Tectonic Globe - Explore Earth's cities on a globe of the tectonic past and future

Show HN: Today's cities on a globe of Earth's tectonic past and future

Tectonic Globe - Explore Earth's cities on a globe of the tectonic past and future

Tectonic Globe is an interactive visualization that places today's countries and cities on a dynamic globe, allowing you to rewind or fast-forward through Earth's tectonic history. Using the Merdith 2021 plate model and pyGPlates finite rotations, it reconstructs continental positions over millions of years, while a constant-motion extrapolation sketches a possible future. Perfect for educators, geology enthusiasts, and the curious, it offers a unique perspective on how our planet's surface has evolved and may continue to shift.

The future side is a constant-motion extrapolation from young plate rotations with a few coarse collision handoffs, so treat it as an interactive sketch rather than a forecast.

More from this day

2026-08-09