DIGITAL, LAYERED AND MANIPULATABLE MAPS FOR SE AND E PART OF THE TIBETAN PLATEAU: A NEW TYPE OF MAP PRESENTATION

Regional tectonic/geological maps are often not as useful as they could be because they are published at a small scale, often 1/10⁶ or smaller, and do not have enough detail for accurately displaying information that can be used for new interpretations. In addition, paper copies and CD publications are not easy to change and reproduce for new presentations. The four maps we present are color, digital and have a layered presentation so they are fully manipulatable by the user: 1. Tectonostratigraphic map of the SE Tibet Plateau and is foreland (scale ~1/450,000), 2. Unconformity map with all major unconformities colored by age of first overlying unit, 3. Tectonostratigraphic map of the Eastern part of the Tibetan Plateau and its foreland (scale ~1/450,000), and 4 A plate of 45 cross sections for map 1. The maps cover an area from north of the Eastern Himalayan syntaxis south to Vietnam and from north of the Sichuan basin to the Laotian border.

In the digital, layered presentation all the maps and cross sections the information be changed by the reader to update, add or subtract any information. Sections of the map can be abstracted and reused or changed. By hiding any of the layers, only selected data appear that can be used for different types of analysis. For example, by highlighting only the Paleogene rocks on the map, the structures affecting those rocks can be studied to see the evidence for Paleogene and post-Paleogene deformation and its distribution.

These maps and cross sections are part of a book on the “Tectonics of the SE and E Tibetan Plateau and Its Foreland” in review by the GSA and projected to be published jointly with the Chengdu Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources, Chengdu, P. R. China. A copy of the manuscript will be available for view.