The Pplates Virtual Earth project - simulating the effect of slab roll-back
This animation of a 3D-time Pplates reconstruction was developed by Bonnardot.
It shows the roll-back of the Tonga subduction zone.
Pplates differs from classical reconstruction programs, because such programs invariably use an Euler pole and an Euler rotation to rotate GIS data on the surface of a sphere. This means that it is impossible to reproduce the effect of penetrative deformation, except by painstaking visual representations. It is also not possible to track the subducting plates as they dive into the mantle. To take the next step, Pplates was designed to use deformable, tearable meshes. These provide a Lagrangian coordinate system, allowing mapping of information from the real or material world (at the present time) into and onto past configurations of our planet. The meshes are 2D but they allow information to be carried as to crustal thickness (or lithosphere thickness) for example, and as they move through 3D space with time, it is possible to provide a full kinematic description of something as complicated as a rolling-back subduction zone. In the example illustrated a mesh shaper is used to describe the 3D-time geometry of the subduction zone, and this forces the advancing plate to subduct along it, at the same time as movement of the mesh shaper simulates the geometric effect of roll-back.
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.