Basic Examples (5) 

The default plate configuration is for the Holocene epoch:

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Query for available plate configurations during a specified geological period:

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Some geological periods have more than one set of configurations available:

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Request the continental plates of the geological period corresponding to a specified time in the past:

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A single result may be returned if the provided value exactly matches one of the available time keys:

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Scope (2) 

The available dates for a given geological period can be requested:

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Some geological periods have no available data:

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ContinentalPlateMaps can be applied to any of the following geological periods:

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Options (6) 

ContinentStyle (1) 

Continent colors can be specified using any valid graphics directive:

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GeoBackground (1) 

Set the background to white:

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GeoCenter (1) 

Change the center:

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GeoGridLines (1) 

Do not show the grid lines:

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GeoProjection (1) 

Use an orthographic projection:

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Outlines (1) 

Continental plate outlines are set to None by default but can be specified:

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Applications (4) 

Visualize the continental configuration when the supercontinent Rodinia existed:

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Visualize the continental configuration when the supercontinent Pangaea existed:

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Visualize the position of India as it was moving northward during the Cenozoic era:

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The Appalachian Mountains began to form when volcanic island arcs collided with Laurentia (core of modern North America):

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Properties and Relations (2) 

Because the result of ContinentalPlateMaps is an Association, the value for any key‐value pair can be obtained by supplying the key of interest:

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Request the continental plates for a specific date instance:

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Possible Issues (2) 

Not all geological periods have data available:

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Geological time periods are organized hierarchically with eons being the longest span, then becoming shorter through eras, periods, and epochs. As a result, when requesting the continental plate configuration for a time quantity, the result corresponds to the shortest geological period that contains the specified quantity. Epochs are preferred over periods and longer time intervals:

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This corresponds to the same result as for the Holocene epoch as opposed to the Quaternary period, the Cenozoic era or the Phanerozoic eon, all of which contain the 12,000-years-ago specification:

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Neat Examples (2) 

To create an animation, first get a list of geological time entities:

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Because geological time periods are hierarchical and some are missing data in the most ancient cases, some cleaning, merging and sorting is needed to get a flat list of frames:

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