Presentation: The PANALESIS Atlas: a Series of Maps and Indicators Depicting the Earth Evolution During the Phanerozoic

Presentation given during the American Geophysical Union (AGU) 2025 Annual Meeting in New Orleans (LA, USA), within Session "GP43A - Frontiers in Paleogeography".

The movement of plate tectonics controls the long-term evolution of the Earth surface, including how continents and oceans are distributed, shapes the topography and influences how sea-level fluctuates. Palaeogeography is the study of how the geography of the Earth changed through time, and is a key factor to be considered when modelling the climate of the past. For instance, changes in ocean-continent distribution affects oceanic circulation (Zhang et al., 2011), or topography influences the area of land where snow can accumulate (Foster et al., 2010).

We present here an Atlas of the Earth through the Phanerozoic, based on the PANALESIS plate tectonic model (Vérard 2019). In this Atlas, we share a set of products showing how the Earth evolved through the 45 time steps provided by the model. These products include maps of the palaeogeography, seafloor ages, crustal and lithospheric thickness, maximum hydrothermal penetration depth. We also provide maps of hydrology, including outlet points used in climate models, flow paths and oceanic passages.

Besides maps, we developed a set of indicators that describe the evolving geography, useful for climate modelling and for understanding the role of palaeogeography. These indicators include notably oceanic volume and area, area of land over several latitude ranges, at high altitudes, continental shelves, drainage basins area, water and sediment fluxes.This new Atlas has the advantage of being developed solely on the PANALESIS model, reducing uncertainties of other palaeogeographic studies, that oftentimes use more than one plate tectonic model or other data sources. Moreover, PANALESIS is currently the only model that allows fully quantified palaeogeographic maps, including bathymetry, allowing more precise palaeogeographic reconstructions and their derived indicators.