Paleographic Maps

December 5, 2012 5:19 PM

Ron Blakey makes paleogeographic maps of the ancient world.

The paleogeographic maps show the varied landscapes of the ancient Earth through hundreds of millions of years of geologic time, including distribution of ancient shallow seas, deep ocean basins, mountain ranges, coastal plains, and continental interiors. Tectonic features shown include subduction zones, island arcs, mid-ocean ridges and accreting terranes.

posted by zamboni (14 comments total)

it's borked, currently :(
posted by jammy at 5:25 PM on December 5, 2012

Reminds me of the old days of Digg with links going to abstrusegoose that were always broken. Speaking about Digg, man, that place has changed.
posted by crapmatic at 5:28 PM on December 5, 2012

Looks like we overwhelmed the server. Try his university hosted page, which has largely the same maps.
posted by zamboni at 5:28 PM on December 5, 2012

Looks like the archive.org snapshot works ok too. In a similar vein I've often wondered about how deep the prehistoric oceans were, since they were so immensely huge, and whether there might be have been 100,000 ft deep trenches. When I Googled about this I didn't find anything except for one journal paper that was trying to model some aspect of continental drift or currents, and they speculated that the oceans were overall not any deeper than they are now.
posted by crapmatic at 5:31 PM on December 5, 2012

So ... where's the oil at?
posted by ZenMasterThis at 5:33 PM on December 5, 2012

I love these maps so, so much. I use them all the time with programs and exhibits. Putting these down on a geologic timeline alongside plant and animal evolution really helps kids connect to the idea that the world has changed so much.

Here's a link to a beautiful animation of his maps for Science on a Sphere. (Just click View on the right)
posted by Mouse Army at 7:00 PM on December 5, 2012 [2 favorites]

re: that wonderful animation linked by House Army,
Does anybody do projections of where the world is going next?
posted by spbmp at 7:59 PM on December 5, 2012

So ... where's the oil at?
posted by ZenMasterThis

Still on the hoof.
posted by StickyCarpet at 8:14 PM on December 5, 2012

if i were a science fiction/fantasy author, these maps would be my go-to for the geographic basis of a world. when i look at game of thrones maps they don't look they could be an actual snapshot of geological change.
posted by cupcake1337 at 8:18 PM on December 5, 2012

That is because they are artificial landmasses created within a Dyson Sphere.
posted by Artw at 8:55 PM on December 5, 2012

NOT SURE IF IN DYSON SPHERE OR GRRM CAN'T BE ARSED TO DESCRIBE SKY EVER
posted by fleacircus at 11:46 PM on December 5, 2012

I find it awesome that if I building my time machine in Minnesota, I stand a pretty good chance of landing on dry land as far back as I go.
posted by jeribus at 8:42 AM on December 6, 2012

A while back, I decided that since globes tend to go out of date pretty quick anyway, you might as well do one with Pangea or such. I ended up dropping the idea because my quick searches couldn't find any quality images to use. I suppose now I have to figure out how to actually make one.
posted by ckape at 10:36 AM on December 6, 2012

Where's the little slider that I can set from anywhere between the formation of earth and now, where it'll show me what earth looked like at that time? Am I just not seeing it. Cuz that's absolutely what needs to be there.
posted by Galaxor Nebulon at 12:43 PM on December 7, 2012