AGOT since the year dot

April 9, 2014 5:29 PM

A Geologic Map for Game of Thrones BASED ON CHARACTER OBSERVATIONS, OFFICIAL MAPS, AND EARTH PRINCIPLES OF THE GEOLOGIC SCIENCE

For ease of reading, here are the main articles:

Geologic events occurring XX million years ago (Mya) on Westeros:
(today) The size of the Game of Thrones planet
(25 Mya) The Earth split Westeros from Essos
(30-40 Mya) When Dorne boiled
(40 Mya) Land of ice
(60-80 Mya) The rise of the Black Mountains
(80-100 Mya) As the Moon rose, so did the Lannisters
(300 Mya) Diving the tropical reefs of Winterfell
(450 Mya) The sand ran red
(500 Mya) The first mountains


As a bonus, The Economics of Ice and Fire (Parts 1 2 3 4 5), from the eminently readable and intelligent comments at the main link.

posted by feckless fecal fear mongering (13 comments total)

I really enjoyed this. Worldbuilding! Woohoo!
posted by ocherdraco at 5:48 PM on April 9, 2014

How subduction works on Earth. We assume it works the same on Westeros, because, physics.

I'll take physics over dragons, although dragons are cool as well.
posted by arcticseal at 6:29 PM on April 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

meanwhile, a digital elevation model of Middle Earth
posted by avocet at 6:37 PM on April 9, 2014

The chronology is missing the the breaking of the Arm of Dorne into the Stepstones (minor spoilers) by the Children of the Forest 12000 YA, as well as the subsequent attempt to break the Neck, which only made it swampy.
posted by dhens at 9:02 PM on April 9, 2014

I'm not sure Geological time scales were designed to handle the Children of the Forest. In a survey of hundreds of millions of years with events spanning tens of millions of years, 12000 YA and "subsequently" are chronologically indistinguishable.
posted by I-Write-Essays at 4:57 AM on April 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

As a geophysicist I have like 3 maps of different states just like this on my office walls right now. I'm printing this off now and seeing how long it takes people to notice.
posted by DynamiteToast at 8:15 AM on April 10, 2014 [3 favorites]

I love this so much. I hope they do a follow-up incorporating Essos, Valyria and the Known World east of Westeros. There's some wacky stuff happening around that way.

(Also I made a public attempt last year to scale the size of the ASOIAF planet and it looks like I got really close! Yay!)
posted by greenland at 9:27 AM on April 10, 2014

None of the volcanics in Valyria are shown? I am a sad geologist... :(
posted by grajohnt at 12:14 PM on April 10, 2014

I would imagine you could write to the folks at Stanford who did this and ask.

And I do recall Valyria being mentioned as a high-volcanic area much like Indonesia (Krakatoa, e.g.).
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 12:24 PM on April 10, 2014

So, I spent the last two days making this.

The last one is an interpolation at roughly 25 million year intervals.
posted by cthuljew at 12:20 AM on April 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

That's awesome! Very cool.
posted by ocherdraco at 12:45 PM on April 11, 2014

Game of Thrones Illustrations Show Each Episode's Beautiful Death
posted by homunculus at 5:31 PM on April 11, 2014

Interactive Game of Thrones Map with Spoilers Control
posted by homunculus at 12:41 AM on April 23, 2014