Hi everybody!

Could u help me? I have to simulate a the Earth and continental plates sliding on it. Simple faking is not suitable for the job I am specifically entrusted to create a simulation enviroment to this.

I have some ideas, but am curious how would u do that? It has to contain the ability to create cracks, to give them a width, and the ability to collide plates which result ridges, mountains.

Simple gravity force - I think - is inadequate since it does not allow u to pull material towards the center of gravitation (in nonhoudini apps), it just allow u to use the x and y directions.

Thank u

Actually, I've just finished the quite wonderful book Krakatoa: The Day The World Exploded [amazon.ca], and my take on it as that plate tectonics are more about thermal flow, lighter and heavier layers rather than gravitation. The other thing I took away from it is that the Real Thing is very complicated. I'm pretty sure a hack is in order.

Cheers,

J.C.

I know that RealWorld is totally complex, and unbelievanly heavy to simulate. In my particular case simulation is inevitable, since changing data is tha basis of the animation, and same parameters which drive this simulation.

However thank you

From what you describe, it only describes a procedural setup, not necessarily a setup that requires real-world simulation.

Yes it requires a procedural setup, but also dynamic simulations namely:

gravity force (not towards a linear direction) which pulls mass toward the center of the earth (I have to make a globe not just a part of it)

colliding mass with the ability to give them stiffness

ability to make cracks between plates

some drag force to lift mass upward (when the crack between the plates widens the underlying crust buckles upward) then the plates lying on it slides downward, then collides, making mountains ridges…

so on, many aspects.

The number of factors involved in Plate Tectonics are huge and simulating the Plates is a task reserved for the largest of the super computers.

For example the Earth Simulator [es.jamstec.go.jp] is a massive super computer in Japan which was built to work on problems just like this.

So I think what JC and Edward are trying to say is that you shouldn't waste time worrying whether you can create physically correct simulations of the Continental Plates because to do so would be next to impossible without some massive CPU power and a large research team. What you should be focusing on is creating a nice procedural solution that “looks” right using various tricks, hacks, and creative juices.

In this business, if it looks right then its right, if the mechanics involved in the setup don't make any real world sense then its no big deal.

Thank u my friend. I feel the same.

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Some more details of the job:

I feel I can share more infos.

Goal: creating a simulation system which could present the … mainly geological theory. Not plate tectonics, but in the same field, that is how continents formed, how oceanic ridges and trenches formed, giving answers for the shape of the Earth (buckled downward in the western Pacific area …), how oceanic canyons and land canyons were formed, how layered strata was formed, how fossisls were formed, etc…. The system must have the capability to follow changing driver parameters, as more research shows something new…

So it is a very complex system based on a complex theory. It would be great if I (or someone else) would be able to make just a part of it, especially the next ones:

1. The Earth's crust cracks, this crack widens

2. Water erupts from beneth the crust through the cracks, the cracks widen, sediment spreads on the surface of the Earth

3. As the cracks' width reach a certain given amount the underlying crust buckles upward, the plates above this slide away from the rising floor. As the underlying crust are buckling upward the opposite side of the Earth sinks downward.

4. The sliding plates run into resistence, compresses, forming mountains, plateaus, …

Future plan is to make a simulation on the forming of the Grand-Canyon based on this theory.

The above detailed simulation is driven by some key parameters:

I. The stiffness of the crust, the mass (global average, or local), collision parameters

2. The cracks' widening

3. Time

4. Gravity

at least by these.

Hey, just reading this post as I am also looking into it.
I agree that it's extremely complex, the more I dig into it the more I discover extra physic rules.

The easiest way I found for now is to make voronoi fracture on a sphere, keep only the surface, then simulate in vellum (hacking cloth to make it super stiff). Inside the solver, a custom pop wind allows to give the main motion, with a chop noise injected into 3 axis. You can consider using advect by velocity that sound more acurate for this effect. Gravity is killed, and sliding constraints allows to maintain the plates against the sphere. A very slight offset allows plates to slide on top or under each other, take collisions into account.

You can then add prefracturing with constraints that breaks based on stress, on any relevant rules (size of the plate for exemple). In real life, the new fracturing are super dynamic and triggered by the actual motion, so you might need to build a very custom solver to achieve this realism.

Also in real life plates are kind of semi rigid on this scale of time. Cratons tends to be super stiff, when other parts of plates are more flexible, as it forms mountains and relief. Magma is also generating new crust when plates are diverging, on ocean ridges.

You can also investigate Gplates that is very specific to this type of task, but the interface is not especially intuitive when you never used it.

Would love to hear from other people what they came with to tackle this kind of effect !