# How to create a map of Pangea with GMT?

**URL:** <https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/t/how-to-create-a-map-of-pangea-with-gmt/4952>\
**Category:** Q&A\
**Created:** [June 6, 2024, 4:39am UTC](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/t/how-to-create-a-map-of-pangea-with-gmt/4952 "2024-06-06T04:39:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![axelwang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@axelwang](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/u/axelwang)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2024, 4:39am UTC](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/t/how-to-create-a-map-of-pangea-with-gmt/4952/1 "2024-06-06T04:39:09Z")

</div>

If I want to create a map of Pangea with GMT, similar to [this](https://www.visualcapitalist.com/incredible-map-of-pangea-with-modern-borders/), how can I do it?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![JonathonLeonard](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex047/user_avatar/forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/jonathonleonard/32/4145_2.png) [@JonathonLeonard](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/u/JonathonLeonard)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2024, 5:52am UTC](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/t/how-to-create-a-map-of-pangea-with-gmt/4952/2 "2024-06-06T05:52:28Z")

</div>

As far as I know, gmt doesn’t have any included paleocoastlines for mapping. Your best bet is to plot a geo-referenced raster of Pangea. You could find some rasters [here](https://www.earthbyte.org/category/resources/data-models/paleogeography/). Alternatively, if you want to create a figure like the one you linked, you could use software like [GPlates](https://www.gplates.org/) to cookie-cut an existing raster of a global political map, reconstruct it to ~250 Ma, then export it as a raster.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Andreas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@Andreas](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/u/Andreas)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2024, 6:44am UTC](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/t/how-to-create-a-map-of-pangea-with-gmt/4952/3 "2024-06-06T06:44:47Z")

</div>

GPlates can export reconstructions as vector, and you can plot that. See e.g. [Animation: Paleogeographic reconstruction](http://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/t/animation-paleogeographic-reconstruction/2492).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![chhei-s](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex047/user_avatar/forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/chhei-s/32/1028_2.png) [@chhei-s](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/u/chhei-s)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2024, 8:05am UTC](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/t/how-to-create-a-map-of-pangea-with-gmt/4952/4 "2024-06-06T08:05:00Z")

</div>

Alternatively - if you don’t want to install/run/learn GPlates, you can also use the [webservice](https://gwsdoc.gplates.org/) to generate geojson output which you can then translate with `ogr2ogr` and plot in GMT - something like this _should_ work on both Win/\*nix for plotting static polygons (ie the extent of continental crust, can do the same for coastlines) - not extensively tested but gives you an idea:

```
wget "https://gws.gplates.org/reconstruct/static_polygons/?time=100" -O- | \ 
ogr2ogr -F "OGR_GMT" staticpolygons_100Ma.gmt /vsistdin/
gmt plot staticpolygons_100Ma.gmt....

```

with the last line using @Andreas’ example to plot.

There are a number of models/features you can chose from - static polygons, coastlines and models which go back 250, 4xx or 1000 Ma.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Andreas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@Andreas](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/u/Andreas)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2024, 8:24am UTC](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/t/how-to-create-a-map-of-pangea-with-gmt/4952/5 "2024-06-06T08:24:38Z")

</div>

Thanks for sharing this!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Joaquim](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex047/user_avatar/forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/joaquim/32/16_2.png) [@Joaquim](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/u/Joaquim)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2024, 3:03pm UTC](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/t/how-to-create-a-map-of-pangea-with-gmt/4952/6 "2024-06-06T15:03:05Z")

</div>

Me thanks too. Have to explore this more but I quickly can do

```auto
julia> D = gdalread("https://gws.gplates.org/reconstruct/static_polygons/?time=100");

julia> viz(D)

```

 ![gp](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex047/uploads/gmt/original/2X/6/68f1d9023812f37fc3269f905a755af8f1c4013c.png)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![chhei-s](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex047/user_avatar/forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/chhei-s/32/1028_2.png) [@chhei-s](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/u/chhei-s)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2024, 3:11pm UTC](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/t/how-to-create-a-map-of-pangea-with-gmt/4952/7 "2024-06-06T15:11:14Z")

</div>

Now that is seriously short. Not bad!