Who uses plate modeling?
Modeling plate tectonics can be a powerful tool for reconstructing or predicting geological environments throughout Earth’s history. This is especially useful to groups engaged in exploration for hydrocarbons or minerals, on global and regional scales.
Tectonic plates boundaries
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From “Plate Tectonics,” in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia (Map authored by Eric Gaba, Wikimedia Commons user: Sting | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 Generic License.)
Plate modeling and PaleoGIS
PaleoGIS provides for careful documentation of the location and timing of global and regional plate tectonic reorganization events. Its rigorous, integrated digital reconstruction technique allows modelers to easily define plates, incorporate geological and geophysical data and make tectonic reconstruction maps. Once a model has been authenticated, it can become the foundation for further stratigraphic, paleogeographic, paleoclimatic, paleobiogeographic, resource and geodynamic investigations.
The software is an extension to ArcGIS from Esri which enables geoscientists, GIS professionals and academics to incorporate geologic time into their GIS. With PaleoGIS, users visualize their own data in a plate tectonic and paleographic context.
With PaleoGIS, users are empowered to:
- Create, display, analyze and manipulate plate tectonic data models.
- Incorporate their own plate data and paleographic context.
- Add their own data to the map.
- Enjoy simplified parent-child, plate-relationship management.
- Perform plate-velocity and spherical-directional analysis.
- Incorporate their own analysis tools.
- Perform plate movement animations.
