Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: Plot modern addresses on Earth 240M years ago

dinosaurpictures.org

31–40 of 62 posts

Re: Show HN: Plot modern addresses on Earth 240M years ago

#32
post #2

Hi HN, I built this by adapting GPlates ( https://www.gplates.org ), an academic project providing desktop software for geologists to investigate plate tectonic data. I'm amazed that geologists collected enough data to actually plot my home 750M years ago, so I thought you all would enjoy it too. Even though plate tectonic models return precise results, you should consider the plots approximate (obviously we will nev…

Nifty work.

> Even though precise results are returned by the plate tectonic models, the locations are still approximate [...]. In my tests I found that model results can vary significantly.

One challenge with science education content is to avoid nurturing rich ecologies of misconceptions... to the degree possible given resource constraints and conflicting objectives. So here are some random brainstormy ideas.

Add small inserts with different plate models? To reduce the implied certainty. Uncertainty is usually handled poorly in science education, with unfortunate results for education and society. Perhaps pixelate the globe?

The false colors represent elevation (EDIT: no, Scotese's hand-drawn sort-of-elevation maps), not biome. So "green map" may represent a long-term tan desert. Perhaps choose a less pretty but 'less likely to be misinterpreted as biomes' colorization? Maybe as an option? A biome map would be great to have... but at least as of some years ago, it didn't seem anyone was attempting unified paleobiome map models. It seemed more lack of incentive than lack of data, at least for some periods.

Sea level and coastline position varies at high frequency. 12k years ago, the shortest walk from Boston to the sea, was due south past Long Island. A color scheme that deemphasized the coast would allow coastline variation to be averaged/blurred.

Cloud coverage and patters vary greatly across time. Pretty clouds over Pangean desert made me smile. Perhaps explicitly call them "Bogus Clouds"? :) Science education content frequently shows bogus things. Rather than difficult reform, simply becoming more transparent/honest and comfortable with calling them bogus might be a relatively easy but significant cultural improvement.

The star field is missing long-term features, like a visible galactic disk. Having a higher-density star map might also usefully obscure that the set of bright stars is changing. Or perhaps just another "Bogus" label? They're really quite handy. :)

If anyone has time on their hands, it might be neat to attempt a more principled representation. Perhaps realistic appearance, averaged over a few My? Average cloud cover maps are less pretty than weather, but plausible long-term ones might be derived from relatively simple paleoclimate models. Similarly for biomes.

Paleoglobes are traditionally very misleading. As we move forward, it could be nice to improve on that.

Re: Show HN: Plot modern addresses on Earth 240M years ago

#33
post #13
post #2

Hi HN, I built this by adapting GPlates ( https://www.gplates.org ), an academic project providing desktop software for geologists to investigate plate tectonic data. I'm amazed that geologists collected enough data to actually plot my home 750M years ago, so I thought you all would enjoy it too. Even though plate tectonic models return precise results, you should consider the plots approximate (obviously we will nev…

Is... is the rest of the site with the dinosaurs your work as well?

Yeah, I definitely went down a bit of a rabbit hole of random dinosaur discovery!

Re: Show HN: Plot modern addresses on Earth 240M years ago

#34
post #2

Hi HN, I built this by adapting GPlates ( https://www.gplates.org ), an academic project providing desktop software for geologists to investigate plate tectonic data. I'm amazed that geologists collected enough data to actually plot my home 750M years ago, so I thought you all would enjoy it too. Even though plate tectonic models return precise results, you should consider the plots approximate (obviously we will nev…

Wow, that is a fantastic knowledge resource! Something I have long hoped to find.

Kudos!

Re: Show HN: Plot modern addresses on Earth 240M years ago

#35
post #2

Hi HN, I built this by adapting GPlates ( https://www.gplates.org ), an academic project providing desktop software for geologists to investigate plate tectonic data. I'm amazed that geologists collected enough data to actually plot my home 750M years ago, so I thought you all would enjoy it too. Even though plate tectonic models return precise results, you should consider the plots approximate (obviously we will nev…

Is it supposed to do something when I enter an address?

Re: Show HN: Plot modern addresses on Earth 240M years ago

#39
post #29
post #2

Hi HN, I built this by adapting GPlates ( https://www.gplates.org ), an academic project providing desktop software for geologists to investigate plate tectonic data. I'm amazed that geologists collected enough data to actually plot my home 750M years ago, so I thought you all would enjoy it too. Even though plate tectonic models return precise results, you should consider the plots approximate (obviously we will nev…

I'm curious about the accuracy of the visualization. Specifically, at around 20M yrs, one can clearly see the mediterranean sea. The wikipedia page for the Zanclean Deluge[1] says it's theorized to have happened around 5M yrs ago. Does this mean that the data from gplates doesn't support that theory? Or is that just an artifact of how things were put together for this project? Nonetheless, cool project! [1] https://e…

This is a good point, and I think we'd have to take it up with Chris Scotese, the geologist who produced the rasters I wrap around the globe[1]. There are some details in the PDF included in the download, which explains some coloration choices based on elevation (search for "paleocoastline")[2].

That said, I think there is artistic license taken, and the wet Mediterranean might be an oversight or even a statement by the artist (I've gotten emails from angry geologists because the globe does not advance one theory or another). Part of Scotese's work also predates some of the research on this topic.

It would certainly be more accurate to show a simple plate diagram rather than an artistic version of the Earth, and it would make my life easier too because then I could show continuous plate movement for each year. But there is a certain thrill in seeing ancient earth all globe-like, so I stand by my choice to use these rasters :)

[1] https://www.earthbyte.org/paleomap-paleoatlas-for-gplates/

[2] https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-q0WIa7ofISFHyBe4UxvN8DIPs...

Re: Show HN: Plot modern addresses on Earth 240M years ago

#40
post #29
post #2

Hi HN, I built this by adapting GPlates ( https://www.gplates.org ), an academic project providing desktop software for geologists to investigate plate tectonic data. I'm amazed that geologists collected enough data to actually plot my home 750M years ago, so I thought you all would enjoy it too. Even though plate tectonic models return precise results, you should consider the plots approximate (obviously we will nev…

I'm curious about the accuracy of the visualization. Specifically, at around 20M yrs, one can clearly see the mediterranean sea. The wikipedia page for the Zanclean Deluge[1] says it's theorized to have happened around 5M yrs ago. Does this mean that the data from gplates doesn't support that theory? Or is that just an artifact of how things were put together for this project? Nonetheless, cool project! [1] https://e…

would probably need to look into that theory further. That map at 20Mya is consistent with the fact that Florida was under water during that time. The Gulf Trough, another waterway, was running above the Florida platform around that time up to ~40Mya.
Post reply on HN