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GPlates

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GPlates
Original author(s)EarthByte Group
Developer(s)The GPlates Development Team
Initial releaseJanuary 2006; 18 years ago (2006-01)
Stable release
1.50 / February 14, 2015; 9 years ago (2015-02-14)..
Repository
Written inC++
Operating systemLinux, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows
Available inEnglish
TypeGeographic information system
LicenseGNU GPL version 2+
Websitewww.gplates.org

The GPlates is a free and open-source application software, developed by a group of international scientists and software developers to simulate and visualize the Plate tectonics reconstruction process. The main contributors include the EarthByte group in the school of Geosciences at the University of Sydney, the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences (GPS) at CalTech, the Geodynamics Team at the Geological Survey of Norway (NGU). GPlates is mainly used in plate tectonics reconstruction research and education. User manual and tutorial are available online.[1][2]

History

Professor Dietmar Müller started the GPlates project in 2006. By the end of 2010, the GPlates 1.0.0 were released.

The latest release was GPlates 1.5 in February 2015.

Below is a list of major releases of GPlates.[3]

  • 2008-05-23: GPlates 0.9.2
  • 2009-06-17: GPlates 0.9.5
  • 2010-12-20: GPlates 1.0.0
  • 2011-05-21: GPlates 1.1
  • 2012-01-30: GPlates 1.2
  • 2013-05-29: GPlates 1.3
  • 2014-04-18: GPlates 1.4
  • 2015-02-14: GPlates 1.5
  • 2016-02-04: pygplates beta revision 12 released

Features

Plate-tectonic Reconstruction

GPlates can calculate the probable position of a geological feature in the past. A rotation file is used to define the relative positions of tectonic plates. Each geological feature is assigned a plate id according to the plate it belongs to. GPlates uses the plate id and the rotation file to calculate the probable position at certain time.

Reconstruction Animation

GPlates can simulate and animate the plate-tectonic reconstruction process.

Displaying Raster Images

GPlates can load JPEG and NetCDF format rasters and display them on a 3D globe.

Implementation

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

Information Model

GPGIM and GPML

GPlates uses GPlates Geological Information Model (GPGIM) to represent geological data in the Plate tectonics context. The GPlates Markup Language (GPML) is an XML implementation of GPGIM[4] The GPML is derived from Geography Markup Language (GML).

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 hence provides much more flexibility than the GPlates desktop interface can offer. The first beta release of pygplates is now available for download at here. The pygplates documentation can be found at here and tutorials are available at here.

People

Developers

  • John Cannon (active) EarthByte group, The University of Sydney
John is the develop lead of GPlates.
Michael is the Systems Architect of GPlates Portal.
  • Robin Watson (active) Geodynamics team, Geological Survey of Norway
  • Mark Turner (inactive)
  • Enoch Lau (inactive)
  • James Clark (inactive)
  • James Boyden (inactive)
James Boyden is one of the pioneers of GPlates project.

Scientists

Dietmar is the founder and current lead 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[5]

GPlates Portal

The GPlates Web Portal is a gateway to a series of GPlates-based web applications. The portal was launched in 2014.[6] Michael Chin is the architect and chief programmer. 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 GPlate Web Portal.

3D visulization of the Vertical Gravity Gradient Grid.[7]
Reconstruct raster images through time.
Data reconstruction and visulization service.
Demonstrate how to use pygplates in IPython Notebook.

The Cesium Javascript library is used to render 3D globe in web browser.[8]

Media

  • Daily Mail (What the Earth would look like stripped of oceans: First ever digital map of the sea floor reveals our planet's 'alien' landscape)[9]
  • The Guardian (The most detailed map of the ocean floor ever seen)[10]
  • wired.com (Super-Detailed Interactive 3-D Seafloor Map)[11]
  • Industry Advocate (Seafloor Mapping first)[12]
  • Orma (Earth Without Oceans- Stunning New Interactive Map of the Earth’s Seafloor)[13]
  • See the continents form and explore the Earth as never before: Incredible interactive globes show our planet's geology evolving[14]

Select Publications

Below is a list of select publications of GPlates.

  • Plate tectonic raster reconstruction in GPlates[15]
  • Next-generation plate-tectonic reconstructions using GPlates[16]
  • The GPlates Geological Information Model and Markup Language[17]
  • An open-source software environment for visualizing and refining plate tectonic reconstructions using high-resolution geological and geophysical data sets[18]
  • Plate Reconstructions with Continuously Closing Plates[19]
  • Visualizing 3D mantle structure from seismic tomography and geodynamic model predictions of the India-Eurasia and East Asia convergence zone[20]
  • Application of open-source software and high-resolution geophysical images to explore the plate tectonic evolution of Australia[21]
  • A Custom Implementation for Visualizing Sub-surface 3D Scalar Fields in GPlates[22]
  • The GPlates Portal: Cloud-based interactive 3D visualization of global geophysical and geological data in a web browser[23]

Notable Users

The GPlates desktop version software and python API binding are widely used by geophysicists, students and researchers. The notable users include

  • Seismological Laboratory at California Institute of Technology.[24]
  • The Geodynamics Team at Geological Survey of Norway.[25]
  • EarthByte Group at The University of Sydney.[26]

Newsletters

Funding

References

  1. ^ "GPlates Tutorials". Sites.google.com. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  2. ^ "The Gplates User Manual" (PDF). Freeware.epsc.wustl.edu. Retrieved 2015-09-20.
  3. ^ "GPlates News".
  4. ^ "GI - Abstract - The GPlates Geological Information Model and Markup Language". Geosci-instrum-method-data-syst.net. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  5. ^ "GPlates download". SourceForge.net. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  6. ^ "GPlates Portal". EarthByte. 2014-11-16. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  7. ^ http://topex.ucsd.edu/grav_outreach/
  8. ^ "GPlates Portal - Cesium - WebGL Virtual Globe and Map Engine". Cesiumjs.org. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  9. ^ Graaf, Mia De. "What the Earth would look like without oceans | Daily Mail Online". Dailymail.co.uk. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  10. ^ "The most detailed map of the ocean floor ever seen | Technology". The Guardian. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  11. ^ "Super-Detailed Interactive 3-D Seafloor Map". WIRED. 2014-10-09. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  12. ^ "Seafloor Mapping first". The Industry Advocate. 2015-08-12. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  13. ^ "Earth Without Oceans- Stunning New Interactive Map of the Earth's Seafloor". Orma.com. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  14. ^ "See the continents form and explore the Earth as never before: Incredible interactive globes show our planet's geology evolving".
  15. ^ "Plate tectonic raster reconstruction in GPlates". Solid-earth.net. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  16. ^ "Next-generation plate-tectonic reconstructions using GPlates - University Publishing Online". Ebooks.cambridge.org. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  17. ^ "The GPlates Geological Information Model and Markup Language".
  18. ^ "An open-source software environment for visualizing and refining plate tectonic reconstructions using high-resolution geological and geophysical data sets" (PDF).
  19. ^ "Plate Reconstructions with Continuously Closing Plates" (PDF).
  20. ^ "Visualizing 3D mantle structure from seismic tomography and geodynamic model predictions of the India-Eurasia and East Asia convergence zone" (PDF).
  21. ^ "Application of open-source software and high-resolution geophysical images to explore the plate tectonic evolution of Australia" (PDF).
  22. ^ "A Custom Implementation for Visualizing Sub-surface 3D Scalar Fields in GPlates" (PDF).
  23. ^ "The GPlates Portal: Cloud-based interactive 3D visualization of global geophysical and geological data in a web browser".
  24. ^ "GPlates -- Paleogeographic Modelling Tools". Web.gps.caltech.edu. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  25. ^ "Geodynamics @ ngu, Projects". Geodynamics.no. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  26. ^ "Earthbyte GPlates".
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