pygplates.ReconstructedMotionPath

class pygplates.ReconstructedMotionPath

Bases: ReconstructionGeometry

The reconstructed history of a plate’s motion in the form of a path of points over geological time.

ReconstructModel, ReconstructSnapshot or reconstruct() can be used to generate ReconstructedMotionPath instances.

Note

Although a single motion path feature has only a single seed geometry that seed geometry can be either a PointOnSphere or a MultiPointOnSphere.

And since there is one reconstructed motion path per seed point there can be, in the case of a MultiPointOnSphere, multiple reconstructed motion paths per motion path feature.

__init__(): Raises an exception This class cannot be instantiated from Python

Methods

`__init__`	Raises an exception This class cannot be instantiated from Python
`get_feature`()	Returns the feature associated with this `ReconstructedMotionPath`.
`get_motion_path`()	Returns the motion path.
`get_present_day_seed_point`()	Returns the present day seed point.
`get_property`()	Returns the feature property containing the seed point associated with this `ReconstructedMotionPath`.
`get_reconstructed_seed_point`()	Returns the reconstructed seed point.
`get_reconstructed_seed_point_velocity`(...)	Returns the velocity of the `reconstructed seed point`.
`get_reconstruction_time`()	Returns the reconstruction time that this instance was created at.

get_feature()

Returns the feature associated with this ReconstructedMotionPath.

Return type:: Feature

Note

Multiple reconstructed motion paths can be associated with the same motion path feature if its seed geometry is a MultiPointOnSphere.

get_motion_path()

Returns the motion path.

Return type:: PolylineOnSphere

The returned points plot the history of motion of the seed point on the plate associated with get_feature().get_reconstruction_plate_id() relative to the plate associated with get_feature().get_relative_plate().

The first point in the returned PolylineOnSphere is the furthest in the geological past and subsequent points are progressively more recent with the last point being the reconstructed seed point.

Note

This is just one of the motion paths associated with this feature's seed geometry if that seed geometry is a MultiPointOnSphere.

Iterate over the motion path points:

for point in reconstructed_motion_path.get_motion_path():
  ...

get_present_day_seed_point()

Returns the present day seed point.

Return type:: PointOnSphere

Note

This is just one of the seed points in this feature's seed geometry if that seed geometry is a MultiPointOnSphere. The remaining seed points are associated with other ReconstructedMotionPath instances.

get_property()

Returns the feature property containing the seed point associated with this ReconstructedMotionPath.

Return type:: Property

This is the Property that the present day seed point and the reconstructed seed point are obtained from.

get_reconstructed_seed_point()

Returns the reconstructed seed point.

Return type:: PointOnSphere

Note

This is just one of the seed points in this feature's seed geometry if that seed geometry is a MultiPointOnSphere. The remaining seed points are associated with other ReconstructedMotionPath instances.

get_reconstructed_seed_point_velocity([velocity_delta_time=1.0][, velocity_delta_time_type=pygplates.VelocityDeltaTimeType.t_plus_delta_t_to_t][, velocity_units=pygplates.VelocityUnits.kms_per_my][, earth_radius_in_kms=pygplates.Earth.mean_radius_in_kms])

Returns the velocity of the reconstructed seed point.

Parameters:

velocity_delta_time (float) – The time delta used to calculate velocity (defaults to 1 Myr).
velocity_delta_time_type (VelocityDeltaTimeType.t_plus_delta_t_to_t, VelocityDeltaTimeType.t_to_t_minus_delta_t or VelocityDeltaTimeType.t_plus_minus_half_delta_t) – How the two velocity times are calculated relative to the reconstruction time. This includes [t+dt, t], [t, t-dt] and [t+dt/2, t-dt/2]. Defaults to [t+dt, t].
velocity_units (VelocityUnits.kms_per_my or VelocityUnits.cms_per_yr) – whether to return velocity as kilometres per million years or centimetres per year (defaults to kilometres per million years)
earth_radius_in_kms (float) – the radius of the Earth in kilometres (defaults to pygplates.Earth.mean_radius_in_kms)

Return type:

Vector3D

Added in version 0.50.