The Pplates Virtual Earth project: making a palaeo-stress or a palaeo-strain map
Stretching South America to test operation of the Pplates palaeo-strain-map facility.
Prepared by Bonnardot.
In classical reconstruction programs the deformation of continents cannot be taken into account, except by assuming that rigid blocks move apart (leaving gaps) or are juxtaposed (by overlapping parts of the visualization).
In contrast, in Pplates the motion is described by a deformable mesh, and these problems do not arise. Here, parts of the NOAA topographic dataset have been mapped onto Pplates meshes, and an effective crustal thickness has been calculated. Where blocks move apart, the result is zones of strain in between. The eigenvectors of the finite strain tensor have been calculated, and displayed.
Another example of this palaeo-strain-mapping facility is a work in progress (O'Kane) looking at the evolution of the South American Andes from Miocene to the present.
If you are interested in becoming a user of the NCRIS AuScope software machine, make direct contact with the scientists building the individual components. To access and utilize Pplates, go to the software repository. If you want us to give you a hand, develop the specifications for a use case, and let us know.
Pplates is designed and built by Dr Joe Kurtz and Professor Gordon Lister.