A software tool to rotate spatial data on the surface of the sphere (Earth) for Geosoft's Oasis Montaj

Abstract

Movement of the Earth's plates through geological time can be described in therms of a series of rotations on the sphere (Earth). If we can determine what these rotations have been, we can rotate ancient geological features on the Earth's plates back to their former positions to produce paleogeographic maps.\rWe present an open source computer program that performs such rotations on the sphere. The program is written for Microsoft WIndows and runs inside the widely used Oasis Montaj mapping software produced by Geosoft Inc. (www.geosoft.com) for processing, visualizing and analysing large earth science datasets (geophysical, geological and geochemical). The rotation function takes form of a \"GX\" that is activated via a menu in the Oasis Montaj program and can operate on angy geo-referenced data stored in a Geosoft database file.\rThe rotation program is distributed free of charge together with this report, but licensed version of Geosoft's Oasis Montaj is required to run it. Anyone installing and using our rotation software does so at his or her own risk. We do not accept responsibility for any loss or corruption of data that might occur through use of the software.