pygplates.reverse_reconstruct

pygplates.reverse_reconstruct(reconstructable_features, rotation_model, reconstruction_time[, anchor_plate_id])

Reverse reconstruct geological features from a specific geological time.

Parameters
  • reconstructable_features (FeatureCollection, or string, or Feature, or sequence of Feature, or sequence of any combination of those four types) – A reconstructable feature collection, or filename, or feature, or sequence of features, or a sequence (eg, list or tuple) of any combination of those four types - all features used as input and output

  • rotation_model (RotationModel or FeatureCollection or string or sequence of FeatureCollection instances and/or strings) – A rotation model or a rotation feature collection or a rotation filename or a sequence of rotation feature collections and/or rotation filenames

  • reconstruction_time (float or GeoTimeInstant) – the specific geological time to reverse reconstruct from (note that this also sets the geometry import time).

  • anchor_plate_id (int) – The anchored plate id used during reverse reconstruction. Defaults to the default anchor plate of rotation_model.

Raises

OpenFileForReadingError if any input file is not readable (when filenames specified)

Raises

OpenFileForWritingError if reconstructable_features specifies any filename that is not writeable (if any filenames are specified)

Raises

FileFormatNotSupportedError if any input file format (identified by any reconstructable and rotation filename extensions) does not support reading (when filenames specified)

Raises

ValueError if reconstruction_time is distant past or distant future

The effect of this function is to replace the present day geometries in each feature in reconstructable_features with reverse reconstructed versions of those geometries. This assumes that the original geometries, stored in reconstructable_features, are not in fact present day geometries (as they normally should be) but instead the already-reconstructed geometries corresponding to geological time reconstruction_time. This function reverses that reconstruction process to ensure present day geometries are stored in the features.

Note that reconstructable_features can be a FeatureCollection or a filename or a feature or a sequence of features, or a sequence (eg, list or tuple) of any combination of those four types.

If any filenames are specified in reconstructable_features then the modified feature collection(s) (containing reverse reconstructed geometries) that are associated with those files are written back out to those same files.

Note that rotation_model can be either a RotationModel or a rotation FeatureCollection or a rotation filename or a sequence (eg, list or tuple) containing rotation FeatureCollection instances or filenames (or a mixture of both). When a RotationModel is not specified then a temporary one is created internally (and hence is less efficient if this function is called multiple times with the same rotation data).

Reverse reconstructing a file containing a feature collection from 10Ma:

pygplates.reverse_reconstruct('volcanoes.gpml', rotation_model, 10)

Reverse reconstructing a feature collection from 10Ma:

pygplates.reverse_reconstruct(pygplates.FeatureCollection([feature1, feature2]), rotation_model, 10)

Reverse reconstructing a list of features from 10Ma:

pygplates.reverse_reconstruct([feature1, feature2], rotation_model, 10)

Reconstructing a single feature from 10Ma:

pygplates.reconstruct(feature, rotation_model, 10)

Changed in version 0.29: The geometry import time is set to reconstruction_time.