pygplates.reverse_reconstruct

pygplates.reverse_reconstruct(reconstructable_features, rotation_model, reconstruction_time[, anchor_plate_id=0])

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
  • anchor_plate_id (int) – the anchored plate id used during reverse reconstruction
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. FeatureCollectionFileFormatRegistry is used internally to read/write feature collections from/to those 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)