Global continental and ocean basin reconstructions since 200 Ma

Description of Resources - Seton et al. (2012)

This file provides a detailed description of all of the files that make up the data collection associated with the publication: Seton, M., Müller, R. D., Zahirovic, S., Gaina, C., Torsvik, T., Shephard, G., Talsma, A., Gurnis, M., Turner, M., Maus, S., Chandler, M. (2012). Global continental and ocean basin reconstructions since 200 Ma. Earth-Science Reviews, 113(3), 212-270. doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2012.03.002

Note: For information on file formats and what programs to use to interact with various file formats, see "File Formats and Recommended Programs”.

The files associated with this data collection allow for the visualisation and/or manipulation of the global plate motion model presented by Seton et al. (2012), they include:

• Rotations - Global rotation model that contains the reconstruction poles that describe the motions of the continents and oceans.

* Seton_etal_ESR2012_2012.1.rot (410 KB)

• Plate IDs - A list of all the plate IDs used in the rotation and geometry files and their corresponding plate names.

* Seton_etal_ESR2012_PlateIDs.pdf (102 KB) 

• Coastlines - Geometries of the present-day coastlines.

* Seton_etal_ESR2012_Coastline_2012.1.gpml (17.5 MB)

* Seton_etal_ESR2012_Coastline_2012.1_polyline.shp (3.3 MB inc. auxiliary files, datum-WGS 1984)

* Seton_etal_ESR2012_Coastline_2012.1_polyline.txt (2.7 MB)

* Seton_etal_ESR2012_Coastline_2012.1_polyline.kml (4.4 MB)

• Continent-ocean boundaries (COBs) - Locations of the boundaries between oceanic and continental crust for plates involved in this study.

* Seton_etal_ESR2012_COB_2012.1.gpml (410 KB)

* Seton_etal_ESR2012_COB_2012.1.shp (152 KB inc. auxiliary files, datum-WGS 1984)

* Seton_etal_ESR2012_COB_2012.1.txt (86 KB)

* Seton_etal_ESR2012_COB_2012.1.kml (176 KB)

• Plate polygons and boundary geometries - Topologically closed plate polygons are constructed from the intersection of ridges, transforms, subduction zones and other plate boundary geometries. These 'resolved topologies' are valid at 1 Myr intervals (0-200 Ma). The plate boundary geometries and plate polygons have been assigned plate reconstruction IDs to allow them to be reconstructed using the supplied rotation file. 

* Seton_etal_ESR2012_PP_2012.1.gpml (29.5 MB)

Note:

Paleo age grids used by Seton et al. (2012) are released in Müller et al. (2013) [Müller, R. D., Dutkiewicz, A., Seton, M., & Gaina, C. (2013). Seawater chemistry driven by supercontinent assembly, breakup, and dispersal. Geology, 41(8), 907-910. doi: 10.1130/g34405.1]

The paleo age grids associated with this model can be accessed at: https://repo.gplates.org/webdav/PlateModel_Age_SR_Grids/Seton_etal_2012_ESR/