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Tectonic plates

Global maps of tectonic plates of the Earth, consisting of 56 individual plates named according to abbreviations given in Argus et al. (2011).

Maps of the tectonic plates of the Earth, consisting of 56 individual plates named according to abbreviations given in Argus et al. (2011). The Earth’s lithosphere, the rigid outer shell of the planet including the crust and part of the upper mantle, is fractured into about eight major plates and more minor tectonic plates. The relative movement of the plates typically ranges from zero to 10 cm annually. This relative motion causes different deformation at the plate boundaries, which can be grouped into convergence, divergence, and strike-slip motion. At divergent plate boundaries (i.e., spreading ridges), tectonic plates are created, whereas at convergent boundaries (i.e., subduction zones), tectonic plates are recycled back into the Earth’s mantle. Due to their strong deformation, those tectonic plate boundaries are the most common sites for earthquakes and volcanoes.

The Scientific colour map ‘batlow‘ is used to represent individual plates to all readers.

  • Creator: Fabio Crameri
  • This version: 10.09.2021
  • License: Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)
  • Specific citation: This graphic by Fabio Crameri from Crameri et al. (2022) is available via the open-access s-ink.org repository.
  • Related references:
    Argus, D. F., R. G. Gordon, and C. DeMets (2011), Geologically current motion of 56 plates relative to the no‐net‐rotation reference frame, Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst., 12, Q11001, doi:10.1029/2011GC003751.
    Bird, P. (2003), An updated digital model of plate boundaries, Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst., 4(3), 1027, doi:10.1029/ 2001GC000252.
    Crameri, F., G.E. Shephard, and E.O. Straume (2022, Pre-print), Effective high-quality science graphics from s-Ink.org, EarthArXiv, https://doi.org/10.31223/X51P78
  • Alternative map projections
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  • Colour-vision deficiency friendly
  • Readable in black&white

Faulty or missing link? – Please report them via a reply below!

Tectonic plates (simple)

Global maps of tectonic plates of the Earth, consisting of 56 individual plates named according to abbreviations given in Argus et al. (2011).

Maps of the tectonic plates of the Earth, consisting of 56 individual plates named according to abbreviations given in Argus et al. (2011). The Earth’s lithosphere, the rigid outer shell of the planet including the crust and part of the upper mantle, is fractured into about eight major plates and more minor tectonic plates. The relative movement of the plates typically ranges from zero to 10 cm annually. This relative motion causes different deformation at the plate boundaries, which can be grouped into convergence, divergence, and strike-slip motion. At divergent plate boundaries (i.e., spreading ridges), tectonic plates are created, whereas at convergent boundaries (i.e., subduction zones), tectonic plates are recycled back into the Earth’s mantle. Due to their strong deformation, those tectonic plate boundaries are the most common sites for earthquakes and volcanoes.
The Scientific colour map ‘batlow‘ is used to represent individual plates to all readers.

  • Creator: Fabio Crameri
  • This version: 10.09.2021
  • License: Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)
  • Specific citation: This graphic by Fabio Crameri from Crameri et al. (2022) is available via the open-access s-ink.org repository.
  • Related references:
    Argus, D. F., R. G. Gordon, and C. DeMets (2011), Geologically current motion of 56 plates relative to the no‐net‐rotation reference frame, Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst., 12, Q11001, doi:10.1029/2011GC003751.
    Bird, P. (2003), An updated digital model of plate boundaries, Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst., 4(3), 1027, doi:10.1029/ 2001GC000252.
    Crameri, F., G.E. Shephard, and E.O. Straume (2022, Pre-print), Effective high-quality science graphics from s-Ink.org, EarthArXiv, https://doi.org/10.31223/X51P78
  • Alternative map projections
  • Transparent background
  • Light & dark background versions
  • Colour-vision deficiency friendly
  • Readable in black&white

Faulty or missing link? – Please report them via a reply below!

Moon topography

Global map of Moon topography. This digital elevation model (DEM) is based on data from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA).

Global map of the topography of the Moon. This digital elevation model (DEM) for the Lunar surface is based on data from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA; Smith et al., 2010), an instrument on the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft (Tooley et al., 2010). The created DEM represents more than 6.5 billion measurements of Moon topography gathered between July 2009 and July 2013. The Scientific colour map ‘turku‘ is used to represent the data accurately and to all readers.

  • Alternative map orientation
  • Transparent background
  • Light & dark background versions
  • Perceptually uniform colour map
  • Colour-vision deficiency friendly
  • Readable in black&white

Faulty or missing link? – Please report them via a reply below!

Venus topography

Global maps of surface topography of the planet Mercury.

A global map of Venusian surface topography. Shown is the Venus Magellan Global Topography 4641m (v2) representing the version 2 (1997 release) of the Global Topographic Data Record (GTDR-SINUS.3;2) available from https://astrogeology.usgs.gov/search/map/Venus/Magellan/RadarProperties/. The Scientific colour map ‘bilbao‘ is used to represent data accurately and to all readers.

  • Alternative map orientation
  • Alternative colour map
  • Transparent background
  • Light & dark background versions
  • Perceptually uniform colour map
  • Colour-vision deficiency friendly
  • Readable in black&white

Faulty or missing link? – Please report them via a reply below!

Mercury topography

Global maps of surface topography of the planet Mercury.

Global maps of surface topography of the planet Mercury showing data (MESS-H-MDIS-5-DEM-ELEVATION-V1.0) derived from Messenger missions. The Scientific colour map ‘batlow‘ is used to represent data accurately and to all readers.

  • Alternative map orientation
  • Alternative colour map
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  • Light & dark background versions
  • Perceptually uniform colour map
  • Colour-vision deficiency friendly
  • Readable in black&white

Faulty or missing link? – Please report them via a reply below!

Mars topography

Global maps of Martian surface topography based on Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter data.

Detailed and accurate global maps depicting the Martian surface topography, showcasing a digital elevation model sourced from Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) data. This comprehensive model is derived from NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft, specifically the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter dataset (Smith et al., 1999). The digital elevation model at https://astrogeology.usgs.gov allows for an in-depth look into the fascinating topographical features of the Martian landscape, as captured by cutting-edge technology on the MGS spacecraft (Albee et al., 2001). The Scientific colour map ‘lajolla‘ is used to represent data accurately and to all readers.

  • Alternative map orientation
  • Transparent background
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  • Perceptually uniform colour map
  • Colour-vision deficiency friendly
  • Readable in black&white

Faulty or missing link? – Please report them via a reply below!

Polar surface topography

Polar maps of the Earth’s surface topography showing the bedrock elevation across oceans, land, and ice sheets.

Polar maps of the Earth’s surface topography showing the bedrock elevation across oceans, land, and ice sheets of either the Northern (Arctic) or the Southern (Antarctic) hemisphere. Shown is ETOPO1 (Amante and Eakins 2009), a 1 arc-minute global relief model of Earth’s surface that integrates land topography and ocean bathymetry. The Scientific colour map bukavu is used to represent data accurately and to all readers.

  • Alternative colour map
  • Transparent background
  • Light & dark background versions
  • Perceptually uniform colour map
  • Colour-vision deficiency friendly
  • Readable in black&white

Faulty or missing link? – Please report them via a reply below!

Surface topography

A global map of the Earth’s surface topography showing the bedrock elevation across oceans, land, and ice sheets.

Global maps of the Earth’s surface topography showing the bedrock elevation across oceans, land, and ice sheets. Shown is ETOPO1 (Amante and Eakins 2009), a 1 arc-minute global relief model of Earth’s surface that integrates land topography and ocean bathymetry. The Scientific colour map bukavu is used to represent data accurately and to all readers.

  • Alternative map projections & colour map
  • Transparent background
  • Light & dark background versions
  • Perceptually uniform colour map
  • Colour-vision deficiency friendly
  • Readable in black&white

Faulty or missing link? – Please report them via a reply below!

Ocean-plate age

Global seafloor age visualised on a custom Interrupted Mollweide map projection.

Maps of the age of oceanic plates, which varies between 0 and around 200 Ma due to ongoing plate motion and recycling (i.e., ocean-plate tectonics). Global sea-floor age data from Müller et al. (1997) visualised on a custom Interrupted Mollweide map projection from Crameri et al. (2020) focussing on the World’s oceans. The Scientific colour map ‘batlow‘ is used to represent data accurately and to all readers.

  • Creator: Fabio Crameri
  • This version: 20.08.2021
  • License: Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)
  • Specific citation: This graphic by Fabio Crameri from Crameri et al. (2022) is available via the open-access s-Ink.org repository.
  • Related references:
    Crameri, F., G.E. Shephard, and E.O. Straume (2022, Pre-print), Effective high-quality science graphics from s-Ink.org, EarthArXiv, https://doi.org/10.31223/X51P78
    Müller, R. D., et al. (1997). “Digital isochrons of the world’s ocean floor.” J. Geophys. Res. 102(B2): 3211-3214.
    Crameri, F., V. Magni, M. Domeier, G.E. Shephard, K. Chotalia, G. Cooper, C. Eakin, A.G. Grima, D. Gürer, A. Király, E. Mulyukova, K. Peters, B. Robert, and M. Thielmann (2020), A transdisciplinary and community-driven database to unravel subduction zone initiation, Nature Communications, 11, 3750. doi:10.1038/s41467-020-17522-9
  • Additional map projection versions
  • Light & dark background versions
  • Perceptually uniform colour map
  • Colour-vision deficiency friendly
  • Readable in black&white

Faulty or missing link? – Please report them via a reply below!

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