GPlates


GPlates is open-source application software offering a combination of interactive plate-tectonic reconstruction, geographic information system functionality, and raster data visualisation.
The GPlates software platform includes the main desktop application, command line tools, R, and Python wrappers, a web service, a mobile app, and a Python package for downloading plate tectonic datasets. GPlates also supports integration with GeoServer and PostGIS databases. The existence of this correlated software is intended to further the utility of GPlates as a central hub for computer analysis of tectonic data.
WWW Official Site

History

GPlates was conceived in 2002 by the following committee:
The first GPlates prototype 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

GPlates enables both the visualization and the manipulation of plate-tectonic reconstructions and associated data through geological time:
  • Load and save geological, geographic and tectonic feature data.
  • Assign feature data to tectonic plates.
  • Reconstruct feature data to past geological times.
  • Query and edit feature properties and geometries.
  • Modify reconstructions graphically.
  • Visualize vector and raster data on the globe or in one of the map projections.
  • Visualize sub-surface 3D scalar fields as isosurfaces or 2D cross-sections.
  • Export reconstructed data as a time-sequence of exported files.
  • Use plate polygons to calculate velocity fields.

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, particularly as the worldbuilding YouTuber Artifexian used it for his fictional universe, and made a series of tutorial videos on how to use the tool. In 2019, two Australian researchers used the software to create a tectonic map of the continents within the fictional Game of Thrones universe.

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 to represent geological data in a Plate tectonics context. The is an XML implementation of the GPGIM derived from the Geography Markup Language.

People

Developers

Scientists

Licensing

GPlates is released under GNU General Public License version 2.0 and the source code can be found on SourceForge.

GPlates Python Binding

The GPlates Python library 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. 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. 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 Australian [Research Data Commons| Nectar] Cloud. Later on, it was migrated to Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud. Below is a list of applications in GPlates Web Portal.
  • Vertical Gravity Gradient
  • Raster Reconstruction
  • Paleomap Maker
  • Dynamic Topography
  • IPython Sandbox
  • Magnetic Picks
  • SRTM15_PLUS Topography
  • Seafloor Lithology
The Cesium JavaScript library is used to render the 3D globe in a web browser.

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 which is the data discovery service of the Australian Research Data Commons.

Media

  • CNN
  • The Guardian
  • wired.com
  • Industry Advocate
  • Orma

Awards

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

Select publications

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

Funding

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