Plate Modeling and Who Uses It
Modeling plate tectonics can be a powerful tool for reconstructing or predicting geological environments throughout the Earth’s history. This tool has been especially useful to groups engaged in exploration for hydrocarbons or minerals on global and regional scales.
PaleoGIS and Plate Modeling
PaleoGIS provides a way to carefully document the location and timing of global and regional plate tectonic reorganization events. PaleoGIS is a rigorous, integrated digital reconstruction technique designed to make it easy for a modeler to define plates, incorporate geological and geophysical data, and make tectonic reconstruction maps. Once a model has been authenticated by the modeler, it can become the foundation for further stratigraphic, paleogeographic, paleoclimatic, paleobiogeographic, resource, and geodynamic investigations.
PaleoGIS is an extension to ArcGIS from ESRI that enables you to incorporate geologic time into your GIS. With PaleoGIS, you can visualize your own data in a plate tectonic and paleographic context.
With PaleoGIS You Can:
- Create, display, analyze and manipulate plate tectonic data models
- Incorporate your own plate data and paleographic context
- Add your own data to the map
- Enjoy simplified parent-child plate relationship management
- Perform plate velocity and spherical directional analysis
- Incorporate your own analysis tools
- Perform plate movement animations
PaleoGIS 3.0 Highlighted Features:
- New layer and dataframe context menus
- New analysis tools
- Support for many ArcGIS 9.2 features
- Significant performance and stability enhancements
- Support for additional data types
Requirements
- Microsoft Windows XP or 2000 Professional
- ArcGIS 9.1 or 9.2 (w/ appropriate service pack and .Net framework)
- ArcGIS Spatial Analyst (for grid processing)
PaleoGIS Data
PaleoGIS comes with a demo plate model provided by Christopher R. Scotese of the PaleoMap Project. This is a demo dataset only. The plate model allows reconstructions to be made back to 50 million years ago. To purchase complete plate models, please contact Christopher Scotese at info@scotese.com