West-central Atlantic diffuse deformation zone

Classification

region kind

diffuseDeformationZone

domain realm

oceanic

How this is mapped

One published representation of where West-central Atlantic diffuse deformation zone is. Each is one interpretation, by one identified source, at one scale — not the shape of the thing itself.

• Tectonic model geometry

  Polygon · 74 positionspreferred for publication

  Geometry that exists because a model defines it — a rigid-plate outline, a zone where a model declares itself inapplicable. It is a property of the model, and changes when the model is revised. It is present-day geometry from a present-day model; a palaeogeographic reconstruction is a different thing and Lithoen does not hold one.

  The outline of the "west central Atlantic" orogen in model PB2002 (Bird, 2003). In that model an orogen is a region where the rigid-plate description does not apply because deformation is distributed, so this outline delimits where a MODEL stops working — it is not the extent of a mountain belt and carries no claim about crustal structure, age or thickness. Digitised by by Peter Bird, September 2001.

  Boundary certainty

  DefinedThe boundary is fixed by a definition rather than found in the field — a model boundary, a stated coordinate limit, an administrative extent of a survey. It is exactly where it says it is, because it is a definition.

  Status of this geometry

  modelledThe status of the geometry, which need not match the status of what the entity’s claims assert.

  Dataset

  PB2002 plates, boundaries and orogens as GeoJSON (fraxen/tectonicplates)Plate model PB2002 from Bird (2003), doi:10.1029/2001GC000252; GIS conversion by Hugo Ahlenius, Nordpil, ODC-By 1.0.

  What was done to this geometry

  • By Lithoen — Coordinates rounded to 4 decimal places, about 11 m of longitude at the equator.
  • Before it reached Lithoen — Digitised by Peter Bird for model PB2002; the outlines delimit where the model declares itself inapplicable.
  • Before it reached Lithoen — The GIS conversion (Ahlenius, ODC-By 1.0) split segments spanning the -180/180 meridian and moved them, as its README states.