope someday someone makes a program like g-plates that is more user friendly. G-plates is fantastic for worldbuilding but I can’t help feeling there should be a more accessible tool

[@icefyre8331]

If there was demand for such a thing we would almost certainly have it already, and it would certainly not be free. Also, more user friendly programs would have less flexibility; take gimp vs paint for example.

[@MatthewWayneSelznick]

If G-Plates is open source or non-proprietary (it's created by NASA, I think, which makes it public domain in the United States), it's a great opportunity for a Github fork... there are SO many steps that could be automated or made into a wizard...)

[@Artifexian]

For sure, the issue is time, funding and demand. And also, a lot of this we might find really obtuse but actual professionals probably do love it.

[@MatthewWayneSelznick]

@@Artifexian For sure; it's made for capital-S Science. :-) Somewhere out there is the perfect developer sitting at the geeky nexus of Expert Developer and Deep Worldbuilder who could spearhead this. (I am not that person. I am only here to make suggestions I cannot back up with action.) 😀

[@StoryMode180]

I didn't notice anyone else saying this yet, but I'm pretty sure you can use that line that GPlates added as the end line and it wouldn't snap back at the very end. ie: "100 0.0 50.02 -20.9665 -17.5823 000 ! Craton A end" Of course, this isn't really important because it will keep adding new lines as you edit, but once you have finished moving all of your plates to their final positions you can do that and it shouldn't snap back at the last million year.

[@GabeHighlander]

My thought is that this either hadn't occurred to him (which I guess is possible), and it would make things.. tidier. Or, it did, but for some reason changing the last line just breaks the simulation (which I wouldn't be surprised with a program like gplates).

[@StoryMode180]

​@@GabeHighlander The code is simple coordinate and rotational information for the plate IDs, shouldn't cause any issues to change the ending location of the plates. Theoretically you could manually add lines to that document to adjust how the plates move. I can check later today and update on whether or not it causes any issues.

[@spookyboi3139]

​@@StoryMode180 Did it end up causing any issues?

[@oddscomedy7128]

(As of April 2024) there is an issue cause dby either the windows or the latest version of GPlates, in which by trying to enable pole for 3D orthographic version would cause the system to crash. If you have something similar, you could do a bug report, and as for the other personal option is to work with rectangular, Mercator, Mollweid, or Robinson, and enabling the pole in either one of these will not crash your system. I know it's not as precise as 3D, but sometimes you have to improvise like Martha Stewart

[@Ledabot]

Everything was going great until I moved my second continent and my cantons all got left behind. Turns out, I had them all following the wrong canton in my big second continent lol. Otherwise, this went very smoothly. Thanks for the lesson!

[@Artifexian]

Awesome! Glad you got it sorted.

[@Ledabot]

Yea I've attempted to model 850 with the breakup of the two remaining continents but I haven't been focusing on subduction lines like world building pastas demonstration so I look forward to your upcoming videos showing me exactly how mistaken my attempts are.

[@shadowfire3827]

i also made that mistake, glad to see someone else made it too

[@MajingoPower]

Hi Ledabot, I'm having the same problem as you've had with the cratons not linked through plate ID to the continent being left behind. How did you get them to follow along if they have a different plate ID?

[@MajingoPower]

Never mind, I think I found out where I was wrong. I forgot to change the values in the rotation file as shown at @8:49

[@Orthosaur7532]

Thanks Artifexian!

[@emilyvalentine4565]

In the video discussing the plans for the project in the future, if I'm not mistaken you said you had someone else doing the plate tectonic simulations for you (and I imagine you'd have more cratons from the start as well). Is it the case that will be something that happens later on and you'll be going forward with these three cratons and breaking them up, or are these essentially examples for the tutorial episodes which will be swapped for a different plate set-up in a few episodes?

[@felipesharkao]

This is just a simple example to show the process, someone else is doing a more complex tectonics for the project

[@Ledabot]

Since worldbuilding pasta does commissions, I wouldn't be surprised if they were the one doing the nitty gritty.

[@emilyrln]

Even though I'm not going into this much detail with my fantasy world, this is so fascinating to learn about! I love the detail that faster plates kind of shove the mid-oceanic ridge closer to the slower plates.

[@vitornunes07]

I've found a work out for the plate drifting issue. Instead of fixing the positions every time with the "Drift Correction" line, in the "Craton A end", for example, just write a really big negative number in the time slot, like this: 100 -1000000.0 90.0 0.0 0.0 000 ! Craton A end The plate will move so slowly it won't even be noticeble

[@brtzz2388]

Thank you for this the drift correction was my nightmare

[@ATOM-vv3xu]

I was so bored until I saw this vid popping up!

[@elias.t]

Artifexian: "So P on the keyboard..." I'm such a child, goddammit.

[@Artifexian]

To be fair … me too. :P

[@AuroraRaiju]

Absolutely loving this series. And this has been my favorite video so far. Looking forward to being able to watch the entire history of this planet as I build my own.

[@Shrooblord]

LOL 27:41 you and I said "Oooohhh" at exactly the same tone at exactly the same time xD

[@thegreatdream8427]

Hey, I don't know if you'll ever read this, but GPlates seems to have a serious flaw: the kinematics thing assumes you're dealing with Earth and doesn't adjust for the size of your planet. My planet is bigger than Earth, but it incorrectly is measuring distances the same way regardless of how I change the radius number in the measurement tool. It's not designed to be used on more planets than Earth, after all. So it will be systematically wrong in its measurements of your plates' motion if you use any other planet size.

[@pacotaco1246]

It's some work, but you can change your plates to scale with GPlate's assumptions. Instead of not having a larger world, scale down your continents in GPlates to get the equivalent effect of having a simulation of a larger world. Mathematically, a ball is a ball. You'll be fine

[@sono_chi_no_sodium_chlorid7635]

Me, a normal artist waiting for anything to make fanart of

[@anthonyschocke2831]

An Idea for next video (It can be more precise for timestamps if that is better for it) is that you could make the larger plate move more north and turn mostly around, and what would make it better is it splitting again (You could even make them move similarly to each other). PS: This is just an idea it ok if parts are not included or if the idea is not part of the next video at all it just something that I thought would be cool.

[@gregorio7945]

I love this series. I’ll have to go back and rewatch when I’m working on mine. Thanks for the amazing help!

[@JL-ti3us]

I literally finally got around to finishing the last epidsode. Awesome. Also any suggestions on how to reverse engineer continents if we have already started in the present?

[@lucas_e_jones]

One thing to note: our modern continent shapes did not come about until Pangea split apart. So don’t just cram the continents you want together, instead you should take each continent and break it apart into pieces, then make THOSE into a supercontinent.

[@adamkotter6174]

You might have to manually edit your .rot file to place the all-zeros lines for each plate at the current time instead of the beginning of the simulation. I had to go through quite a bit of trial and error to get GPlates to reverse engineer my continents.

[@adamkotter6174]

The easiest way to do this is to start at year 0.0 instead of 1000.0 and follow the instructions that way. Keep the .rot files the same, but switch 0.0 with 1000.0 in your head everywhere else.

[@powerninja101]

For windows ypu can rename the file in the file explorer and change its extension. Just right-click the file, go to rename, then edit the extension (where it would say txt) to rot. You might get a notification that changing the extension might break the file, but just click ok and everything should be fine. If you want to keep an editable form of the rotation file, you can go to file > save as and save a separate copy. If you go to the drop down menu under the file name, you can change it from txt files to all files and write in the rot extension to save it as a rot file right out the gate.

[@adamkotter6174]

Depending on your version of Windows, you can still directly edit the .rot file. If you click on the .rot file, Windows will ask you what program to use to open the file. If you select "Notepad" or whatever other text editor you used, then Windows will let you go back to editing the .rot file directly, no extra files required.

[@minirop]

works only if you unchecked "hide known extensions" (which by default is checked). you'd have to "save file as... > all files (*.*) > roration.rot".

[@claycube9591]

minirop you're a lifesaver, thank you!!

[@corvuscallosum5079]

When I try to move my newly rifted continents and hit apply, it just . . . doesn't apply. The old location and the new one just sit there superimposed and mothing happens no matter how many times I accept what the popup tells me.

[@corvuscallosum5079]

Solved! I forgot to label some things in the rotation file

[@craz2580]

The fact that this tool sint very user friendly reminds me of a machine we have at school for the indetifucation of substances. To see the results you have to install 3 different apps, and write a code each time you have to analize something. It is very unintuitive, fortunatly our professors hang up a post it with everything needed lol

[@Dryym]

Out of curiosity. I already have a world from having followed your old plate tectonics video. And I am quite attached to it due to having been working on it for, Like, 5 years. Would it be feasible for me to effectively run through the plate tectonics simulation in reverse from my existing world map? I.E. take my existing continents and plate boundaries, And then go backwards through the process based on which landmasses and features already exist there in order to go back to the initial simulation period.

[@adamkotter6174]

This definitely should be possible, since GPlates was designed for people to take the Earth's current plate configuration and simulate what it looked like further back in time. You likely won't be able to follow the exact supercontinent process shown here, but you'll be able to produce something. I was able to do some working backwards in GPlates with one of my own worlds, but I had to do some manual changes to the .rot file.

[@Dryym]

@@adamkotter6174 That's good to know. Do you have any tips for getting good results?

[@adamkotter6174]

Mostly just follow his instructions backwards. Mentally replace 1000.0 years with 0.0 years everywhere except where he's talking about the .rot file, and follow his 50.0 year time steps in the opposite direction. You might not be able to make a super continent this way, but you'll get a really interesting look back in time.

[@guilhermeduarte7192]

I plan to try the same think when I have more time, probably in December. I, too, have a world done years ago and don't want to discard it.

[@VelociraptorsOfSkyrim]

Just to mention for the record, the Worldbuilder Pasta does mention in the blog that he doesn't recommend doing it this way. But it should work regardless

[@rcrumpet]

I really love this series

[@hawkeyealvarado999]

I watched your video about planet temperature and albedo and the planet temperature calculator website you used was outdated/didn't work anymore, have any other ideas/websites to use? I looked around for a while on the internet for something else to use, but most of the websites I found either didn't work or were to complex and didn't give answers I needed.

[@talideon]

If the GPlates devs knew that people were using it for simulating drifts, they might actually make this easier!

[@Ertplays]

“Good morning inter web!” Me watching at night

[@Artifexian]

Its morning somewhere :)

[@spaceguy20_12]

if you want to make colliding continents, you can set the current main continent and the colliding continents end to when they are colliding, then draw in the same timeframe, the new continent, and make it look a bit different

[@annikathewitch3950]

The pole manipulation feature stopped working for me after using it once, so i did the entire rest of my simulation by manually changing the numbers in the rotation file until I got something that looked okay.

[@pointyorb]

Whenever I tried to open the .rot file after saving my rotations it comes up with wingdings.

[@yoti2155]

With a more full-size world, would you space your cratons around the globe and have extra plate attached to fill in all the dead space? You say you want to keep it simple, which is fine, but it leaves me a little fuzzled about all this empty space around the continents. How would it scale? Maybe you'll cover this in a future episode or we can see it on the final Artifexia sim.

[@icefyre8331]

He gave an example of a full sized supercontinent with cratons in ep. 10. kzbin.info/www/bejne/d6unkIqMqKp8iK8 timestamp 25:30

[@MCPhssthpok]

The way he's modelling it is to start with a supercontinent and work forward through the breakup but you can certainly start with separate continents if you prefer. As for creating the initial oceanic plates, again it's possible if you want but by the end of the first supercontinent cycle they'll all have been subducted away without much affect on the model so it's probably not worth the time.

[@inxi2652]

I followed this and the previous episode today and have spent morning to night trying to learn how to use it, and get as much done as I can, I have reached the ‘add pole’ part and it closes GPlates whenever I click it, does anyone know how to fix this or am I going to have to call it a day on this?

[@EE-ed6fz]

great series

[@captnconfusion280]

as a designer who works with programs that manipulate graphics daily, the whole "moving the pole and switching between two different tools to affect one movement" is completely baffling to me. is this a case of using an application for something it hasn't actually been designed for or is this really how they programmed the UX?

[@adamkotter6174]

I think this is a case of using the program to do something it wasn't meant to do. It's my understanding that GPlates is meant to be used primarily by people who have access to geologic data that they can program directly into the .rot files to produce plate motion. edit: You can actually skip the 'O' menu entirely and just use the 'P' menu to drag your continent around, but your motions will be less precise. You can still get rotation as well as lateral motion, but it takes more trial and error to figure out where on the screen to click and drag to move your continent where you want it to go.

[@captnconfusion280]

@@adamkotter6174 ah yes, that would make more sense

[@matthewfitzpatrick2410]

As an engineer who worked on products where the UX was designed by the engineers; this looks like it was designed by engineers.

[@VelociraptorsOfSkyrim]

This program was made for Geologists to simulate the plate tectonics of Earth's distant past. So it's a little bit of both.

[@KwalityIII]

So I have a question, I have been fortunate enough to have everything set up just as I like it and am very pleased. What's interesting is that I used a triple junction to split my original supercontinent into 3 new continents. When making the new ocean crust, I have a situation much like how Edgar described the creation of the pacific plate, where I basically have a triangle in the middle of my continents that isn't covered by the new oceanic crust that's following my new continents. I'm trying to figure out how to best handle this area. Should I create new ocean crust that isn't tied to any continent (and thus categorize this region as oceanic crust), or should I be doing something else entirely? Anyone have any thoughts? (Also, I apologize if this question is at all unclear).

[@_LunarDragon]

Did you figure out what to do?

[@AaronGeo]

I'd imagine you just create a triangle-shaped hole with the 3 plates surrounding the triple junction, and then grow said plate over time

[@icefyre8331]

I can't seem to find the "Flowline" feature type in the create feature window. I am using Gplates 2.3, which is the newest version, I think. Edit: I just had the wrong tool selected I guess.

[@Artifexian]

Was about to say make user when you copy the rift you hit M to create a bunch of points. If you don't GPlates won't surface Flowlines as an option., Flowlines require points.

[@KaaSerpent]

Love it, Edgar! You make me want to play. :)

[@jern2216]

Quick question, are the oceans even necessary? Theoretically the ocean crust is everywhere so is there a reason to bother creating them? They are destroyed anyway later on…

[@tobiacancelliere6972]

I have a problem in that all of the features are stuck together. Under the F menu (select feature) they are fine, but under the P menu (rotate) they are all one and can't be split. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

[@tobiacancelliere6972]

Nevermind. I'm an idiot. All continents had the plate id 100... Leaving this comment here so other people having the same issue don't break their head on the desk like I did

[@Aerostarm]

another video. wooooo!!!!!!

[@Ikkyblobia]

I personally find it much easier not to enable the pole; without poles enabled, you can just freely drag the continent around. That said, it's a bit harder to make continents move in a rotatey way, and involves a lot of wiggling, so enabling poles for that part is probably recommended.

[@daniel_rossy_explica]

There is a simpler way to correct the drift. Instead of copying the movement and setting it at 1.0, just replace the 0.0 with the last movement you just copied. I've created a small python algorithm to do that automatically and it works wonders.

[@Artifexian]

That won't work. If you paste the coordinates in the 0.0 code line things will break down the line. Always create a drift correction line beneath the 0.0 line. Will mention this next video just to be certain.

[@daniel_rossy_explica]

@@Artifexian I tried it before with no conflicts.

[@mysteryman2392]

At the end of your video you mention G-Plates colouring the sea floor by age, can you do that with land as well?

[@autochton]

You can, it's a question of using the render mode for that feature collection, he showed how in the last video.

[@guilhermeduarte7192]

You do. At Worldbuilding Pasta blog they mention doing it for mountains, so the idea seems to relate to objects in general, not specific features

[@beesinpyjamas9617]

For some reason, and I can't figure out why, but my version of GPlates just doesn't have flowlines as an option. I downloaded version 2.3.0 for Windows (the latest version from the website) and everything else has been working, but I hit a dead end the moment you created a flowline. On your screen it's just between Fault and FoldPlane, but on mine there's nothing between them. Any idea why? Nope, nevermind, all is good. If anyone else runs into this problem, you just forgot to hit M to switch from polyline to points.

[@elephantcool9144]

Thanks for the help!

[@smergthedargon8974]

19:35 do WHAT

[@LoneEagle2061]

Are you always going to lose old oceanic crust? Or is it possible for some of what preceded your created crust to plasticly deform ahead of your moving continental crust (a bow wave of sorts) sufficiently that the uplift accounts for the lost area?

[@AlexArthur94]

I don't think oceanic crust ever uplifts in front of continental crust; oceanic crust always subducts because it is thinner and denser, so the continental crust rises over it.

[@Artifexian]

The former! Old ocean crust will be subducted away as the continents move.

[@peccantis]

You could also just initially save the plaintext file as whatever extension you need, just be sure to disable automatic file extension addition.

[@TheSilverSmitih]

This is amazing. The amount of effort you put into worldbuilding is spectacular. I never thought I'd see someone take such a scientific approach. I can't wait for the next part. I created a supercontinent and completed the motion simulation for the first 50 million years, but I saw something interesting. The continents seem to collide with each other while they move in separate directions. Is this possible in real life? And what would the ramifications for this be?

[@trishapellis]

Continents colliding with each other happens all the time in real life. The Himalayas were formed by the Indian tectonic plate crashing into the Asian plate, and they are still getting higher because India is still pushing into the Asian plate. The ramifications would be mountain forming. More in detail, as the Indian plate came from far away, island chains formed in its path between itself and the Asian plate, on the oceanic crust of the Asian plate. Those island chains were then swept along by the Indian plate. All the way in the end, the sea between the Indian and Asian plates looked pretty similar to the Mediterranean sea, where a very similar thing is currently happening - the African plate is ramming into Europe (in fact, Italy and Greece formed as the volcanic island chain on the edge of that subduction zone). And what is going to happen to the Mediterranean is what already happened to that sea between India and Asia: eventually, the Indian plate locked a piece of sea in between itself and Asia (look at the Mediterranean: the African plate has already closed the sea that used to be between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula, and the Strait of Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco is tiny. Geologic history says that the Mediterranean has dried up twice before, but because of the earthquakes caused by Africa pushing into Spain as well as through weathering and erosion, the barriers that have closed the Mediterranean off from the Atlantic Ocean as Africa closes in have been broken down again both times, allowing water back into the Mediterranean). As this sea dried up, a layer of salt stayed behind. India pushed further into Asia and the continental crust, no longer able to subduct, started buckling, bending and breaking, being pushed up in the process to form the Himalayas. Himalayan pink salt comes from the remains of that seabed, by the way - it now gets mined out from between the mountains. You can also get transformation faults, where, instead of banging into each other head-on, two tectonic plates slide past each other (for example, one goes North and the other goes South). These faults are also called slip-strike faults because the plates slip past each other some of the time, but other times they get stuck and then an earthquake is required to get them loose again. A perfect example of this is the San Andreas fault in California. You may wanna look at the video Artifexian posted like two months ago (the one right before starting this series on how to use GPlates), which is all about the ways in which tectonic plates move and their consequences.

[@travisguzman5603]

3cm over 100 million years is 3000km. Good to know.

[@andy9184]

14:23 Whenever I hit apply to try and move the plate, it doesn't actually change anything or move the plate at all. I noticed that on the menu where you say not to touch anything, GPlates generated some information for you under the "Pole Sequence", "Adjustment rel. fized plate", and "New reconstruction pole" sections that aren't automatically generated for me. Do you know what I might be doing wrong?

[@ColinPaddock]

I did a whole lot of this what feels like about a hundred years ago when I was young, pretty and my brain worked better, but I really need to get back into it. A lot of this is pretty similar to what I was doing in GPlates 1.2 or 1.3, but that velocity vector graph is new to me. And obviously very useful. I don’t know if it is a newer feature or if I just never came across it. That blog with expected velocities is a real help, too.

[@lordofthefrogs1646]

Supercontinent got rock hard

[@kjellduteweert9262]

Sad I'm stuck now the windows don't seem to have an option to txt. to a rot. file so I can process please help. How do I do it on windows.

[@Artifexian]

WorldbuildingPasta has your back here. He is on windows and this is what he does worldbuildingpasta.blogspot.com/2020/06/an-apple-pie-from-scratch-part-v.html#makingarotationfile

[@kjellduteweert9262]

@@Artifexian thanks

[@niety5914]

For the flow lines, the yellow midpoints instead of drifting to be in the middle of the two continents are instead staying on the rifting line and I can’t figure out how to change that Edit: Wait looking back it starts away from it and ends on the rift Edit 2: I FIXED IT. I think it was the time stamp I created it at mattered

[@EE-ed6fz]

What would happen if you ran out of time in the simulation? Is there an easy (in the gplates meaning of the word) way to extend it past the initial timeframe of 1000 million?

[@TAP7a]

Check the previous episode, you can set it to longer

[@EE-ed6fz]

@@TAP7a alright thanks, although I wonder if that would involve editing everything to make it happen earlier

[@VelociraptorsOfSkyrim]

@@EE-ed6fz It would require you to do everything over at the older time frame. The way I'd do it is to just accept the Continent arrangement at 0.0 even if it wasn't exactly what you wanted.

[@Jpteryx]

If this happened, I would just copy the 0 mya world into a new 1000 mya world and make a new project file.

[@davidbruesehoff1031]

So, both of my continents that broke off have multiple cratons, but only the craton that matches the plate ID is actually moving with the continents. The rest are just sitting there.

[@Artifexian]

Kinda! Everything is moving, just somethings are moving relative to others. The smaller craton on the eastern continent (Plate ID 200) is moving relative to the larger craton (Plate ID 300)

[@MajingoPower]

@@Artifexian Hi Edgar, I think there was a misunderstanding. I'm having the same issue as the person you've replied to in which when moving a continent with multiple cratons (like you've done in this video with continent BC), the craton which the continent is not attached to (in this case I think continent BC has a plate ID of 300, so we're talking about craton B/200) is left behind during the movement of the continent, taking along only the craton to which it is linked through plate ID (in this case craton C/300). Is there a way to solve this or are we missing something?

[@MajingoPower]

Nevermind, solved! I think I found out where I was wrong. I forgot to change the values in the rotation file as shown at @8:49

[@kairon156]

For GPlate instead of Left and Right Side it'll make more directional since to say Side A and Side B.

[@ATOM-vv3xu]

does it make any difference on the final heightmap, if you make ocean crusts?

[@ColinPaddock]

Only if you are making bathymetric data(underwater elevations). This might effect land elevations if you have bits of orphaned seabed that evaporate(strictly desert) or are uplifted(orogenic regions). At this level of spatial detail, those areas are pretty tiny on Earth. Red Sea area, maybe Great Basin and Tibetan Plateau would be particularly large examples of the latter. You could probably work all of that out by imagination without lost plausibility. If you are doing bathymetry, a whole lot of what makes ocean floor unique and interesting is indicated by this. So I’d do it in that case. It’s a lot harder to fix if you want it later, than it is to ignore if you decide you don’t need it or don’t like how it came out.

[@braydencoversbeatles4029]

yo i know im like 2 years late, but when i try to save the movement changes to the .rot file an error message pops up

[@sidneylowry2837]

Yes, same for me! Does anyone know how to fix this?

[@braydencoversbeatles4029]

@@sidneylowry2837 i figured it out. go to features then view total reconstruction sequences then you can start adding rotations there in gplates

[@braydencoversbeatles4029]

@@sidneylowry2837 i figured it out. go to features then view total reconstruction sequences then you can start adding rotations there in gplates

[@tailboat]

After a while making new oceans has become a big mess since I have to come back to my project in busts. Could the ocean cust just be created at the end so the flowlines are easier to handle?

[@gamez4dayz117]

I have a problem where When I put in the Plate ID of the continent into the Ocean Crust, it snaps over the continent

[@randomsandwichian]

I'm downloading this series to follow through with the world I'm building. A little complicated, but I'd like to have that little realism for the heck of things.

[@Artifexian]

It definitely is at the start but once you get the knack of it, it's quite simply yet time consuming.

[@koboldorchestra]

I know you mentioned it but I just wanted to confirm before I get in too deep - I'm doing this for a D&D world but I don't think I really care that much about ocean crust. Can I just completely ignore making the segments? Should I just make larger ones? I want to make sure there are no future problems/compromises I might run into by skipping them completely.

[@4orks976]

wow i can't believe i got to see this one so quickly! lucky me 🥰

[@lucas_e_jones]

To stop it from snapping back together at the end, couldn’t you just change the end position?

[@adamkotter6174]

You can change the end position that way, but that presupposes that you know where your continents will ultimately end up. If you already know that, then that would be a very effective method.

[@MCPhssthpok]

@@adamkotter6174 You're going to have to keep going back and changing the position of the continents at time 1.0 to correct for back-drift after each time step anyway so you might as well do it at time 0.0 instead.

[@lucas_e_jones]

Good point! You can just wait until you’re done with the rest, and set the final position at 0.0

[@kadeperegrine1456]

I'm having a hell of a time with my second set of rotations, I can't seem to find the pole placement that will stop the flow lines from crossing or causing a new oceanic crust that crosses over itself.

[@gdminecraftsike3996]

Whenever im trying to move the continents it selects only the super continent and I can't select the piece im trying to move

[@a_ghost5950]

Does the mid ocean ridge need/should be N to S? My continent began in the southern hemisphere and split NE to SW with a very diagonal line. Is this okay?

[@pico22442]

Hey Artifeixian, I can't create flowlines, they literally do not appear in my create features tab. What do I do?

[@HalfEye79]

Could the plates B and C break apart after awhile? To ask another way: Could a new rift form?

[@Artifexian]

Yes and it will in the coming videos.

[@AlphaGareBear]

I'm struggling with getting cratons to move with other cratons. I've checked and re-checked and triple re-double checked, but none of the cratons I've designated as moving with other cratons are moving. I have 4 cratons meant to be moving with id 100 craton, but none of them are budging. I'm not sure what I've missed, I've recreated the .rot file 4 or 5 times now, I've defined and redefined the continents and rifts. I'm completely lost. Anyone have a similar experience?

[@germaniamapper6606]

Did you fix it?

[@MajingoPower]

I'm having the same issue. I've tried to recreate what Edgar has done first, with 3 cratons as a test, but I'm also running into the same issue. The continent with multiple cratons moves but leaves behind the ones to which it's not attached through the ID.

[@terraspace1100]

I have 2 questions: When I split the continent, and change the plate ID, the continent reverts to its original position in the beginning of the simulation. How do I prevent this? How do you join continents?

[@my-ymy6]

so nice！thanks u！

[@SystemofEleven]

My supercontinent couldn't be split in half; everything just warped everywhere no matter what I did with the pole locations/rotations. The flowline center points kept crossing into the continents no matter how much I fiddled with it. Not sure if it's because of the shape I chose, or if ~31% is just unfeasibly big. In any case, I had to start over with three smaller rifts that met in a Y shape instead of one really big rift. It worked fine when I was moving the new continents around, but now I'm stuck at the end of the first time step. I can't figure out how to make the oceanic crusts meet in the middle where the triangle gap is. The video on making a second rifting event sort of shows how to do it, but it starts with the manipulation of crusts that are already there, and the narration has a lot of, "We already know what we're doing, so insert time lapse here," and instructions that otherwise aren't really explained enough for me to understand. Do I have to start the whole process from scratch with a new supercontinent shape, or is it possible to continue forward with what I have and fill the hole later?

[@ToqTheWise]

You know all these numbers would be a lot easier to write if I didn’t have crippling dyscalculia! 😂

[@terron_kitten9070]

welp it appears the enable pole button simply crashs gplates. not sure what to do from here, also the alternative to using poles, just edit the document, nope. cant open .rot . it just wont let me. help?

[@kevinvega2507]

my plates are in the new rotation from the start instead of their original rotation. any idea how to fix this or what problems that cause this?

[@lordofleviathans8432]

Will cratons ever change? Will they ever be destroyed or created? Or are they permanent for the entirety of the simulation?

[@VelociraptorsOfSkyrim]

Cratons are defined as chunks of crust that have never changed since the start of Plate tectonics.

[@Artifexian]

Nope! They remain constant and will be the flat, low-lying regions of your modern world once the simulation is finished.

[@Tanluar]

And how do you get to the rotation?

[@clibfilm]

How would you even model a planet if you know the rough shapes you wanna have in present day ? I find it hard to imagine how all the continents would behave 1000Ma years ago to give me the expected results

[@Artifexian]

This is method is very much a one way kinda thing. You evolve things forward to get a modern world. The reverse doesn't really work.

[@Orthosaur7532]

PLEASE help, it doesn't show Flowline ANYWHERE!!!

[@Orthosaur7532]

Nevermind, I had to put it in the dots

[@stormlord1984]

Doing 2 continents might made it easier for a video, but it leaves so many questions for most people doing 3+....

[@MaxKesmodel]

Bit of a complicated question, but is there any way to do this process in reverse? For instance, I have a continent that I've created and fleshed out, but now I'd like to figure out what it used to look like/what other continents are on the rest of the world. Any ideas?

[@umbrynnoctis9831]

For some reason, my flowlines are SUPER offset and no matter how many times I redo them, they still won't work. They won't properly track the edge of my continent. I'm following the exact steps and there aren't many tutorials on this software so I'm at a complete lost. Anyone have any suggestions?

[@idle_speculation]

I have a continent with 3 cratons, and only one if them moves with the continental crust(because they have the same plate ID). I tried to parent the others to that craton, and everything looks fine in the .rot file, but they won't move.

[@volcryndarkstar]

Now I'm just waiting for someone to make a consumer grade version of this program. I'll never get the feel for this.

[@Artifexian]

It is a lot easier than one would think. The main issue once you get the knack for it is not complexity, it's time.

[@volcryndarkstar]

@@Artifexian It's the text based programming you demonstrated in this video that makes me wary. I can follow the instructions step by step but I don't think I'd ever learn *why* it works the way it does. I'm not a programmer myself.

[@1354-w3d]

exiting!

[@cassandradawn780]

so after applying rotation once you can't apply it anymore? at least without reloading the program?

[@cassandradawn780]

fix: reload rotation.rot from disk. very dumb. but it works.