I have watched several science documentaries discussing the importance
of sea-level changes and geologic shifting of land masses on the
evolution of species. I find this fascinating.
I was wondering if there was a software model that allowed you to
visualize the orientation of the Earth's land masses and the sea levels, over
time?
I'm asking three questions, and pricing the question to include all three answers.
(1) I am looking ideally for a 3-D graphical software program that
would allow me to interactively explore the earth over thousands and
millions of years, and look at continental orientation changes and
sea-level/climate changes. Does such a 3D graphical visualization
exist?
(2) Whether or not a nice 3-D software visualization tool exists, are there
publicly-available temporal data sets or mathematical models for the
location/orientation of continents and sea-level/climate data,
sufficient for me to try to create such a 3-D graphic model?
(3) Finally, which research groups are doing work on these "whole earth,
time-series, interactive geologic & climatologic models" appropriate
for 3D visualization, so I can learn more about this field? |
Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
27 Mar 2004 05:09 PST
bkft-ga,
Fascinating question, but I'm not sure you're going to get a
satisfactory answer. Although scientists are doing a great deal of
work to reconstruct the earth's past as to tectonic shifting, sea
level changes, and climate history, these efforts are not generally
linked on a global scale. Nor is it likely they would be in the
foreseeable future. The three phenomenon (tectonics, sea level,
climate) are studies at very different time scales and through
different types of tools.
I'm not sure anyone, for instance, can really provide any significant
detail about the sea levels or climate of the earth for, say, 700
million years ago. But they can provide some pretty nifty maps of
shifting land masses during that era.
Your best tool, for now, might be those produced by the Plates Project
at the University of Texas. You can find the projects page here:
http://www.ig.utexas.edu/research/projects/plates/plates.htm
In particular, have a look at the very cool slide show of tectonic
activity for the past few hundred million years or so, and note the
inclusion of sea floor spreading information as the data approaches
the present day. Click on this text at the site, to download the
slide show:
"PLATES 2002 Atlas of Plate Reconstructions (750 Ma to Present Day)
(Powerpoint Animation, 2002 model)"
As I said, I don't think any of the tectonics models incorporate
details of climate or sea level changes -- nor or you likely to find
this any time soon. The most detailed reconstruction of sea level
changes seems to be this information here:
http://geochange.er.usgs.gov/pub/sea_level/
and only goes back a paltry 4 or 5 million years.
Let me know if any of this is useful to you.
pafalafa-ga
|
Clarification of Question by
bkft-ga
on
30 Mar 2004 17:35 PST
Hi pafalafa, thanks for the general advice.
I think the Texas site may be useful, but it's not as thorough a
research package as I had hoped for. I guess I was looking for a
broader primer of the 3 questions.
I'll wait a little bit to see if I can get a more complete answer
about software packages/data sets/visualization. If I don't get a
more thorough answer, how about I accept your answer for a more
limited form of the question.
|
Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
30 Mar 2004 18:33 PST
Hello again,
Thanks for getting back to me on this.
I truly hope some other researcher can offer up a more complete set of
software to meet your needs.
But as I said earlier, the fundamental differences between time-scales
and models for tectonics, sea level and climate make it unlikely (to
me, anyway) that you'll find all three combined.
I didn't offer my comments as an answer to your question, because it
didn't seem to me they *did* answer it! You made a generous offer to
consider accepting it anyway, but let's see if someone else can offer
some better, and more complete information. That would certainly be
the best outcome here.
Good luck.
pafalafa-ga
|
Clarification of Question by
bkft-ga
on
11 Apr 2004 13:50 PDT
Pafalafa, I'm going to accept your answer for a limited form of the question.
|
