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What happens to Google Maps when tectonic plates move? (2020)

nautil.us

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Re: What happens to Google Maps when tectonic plates move? (2020)

#71

Post by ffsm8 »

johndunne wrote: post #55
ffsm8 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Humanity won't be alive by that time. It's a interesting setting to explore in fiction, but has no chance of becoming reality.

That’s kind of misanthropic, talking in absolute terms. I could agree in terms of low possibilities but certainly not absolutes. I feel it does a disservice to the few who actually come up with genius solutions to problems humanity faces and the many who dedicate their lives to solving them too.

Is it, really? With current progress I don't see humanity surviving even another 500 yrs, honestly. The main intelligent race at that point is likely going to be something like a symbiont/cyborg that's part machine. At least nothing it'd consider human.

Millions of years is a long period of time. Humanity has only existed for roughly 200-300k. That's less then 1% of the projected time period here.

Re: What happens to Google Maps when tectonic plates move? (2020)

#72

Post by JumpCrisscross »

moffkalast wrote: post #70
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The IERS reference median is “the weighted average (in the least squares sense) of the reference meridians of the hundreds of ground stations contributing to the IERS network” [1]. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IERS_Reference_Meridian

Ah so it's just averaged out, that's a decent solution I suppose. But that still makes it fixed to the surface for the most part.

> still makes it fixed to the surface for the most part

Which makes sense. That’s what we’re trying to measure. You could fix it to a point on the core’s surface, but what wouldn’t be practically useful.

Re: What happens to Google Maps when tectonic plates move? (2020)

#73

Post by BlueTemplar »

jraph wrote: post #50
tetris11 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was wondering if they were going to apply the correction to all objects, but as they hinted at in the post, only objects old enough to cause a half meter shift will probably be corrected. Edit: Oh, April Fools. Seemed doable.

The post is an April Fools, to be clear. edit: right? It seemed credible, I only noticed the date at the end. The part where they would hide the edit from history was incredibly shady though, and that's what made me look even closer. I would hope they would never do this, if they even could. Without this part, the post would not have looked like an April Fools, just an actually good idea.

I love how that post supposedly ended up being posted on the wrong day. XD

Re: What happens to Google Maps when tectonic plates move? (2020)

#75

Post by epivosism »

Ferret7446 wrote: post #41
epivosism wrote: post #38

I often think about a scifi story where after X million years, somehow familiar humanity survives, and two plates containing land with VERY different natural flora and fauna approach each other - for example, california, home of many native plant defenders, and australia. As they get closer than 50 miles, news would start to mention making sure not to cross-transplant animals and plants. Under 20 miles, the wind and…

There are two cycles that govern human social change: the generational ~10 year cycle and the lifetime ~80 year cycle. Each generation adopts new values, and once a generation dies their values disappear. Tectonic movement is so slow that I think reality will be much more boring than your scifi story. The hundred thousand years where the two regions are "close enough" is more than enough time for the two peoples to b…

True. Although most science fiction which would take place over such a long timespan might involve methods of locking things down more firmly, and putting at least part of the world into a kind of stasis. This is almost necessary to explain how humanity could still be at a similar tech level to us now yet still be around for such a time period.

Re: What happens to Google Maps when tectonic plates move? (2020)

#77

Post by nobodyknowin »

politelemon wrote: post #3

If you want to dive even deeper into datums around the world, there's a site dedicated to it: https://www.asprs.org/asprs-publications/grids-and-datums You'll find many countries in there with a bit of history of their datums and how they arrived at their present state. It's a dry reading that can be fascinating at the same time.

>It's a dry reading that can be fascinating at the same time.

I'm a surveyor by trade and you hit the nail on the head.

One of my favorite parts about this stuff is the history, and how we humans have tried to understand the shape of our world better and better. And then how we've attempted to make that shape conform to a flat map so we can measure on it better.

Fascinating stuff.

Re: What happens to Google Maps when tectonic plates move? (2020)

#78

Post by shiroiushi »

Ferret7446 wrote: post #41
epivosism wrote: post #38

I often think about a scifi story where after X million years, somehow familiar humanity survives, and two plates containing land with VERY different natural flora and fauna approach each other - for example, california, home of many native plant defenders, and australia. As they get closer than 50 miles, news would start to mention making sure not to cross-transplant animals and plants. Under 20 miles, the wind and…

There are two cycles that govern human social change: the generational ~10 year cycle and the lifetime ~80 year cycle. Each generation adopts new values, and once a generation dies their values disappear. Tectonic movement is so slow that I think reality will be much more boring than your scifi story. The hundred thousand years where the two regions are "close enough" is more than enough time for the two peoples to b…

This will change if technology is developed which greatly extends human lifespans. Such technology is going to become necessary soon because of plummeting birth rates.

Re: What happens to Google Maps when tectonic plates move? (2020)

#79

Post by 77pt77 »

teruakohatu wrote: post #34
perotid wrote: post #9

FWIW, global drift vectors by NASA: https://sideshow.jpl.nasa.gov/post/series.html

If you want to see an interesting one in my country: https://sideshow.jpl.nasa.gov/post/links/KAIK.html 2016 Kaikōura earthquake: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Kaik%C5%8Dura_earthquake

There are deltas there of over 70cm.

That's insane when it usually moves 2cm per year at most.

Re: What happens to Google Maps when tectonic plates move? (2020)

#80

Post by teruakohatu »

77pt77 wrote: post #79
teruakohatu wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to see an interesting one in my country: https://sideshow.jpl.nasa.gov/post/links/KAIK.html 2016 Kaikōura earthquake: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Kaik%C5%8Dura_earthquake

There are deltas there of over 70cm. That's insane when it usually moves 2cm per year at most.

It was insane. There was a massive die off of marine life. One movement they were happily swimming in the sea or crawling on the sand, next minute they were above the sea.
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