GPlates

Last updated
GPlates
Original author(s) EarthByte Group
Developer(s) The GPlates Development Team
Initial releaseOctober 2003;20 years ago (2003-10)
Stable release
2.5.0 / April 15, 2024;12 days ago (2024-04-15)
Repository
Written in C++ and Python
Operating system Linux, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows
Available inEnglish
Type Geographic information system
License GNU GPL version 2+
Website www.gplates.org

GPlates is open-source application software offering a novel combination of interactive plate-tectonic reconstructions, geographic information system (GIS) functionality and raster data visualisation.

Contents

The GPlates software platform comprises the GPlates desktop software, command line tools, GPlates Python library (pyGPlates), GPlates web service and web application, a high-level Python encapsulation package GPlately, a plate tectonic toolkit PlateTectonicTools and a data server which serves plate reconstruction model datasets from the cloud. GPlates also supports integration with GeoServer and PostGIS databases.

By incorporating this technology stack, GPlates simplifies and streamlines data processing, integration, analysis, and visualisation to ease the workload for geoscientists. The software can be used to create new plate reconstruction models or optimize existing models.

History

GPlates was conceived in 2002 by the following committee:

The first GPlates prototype ("GPlates 0.5") was released on 30 October, 2003. The first stable version GPlates 1.0.0 was released in 2010. The latest release is GPlates 2.3 and was released in September 2021.

In 2012, the GPlates team won the NeCTAR/ANDS #nadojo competition. And in the same year, the GPlates team started the development of GPlates Portal and Web Service. In 2014, the GPlates Web Portal and Web Service were launched.

In 2016, the first public version of pyGPlates was released. The pyGPlates beta revision 28 was released on 8 August 2020. This is the first version which supports Python3. The latest pyGPlates release is 0.36 and was released in May 2022.

In 2022, the first version GPlately was released. The latest GPlately release is 1.0.0 and was released in April 2023.

After keeping source code on Apache Subversion and SourceForge for nearly 20 years, the GPlates source code was moved to GitHub on 1 August, 2023.

Functionality

Screenshot of volcanoes in GPlates 1.5.0 GPlates volcanoes.png
Screenshot of volcanoes in GPlates 1.5.0

GPlates enables both the visualization and the manipulation of plate-tectonic reconstructions and associated data through geological time:

Contributors

GPlates is developed by an international team of scientists and professional software developers at:

with past contributions from:

Adoption

GPlates is used by geophysicists, students and researchers in academic institutions, government departments and industry. It has also gained currency in the creative worldbuilding community as a tool for maintaining realism or verisimilitude in geographic features. In 2019, two Australian researchers used the software to create a tectonic map of the continents within the fictional Game of Thrones universe. [1]

Implementation

GPlates runs on Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows and Linux. GPlates is written in C++ and uses OpenGL to render its 3D globe and 2D map views. It uses Qt as a GUI framework. The Boost C++ library has also been widely used. Other libraries include GDAL, CGAL, proj, qwt and GLEW.

GPlates uses the GPlates Geological Information Model (GPGIM) to represent geological data in a Plate tectonics context. The GPlates Markup Language (GPML) is an XML implementation of the GPGIM [2] derived from the Geography Markup Language (GML).

People

Developers

John joined the GPlates development team in 2009. He is the current lead developer of GPlates.
Michael joined the GPlates development team in 2010. He is the architect of GPlates Portal and Web service. He is also the development lead of GPlates mobile App.

Scientists

Dietmar is the founder and current lead of the GPlates project.
Mike Gurnis is a co-founder of the GPlates project.

Licensing

GPlates is released under GNU General Public License version 2.0 (GPLv2) and the source code can be found on SourceForge. [3]

GPlates Python Binding

The GPlates Python library (pyGPlates) enables access to GPlates functionality via the Python programming language. It allows users to use GPlates in a programmatic way and aims to provide more flexibility than the GPlates desktop interface can offer. The pyGPlates is available on Conda (conda-forge channel). The latest pyGPlates release is 0.36 which was released on 06 May, 2022.

GPlates Web Service

The GPlates Web Service was built upon pygplates. It allows users to access the GPlates functionalities via Internet. The GPlates Web Service has been containerized. Users can deploy the Docker container locally to enhance performance and data security.

GPlately

The GPlately Python library is a high-level encapsulation of pygplates and PlateTectonicTools. It was created to accelerate the spatio-temporal data analysis. GPlately is available on PyPI and Conda (conda-forge channel). The latest GPlately release is 1.3.0 which was released on 22 December, 2023.

GPlates Portal

The GPlates Web Portal is a gateway to a series of GPlates-based web applications. Initially the portal was hosted on Nectar Cloud. Later on, it was migrated to Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud. Below is a list of applications in GPlates Web Portal.

3D visualization of the Vertical Gravity Gradient Grid. [4]
Reconstruct raster images through time.
Data reconstruction and visualization service.
Demonstrate how to use pyGPlates in IPython Notebook.

The Cesium JavaScript library is used to render the 3D globe in a web browser. [5]

GPlates Data

The "SampleData" was made available along with very software releases. Since GPlates release 2.2 the "SampleData" underwent rebranding and is now known as "GeoData". More GPlates-compatible data can be found on Research Data Australia which is the data discovery service of the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC).

Media

Awards

GPlates was shortlisted for the Australian Research Data Commons Eureka Prize for Excellence in Research Software in 2023. [11]

Select publications

Below is a list of select publications of GPlates.

Funding

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plate tectonics</span> Movement of Earths lithosphere

Plate tectonics is the scientific theory that Earth's lithosphere comprises a number of large tectonic plates, which have been slowly moving since about 3.4 billion years ago. The model builds on the concept of continental drift, an idea developed during the first decades of the 20th century. Plate tectonics came to be accepted by geoscientists after seafloor spreading was validated in the mid-to-late 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geophysics</span> Physics of the Earth and its vicinity

Geophysics is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and physical properties of the Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. Geophysicists, who usually study geophysics, physics, or one of the Earth sciences at the graduate level, complete investigations across a wide range of scientific disciplines. The term geophysics classically refers to solid earth applications: Earth's shape; its gravitational, magnetic fields, and electromagnetic fields ; its internal structure and composition; its dynamics and their surface expression in plate tectonics, the generation of magmas, volcanism and rock formation. However, modern geophysics organizations and pure scientists use a broader definition that includes the water cycle including snow and ice; fluid dynamics of the oceans and the atmosphere; electricity and magnetism in the ionosphere and magnetosphere and solar-terrestrial physics; and analogous problems associated with the Moon and other planets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palaeogeography</span> Study of physical geography of past landscapes

Palaeogeography is the study of historical geography, generally physical landscapes. Palaeogeography can also include the study of human or cultural environments. When the focus is specifically on landforms, the term paleogeomorphology is sometimes used instead. Paleomagnetism, paleobiogeography, and tectonic history are among its main tools.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juan de Fuca Plate</span> Small tectonic plate in the eastern North Pacific

The Juan de Fuca Plate is a small tectonic plate (microplate) generated from the Juan de Fuca Ridge that is subducting beneath the northerly portion of the western side of the North American Plate at the Cascadia subduction zone. It is named after the explorer of the same name. One of the smallest of Earth's tectonic plates, the Juan de Fuca Plate is a remnant part of the once-vast Farallon Plate, which is now largely subducted underneath the North American Plate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pacific Plate</span> Oceanic tectonic plate under the Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate that lies beneath the Pacific Ocean. At 103 million km2 (40 million sq mi), it is the largest tectonic plate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NASA WorldWind</span> Open-source virtual globe

NASA WorldWind is an open-source virtual globe. According to the website, "WorldWind is an open source virtual globe API. WorldWind allows developers to quickly and easily create interactive visualizations of 3D globe, map and geographical information. Organizations around the world use WorldWind to monitor weather patterns, visualize cities and terrain, track vehicle movement, analyze geospatial data and educate humanity about the Earth." It was first developed by NASA in 2003 for use on personal computers and then further developed in concert with the open source community since 2004. As of 2017, a web-based version of WorldWind is available online. An Android version is also available.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fracture zone</span> Linear feature on the ocean floor

A fracture zone is a linear feature on the ocean floor—often hundreds, even thousands of kilometers long—resulting from the action of offset mid-ocean ridge axis segments. They are a consequence of plate tectonics. Lithospheric plates on either side of an active transform fault move in opposite directions; here, strike-slip activity occurs. Fracture zones extend past the transform faults, away from the ridge axis; are usually seismically inactive, although they can display evidence of transform fault activity, primarily in the different ages of the crust on opposite sides of the zone.

In hydrology, an oceanic basin (or ocean basin) is anywhere on Earth that is covered by seawater. Geologically, most of the ocean basins are large geologic basins that are below sea level.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mid-ocean ridge</span> Basaltic underwater mountain system formed by plate tectonic spreading

A mid-ocean ridge (MOR) is a seafloor mountain system formed by plate tectonics. It typically has a depth of about 2,600 meters (8,500 ft) and rises about 2,000 meters (6,600 ft) above the deepest portion of an ocean basin. This feature is where seafloor spreading takes place along a divergent plate boundary. The rate of seafloor spreading determines the morphology of the crest of the mid-ocean ridge and its width in an ocean basin.

A GIS software program is a computer program to support the use of a geographic information system, providing the ability to create, store, manage, query, analyze, and visualize geographic data, that is, data representing phenomena for which location is important. The GIS software industry encompasses a broad range of commercial and open-source products that provide some or all of these capabilities within various information technology architectures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Izanagi Plate</span> Ancient tectonic plate

The Izanagi Plate was an ancient tectonic plate, which began subducting beneath the Okhotsk Plate 130–100 Ma. The rapid plate motion of the Izanagi Plate caused northwest Japan and the outer zone of southwest Japan to drift northward. High-pressure metamorphic rocks were formed at the eastern margin of the drifting land mass in the Sanbagawa metamorphic belt, while low-pressure metamorphic rocks were formed at its western margin in the Abukuma metamorphic belt. At approximately 55 Ma, the Izanagi Plate was completely subducted and replaced by the western Pacific Plate, which also subducted in a northwestern direction. Subduction-related magmatism took place near the Ryoke belt. No marked tectonics occurred in the Abukuma belt after the change of the subducted plate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phoenix Plate</span> Tectonic plate that existed during the early Paleozoic through late Cenozoic time

The Phoenix Plate was a tectonic plate that existed during the early Paleozoic through late Cenozoic time. It formed a triple junction with the Izanagi and Farallon plates in the Panthalassa Ocean as early as 410 million years ago, during which time the Phoenix Plate was subducting under eastern Gondwana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geodynamics</span> Study of dynamics of the Earth

Geodynamics is a subfield of geophysics dealing with dynamics of the Earth. It applies physics, chemistry and mathematics to the understanding of how mantle convection leads to plate tectonics and geologic phenomena such as seafloor spreading, mountain building, volcanoes, earthquakes, faulting. It also attempts to probe the internal activity by measuring magnetic fields, gravity, and seismic waves, as well as the mineralogy of rocks and their isotopic composition. Methods of geodynamics are also applied to exploration of other planets.

Plate reconstruction is the process of reconstructing the positions of tectonic plates relative to each other or to other reference frames, such as the Earth's magnetic field or groups of hotspots, in the geological past. This helps determine the shape and make-up of ancient supercontinents and provides a basis for paleogeographic reconstructions.

Carmen Gaina is the Director of the Centre for Earth Evolution and Dynamics (CEED) a Norwegian Centre of Excellence hosted at the Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Norway.

Maria Seton is an Australian geologist in the Faculty of Science EarthByte Group School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney. Seton's research is in the field of geophysics and geodynamics. Her main focus is the link between plate tectonic and mantle processes. Seton also works on kinematic controls on subduction and back-arc basin formation and the relationship between tectonics and palaeo-climate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tomviz</span>

tomviz is an open source software platform for reproducible volumetric visualization and data processing. The platform is designed for a wide range scientific applications but is especially tailored to high-resolution electron tomography, with features that allow alignment and reconstruction of nanoscale materials. The tomviz platform allows graphical analysis of 3D datasets, but also comes packaged with Python, NumPy, and SciPy tools to allow advanced data processing and analysis. Current version is 1.10.0.

Dietmar Müller is a professor of geophysics at the school of geosciences, the University of Sydney.

References

  1. Condon, Jo; Zahirovic, Sabin (20 May 2019). "We made a moving tectonic map of the Game of Thrones landscape". The Conversation. Retrieved 2021-03-29.
  2. Qin, X.; Müller, R. D.; Cannon, J.; Landgrebe, T. C. W.; Heine, C.; Watson, R. J.; Turner, M. (2012). "GI - Abstract - The GPlates Geological Information Model and Markup Language". Geoscientific Instrumentation, Methods and Data Systems. 1 (2): 111–134. Bibcode:2012GI......1..111Q. doi: 10.5194/gi-1-111-2012 .
  3. "GPlates download". SourceForge.net. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  4. "Marine Gravity from Satellite Altimetry".
  5. "GPlates Portal - Cesium - WebGL Virtual Globe and Map Engine". Cesiumjs.org. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  6. "This map lets you see where your hometown was on the Earth millions of years ago".
  7. "The most detailed map of the ocean floor ever seen | Technology". The Guardian. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  8. "Super-Detailed Interactive 3-D Seafloor Map". Wired. 2014-10-09. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  9. "Seafloor Mapping first". The Industry Advocate. 2015-08-12. Archived from the original on 2016-04-02. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  10. "Earth Without Oceans- Stunning New Interactive Map of the Earth's Seafloor". Orma.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  11. "2023 Australian Museum Eureka Prizes finalists". The Australian Museum. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  12. Cannon, J.; Lau, E.; Müller, R. D. (2014). "Plate tectonic raster reconstruction in GPlates". Solid Earth. 5 (2): 741–755. Bibcode:2014SolE....5..741C. doi: 10.5194/se-5-741-2014 .
  13. Keller, G. Randy; Baru, Chaitanya, eds. (2011). Next-generation plate-tectonic reconstructions using GPlates - University Publishing Online. Ebooks.cambridge.org. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511976308. ISBN   9780511976308. S2CID   243999290 . Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  14. Qin, X.; Müller, R. D.; Cannon, J.; Landgrebe, T. C. W.; Heine, C.; Watson, R. J.; Turner, M. (2012). "The GPlates Geological Information Model and Markup Language". Geoscientific Instrumentation, Methods and Data Systems. 1 (2): 111–134. Bibcode:2012GI......1..111Q. doi: 10.5194/gi-1-111-2012 .
  15. "An open-source software environment for visualizing and refining plate tectonic reconstructions using high-resolution geological and geophysical data sets" (PDF).
  16. "Plate Reconstructions with Continuously Closing Plates" (PDF).
  17. Cannon, J.; Pfaffelmoser, T.; Zahirovic, S.; Müller, R.; Seton, M. (2012). "Visualizing 3D mantle structure from seismic tomography and geodynamic model predictions of the India-Eurasia and East Asia convergence zone" (PDF). AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts. 2012: T51E–2645. Bibcode:2012AGUFM.T51E2645C.
  18. "Application of open-source software and high-resolution geophysical images to explore the plate tectonic evolution of Australia" (PDF).
  19. "A Custom Implementation for Visualizing Sub-surface 3D Scalar Fields in GPlates" (PDF).
  20. Müller, R. Dietmar; Qin, Xiaodong; Sandwell, David T.; Dutkiewicz, Adriana; Williams, Simon E.; Flament, Nicolas; Maus, Stefan; Seton, Maria (2016). "The GPlates Portal: Cloud-based interactive 3D visualization of global geophysical and geological data in a web browser". PLOS ONE. 11 (3): e0150883. Bibcode:2016PLoSO..1150883M. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0150883 . PMC   4784813 . PMID   26960151.