• Fantasy map articles
  • How to draw maps
  • Map resources
  • Worldbuilding Framework

Worldbuilding School

An online resource for building imaginary worlds.

  • About
  • Library
  • Fantasy Map Market
    • How to Draw Mountains
    • Map Generator for Photoshop
  • Contact

Adding Tectonic Plates To Your World Map

By Nate 'Vancano' Smith 8 Comments

Adding Tectonic Plates To Your World Map

Tectonic Plates are sections of a planet’s lithosphere (the crust and mantle of a planet) that your world continent will then sit upon. They are what separate the land from the molten lava below. Because the lava flows and moves under the surface due to different temperatures in the earth core they slowly move these plates which is what is believed to cause continental drift.

3 Types of Tectonic Movement

 One of the key things to remember about tectonic plates is that they move, but very slowly (up to 3.9 inch per year) and only move in one of the 3 ways as shown by the diagram below:

These types of movement will become more important to you later on as you move into drawing other parts of your world map. However I will briefly run over what happens with each movement.

 1 Side to Side

The movement of two plates running next to each other causes earthquakes

2 Moving Away

These plates will cause a continental rift (as shown on the far right of the diagram above)

3 Moving Towards

Plates that move towards each other causes mountain ranges to spring up and quite often volcanic activity.

The movement of tectonic plates will be dealt with in more detail in future articles as you build up the features of your world map.

The Tectonic Plates of Our World

As an example of the size of tectonic plates and the way they cross over continents I’ve included a map of the Earth with the tectonic plates overlaid in different colours. Also this map details the direction a plate is moving from those plates around it. This way you can see a real world example of how plates effect the geography of a continent.

 Earth Tectonic Plates

Adding Tectonic Plates To Your World Map

For this part of the tutorial I’ll be using the island that was created in the “How To Draw Land” article. I’ve also added a second larger island to provide more scope for the world that is being built.

Note: notice how I have mimicked part of the shape of the first island in the second island so it looks like they could have once been joined

Then all you need to do is very simply divided the map up into a number of large plates. The map below has about 8 individual plates.

H2DMaps-Tectonic-Plates

The final thing to do is to decide which direction your tectonic plates are moving against each other. Don’t worry if you have a plate who’s edges are all moving in different directions. As you can see from the example below and from the map of the Earth’s tectonics, sometimes a plate grows, shrinks or transforms by having it’s edges move in different directions to each other.

I’ve used red ink to indicate the plate directions but you can use what ever colour you prefer.

Drawing Tectonic Movement On Your Map

This map is going to have an interesting point of tectonic movement around the center of the big island. I look forward to fleshing out this area and learning more about what lives there. Do you have any interesting points where your plates meet?

Filed Under: Fantasy map, Tutorials Tagged With: continents, maps, tectonic plates

About Nate 'Vancano' Smith

Nathan is the founder of the Worldbuilding School. It's his goal to make worldbuilding easier for the 1000's of people who build their own world - whether it's for fun or profit. He's also works as a content strategist and can help you build an audience for your stories.

Like this article?

If you enjoyed this article and would like to support the Worldbuilding School then you can buy a map related product from the Fantasy Map Market, or you could buy me a coffee so I can push through the child induced sleepless nights and write more.

Write for us

Do you love worldbuilding? Would you like to write for the Worldbuilding School?

Register your interest and I’ll send you more info about how to write for us.

Advert

Do you need a world map for your novel or campaign?

Vancano’s Map Generator will help you create one.

Popular Posts

The Author’s Guide to Drawing Maps

22 Great Map Resources and Tutorials

The Worldbuilding Framework

How to generate random rettain using Photoshop

Adding tectonic plates to your world map

Articles on Brandon Sanderson

Worldbuilder’s Article Hunt #2

Author's Guide to Drawing Maps

Advert

About Nate Smith

Nate is the founder of the Worldbuilding School. It's his goal to make worldbuilding easier for the many people who build their own imaginary world - whether it's for fun or profit. As part of this goal he uses his skills in Cartography to draw maps. Read More…

Coming Soon!

This is where I hint at the projects, articles and reviews I’m working on:

  • New Resource Library – LIVE!
  • World Anvil Review
  • Dawn of Worlds Review – LIVE!
  • Triangle of Worldbuilding
  • Worldbuilding Monthly Newsletter

 

About

The WorldBuilding School is dedicated to helping authors, role players and games designers build their own imaginary world. Learn More.

Bring Your World To Life

Products

  • Write for us
  • Advertise with us
  • Affiliates
  • Worldbuilding Library
  • Vancano’s Map Generator
  • Author’s Guide to Drawing Maps

Resources

  • Worldbuilding tools
  • Worldbuilding guide
  • Worldbuilding resources
  • Worldbuilding Framework
  • 7 Key skills of a master worldbuilder
  • Fantasy map icons

Copyright © 2021 | Nate Smith | Privacy | Cookies | A Worldbuilding Colab project.

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.

You’re 50% there!
50-complete

Receive Updates From The Experiment

All you need to do is enter your email address below: