Greetings to the list,
I recently had some questions from an old friend of mine, who is looking for information that will help him use geological constraints to design the geography a fictional world he is working on. The questions are pretty much all outside of my areas of expertise, but it occurs to me that they may be things that some of you can answer off the top of your head, so I am forwarding his questions here:
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"I have been working on a geological history for a fictional world. I have some questions for you about geology. Right now I am stuck on islands, particularly volcanic islands from subduction zones, and peninsulas that are formed from similar activity. I am trying to figure out time frames for their formation and erosion. I am also trying to figure out speed of continental formation from a subducting oceanic plate. I hope I am using all of these terms properly. I have been working on a GPlates recreation and was hoping to have you review it sometime in the future.
My immediate questions involve volcanism from subduction:
1) How fast and large do islands or peninsulas form?
2) How fast do they erode?
3) How does this relate to the Aleutian Range (looks ideal for explanation but I am not finding much)?
Kamchatka (two ranges of volcanoes as it is buffeted by North America and Asia)?
Mariana Islands, Lesser Antilles (simple oceanic subduction forming islands)?
Rocky Mountains, Western US, Coastal Range (one source suggested that the western US is formed from accretion of island chains which would be ideal for some of my continental formation)?
Andes (subducting ocean plate over many years builds up tall mountains)?
4) What other locations should I look at?
I have done a fair amount of research on various geological processes. I understand back-arc expansions, critical zones in subduction leading to volcanic arcs, reasons for subduction and plate motion. Although I might misapply them often."
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Clearly he is fairly serious about his research for this project--his BS is in Physics and he works in IT, yet he has clearly done enough work on these topics on his own to have gotten a pretty good base already. If you have thoughts on any of the above topics, or sources he might look at for further study, please let me know and I will pass the information on to him.
Cheers,
--Riia
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Riia M. Chmielowski
Senior Research Engineer/Laboratory Manager
Laser-Ablation ICP-MS Laboratory, LTU
SE-971 87 Luleå, Sweden
www.ltu.se/LaserICPMS
Hours: Mon-Thurs 07:30-12:30 or by appointment
Email: [log in to unmask]
Phone: +46 (0)920 492033
Mobile: +46 72-539 07 76
Fax: +46-920-491199
LTU Room: F833
http://ltu-se.academia.edu/RiiaChmielowski
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