Data Credits

Every map on EarthMapped is drawn at build time from the open datasets below. Areas, boundary lengths and neighbor lists are computed from these files; we do not copy figures from other sites.

Tectonic plates and boundaries

• Dataset: PB2002 plate model by Peter Bird, converted to GeoJSON by Hugo Ahlenius, Nordpil. Source: github.com/fraxen/tectonicplates.
• License: Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-By) 1.0.
• Credit line: Plate data: Bird (2003), PB2002, converted by Hugo Ahlenius, Nordpil (ODC-By 1.0).
• Reference: Bird, P. (2003), An updated digital model of plate boundaries, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 4(3), 1027, doi:10.1029/2001GC000252.
• Used on: the tectonic plates map, every plate page and the home page map. Boundary types come from Bird’s step classes: spreading ridges and continental rifts are drawn as divergent; subduction zones and oceanic and continental convergent boundaries as convergent; oceanic and continental transform faults as transform.

Country and land outlines

• Dataset: Natural Earth 1:10m Admin 0 countries, India point of view (ne_10m_admin_0_countries_ind, version 5.1.1), from naturalearthdata.com. Borders follow the boundaries recognized by India. Simplified with mapshaper.
• License: Natural Earth is public domain.
• Credit line: Country outlines: Natural Earth, India point of view (public domain).
• Used on: land shading and country borders on every map, and the blank world, Europe, Africa and Asia maps.

Interactive globe tiles

• Dataset: OpenFreeMap vector tiles, made from OpenStreetMap data, drawn with MapLibre GL JS (BSD 3-Clause).
• License: OpenStreetMap data is under the Open Database License (ODbL). Country borders from the tiles are not drawn; the globe uses the Natural Earth India point of view borders above.
• Used on: the interactive tectonic plates map.

US state outlines

• Dataset: US Census Bureau cartographic boundary files, packaged as TopoJSON by us-atlas 3.0.1.
• License: US Government work, public domain. The us-atlas package is ISC licensed.
• Credit line: State outlines: US Census Bureau (public domain) via us-atlas.
• Used on: the blank US map.

Pangea reconstruction

• Dataset: the MULLER2019 plate model, reconstructed with the GPlates Web Service. Continental polygons from the model files on Zenodo (record 11601026).
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0).
• Credit line: Reconstruction: GPlates Web Service, model MULLER2019 (Müller et al. 2019, CC BY 4.0).
• Reference: Müller, R. D., Zahirovic, S., Williams, S. E., et al. (2019), A global plate model including lithospheric deformation along major rifts and orogens since the Triassic, Tectonics, 38, doi:10.1029/2018TC005462.
• Used on: the Pangea map and the printable Pangea map. Modern borders on the Pangea map are the Natural Earth India point of view borders, rotated by the same service.

Ocean currents

• Dataset: current paths traced by hand from the NOAA Ocean Service figure on What is a gyre?. Paths are approximate.
• License: NOAA content is a US Government work, public domain.
• Credit line: Currents traced from the NOAA Ocean Service gyre figure (public domain).
• Used on: the ocean currents map.

Text sources

Plate descriptions cite USGS, This Dynamic Earth: The Story of Plate Tectonics, a public domain publication. Each plate page links the chapters it uses. The Pangea page cites the Historical perspective chapter. The ocean currents page cites NOAA Ocean Service pages, listed under the page. Term definitions name their source next to each term.

Plate tectonics downloads

• Dataset: the PB2002 plate model step table and plate outlines (Bird 2003), processed by our build script.
• License: Open Data Commons Attribution (ODC-By 1.0).
• Credit line: Plate data: Bird (2003), PB2002, converted by Hugo Ahlenius, Nordpil, ODC-By 1.0.
• Files: plate-boundary-steps.csv, tectonic-plates.csv, subduction-zones.geojson, mid-ocean-ridges.geojson. Same license; keep the credit line when you reuse them.
• Used on: the plate boundaries, subduction zone, mid-ocean ridge, plate motion and plate list pages, and the tectonics printables. Prose facts there cite USGS This Dynamic Earth (public domain) and NOAA Ocean Exploration.

Mountain ranges and peaks

• Dataset: Natural Earth 1:10m geography regions and elevation points, v5.0.0.
• License: public domain. Plate fields come from PB2002 (Bird 2003), ODC-By 1.0.
• Credit line: Ranges and peaks: Natural Earth. Plates: Bird (2003), PB2002.
• Files: mountain-ranges.geojson, mountain-peaks.csv.
• Used on: the mountain ranges map. Prose facts cite USGS This Dynamic Earth.

Time zones

• Dataset: Natural Earth 1:10m time zones, from the v5.0.0 package (2021). The layer was first released in Natural Earth 2.0.0 (October 2012), based on a CIA World Factbook map of May 2012; later releases fixed geometry only, so the offsets are as of 2012. Offset changes since then are not shown, for example Russia (2014), Venezuela and Turkey (2016), Sudan (2017), South Sudan (2021), Kazakhstan (2024), and new year-round offsets in parts of Greenland, Chile, Paraguay and Canada (2023 to 2026). Change dates from the IANA time zone database NEWS file.
• License: public domain.
• Files: world-time-zones.geojson.
• Used on: the world time zone map. Prose facts cite NOAA Ocean Service.

Climate zones

• Dataset: Beck, H. E. et al. (2018), Present and future Köppen-Geiger climate classification maps at 1-km resolution, Scientific Data 5, 180214. Present-day map, resampled to 1-degree cells.
• License: CC BY 4.0.
• Credit line: Climate zones: Beck et al. (2018), CC BY 4.0.
• Files: climate-zones-koppen.geojson, climate-zones-koppen.csv. Same license.
• Used on: the climate zones map.

Biomes

• Dataset: RESOLVE Ecoregions 2017, Dinerstein, E. et al. (2017), An ecoregion-based approach to protecting half the terrestrial realm, BioScience 67(6).
• License: CC BY 4.0.
• Credit line: Biomes: RESOLVE Ecoregions 2017, CC BY 4.0.
• Files: biomes-resolve.geojson, biomes-resolve.csv. Same license.
• Used on: the biomes map.

Continental drift and supercontinents

• Dataset: reconstructions from the GPlates Web Service with two plate models: MULLER2019, Müller et al. (2019), for 0 to 240 million years ago, and MULLER2022, Müller et al. (2022), built on Merdith et al. (2021), for 200 to 1,000 million years ago. Modern borders and puzzle pieces are Natural Earth (India point of view) shapes rotated by the same service.
• License: CC BY 4.0 for the model data; Natural Earth is public domain.
• Credit line: Reconstruction: GPlates Web Service, model MULLER2019 (Müller et al. 2019) or MULLER2022 (Müller et al. 2022), CC BY 4.0.
• Files: continental-drift-muller2019.geojson, gondwana-muller2022.geojson, rodinia-muller2022.geojson, continental-drift-points.csv. Keep the credit line when you reuse them.
• Used on: the continental drift, Gondwana, Rodinia and supercontinents pages, the “With countries” layer on the Pangea map and the Pangea puzzle printable. Prose facts cite USGS This Dynamic Earth (public domain) and the model papers; the supercontinents page cites Scotese (2009), Nance and Murphy (2019) and Kroner et al. (2021) for Pannotia; the future Pangea page cites Davies et al. (2018), Mitchell et al. (2012) and Duarte et al. (2018).

Earthquakes, volcanoes and faults

• Dataset: NOAA NCEI Volcano Locations Database; NOAA NCEI Global Significant Earthquake Database (doi:10.7289/V5TD9V7K); USGS earthquake feed (M4.5+, past 30 days); USGS Quaternary Fault and Fold Database of the United States (doi:10.5066/F7S75FJM). Plate and distance fields come from PB2002 (see above).
• License: NOAA and USGS data are US Government works, public domain. PB2002 fields stay under ODC-By 1.0.
• Credit line: Volcanoes and significant earthquakes: NOAA NCEI. Earthquakes and faults: U.S. Geological Survey.
• Files: volcanoes-ncei.csv, earthquakes-m45-30days.csv, us-quaternary-faults.geojson, cascadia-significant-earthquakes.csv, ring-of-fire-subduction.geojson (PB2002, ODC-By 1.0).
• Used on: the Ring of Fire map, where is the Ring of Fire, the volcano map, the earthquake map, the fault lines map, the Cascadia subduction zone map and hotspot volcanoes.

Ocean floor and trenches

• Dataset: Natural Earth 1:10m bathymetry, made from SRTM30 Plus, simplified by our build script.
• License: public domain.
• Credit line: Bathymetry: Natural Earth (public domain).
• Files: ocean-depth-contours.geojson, ocean-depth-zones.csv.
• Used on: the ocean floor, ocean trenches, Mariana Trench and Gulf Stream maps.

Deepest points of the oceans

• Dataset: depths and errors from Bongiovanni, C., Stewart, H. A. and Jamieson, A. J. (2022), High-resolution multibeam sonar bathymetry of the deepest place in each ocean, Geoscience Data Journal, 9(1), 108-123, doi:10.1002/gdj3.122. Positions from Stewart, H. A. and Jamieson, A. J. (2019), The five deeps: The location and depth of the deepest place in each of the world’s oceans, Earth-Science Reviews, 197, 102896, doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2019.102896.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) for both papers, which are open access (NERC record, 2022 paper, NERC record, 2019 paper). We use only the depths, errors and positions printed in the papers, not the raw sonar grids.
• Credit line: Deepest points: Bongiovanni, Stewart and Jamieson (2022), CC BY 4.0.
• Files: ocean-deeps.csv.
• Used on: the ocean floor, ocean trenches and Mariana Trench maps.

Ocean gyres

• Dataset: the ocean currents above, each tagged with its gyre and side from the NOAA gyre page.
• License: public domain.
• Credit line: Currents traced from the NOAA Ocean Service gyre figure (public domain).
• Files: ocean-gyres.geojson.
• Used on: the ocean gyres, Gulf Stream and what are ocean currents pages, and the ocean currents worksheet. Prose facts there cite NOAA Ocean Service pages, listed under each page.