{"id":31581157,"url":"https://github.com/amalon/tectonic-puzzle","last_synced_at":"2026-06-08T03:31:27.606Z","repository":{"id":311153966,"uuid":"1042665973","full_name":"amalon/tectonic-puzzle","owner":"amalon","description":"3D printable globe puzzle of tectonic plates","archived":false,"fork":false,"pushed_at":"2025-11-25T23:00:41.000Z","size":12756,"stargazers_count":1,"open_issues_count":0,"forks_count":0,"subscribers_count":0,"default_branch":"master","last_synced_at":"2025-11-28T10:48:46.104Z","etag":null,"topics":["3d-printing","3mf","blender","earth","educational","globe","puzzle","stl","tectonic-plates","topography"],"latest_commit_sha":null,"homepage":"","language":"Makefile","has_issues":true,"has_wiki":null,"has_pages":null,"mirror_url":null,"source_name":null,"license":"other","status":null,"scm":"git","pull_requests_enabled":true,"icon_url":"https://github.com/amalon.png","metadata":{"files":{"readme":"README.md","changelog":null,"contributing":null,"funding":null,"license":"COPYING.md","code_of_conduct":null,"threat_model":null,"audit":null,"citation":null,"codeowners":null,"security":null,"support":null,"governance":null,"roadmap":null,"authors":null,"dei":null,"publiccode":null,"codemeta":null,"zenodo":null,"notice":null,"maintainers":null,"copyright":null,"agents":null,"dco":null,"cla":null}},"created_at":"2025-08-22T11:30:54.000Z","updated_at":"2025-11-25T23:00:46.000Z","dependencies_parsed_at":"2025-08-22T13:38:42.790Z","dependency_job_id":"8999f25b-4340-462b-882a-dddd8875adba","html_url":"https://github.com/amalon/tectonic-puzzle","commit_stats":null,"previous_names":["amalon/tectonic-puzzle"],"tags_count":4,"template":false,"template_full_name":null,"purl":"pkg:github/amalon/tectonic-puzzle","repository_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/amalon%2Ftectonic-puzzle","tags_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/amalon%2Ftectonic-puzzle/tags","releases_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/amalon%2Ftectonic-puzzle/releases","manifests_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/amalon%2Ftectonic-puzzle/manifests","owner_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/owners/amalon","download_url":"https://codeload.github.com/amalon/tectonic-puzzle/tar.gz/refs/heads/master","sbom_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/amalon%2Ftectonic-puzzle/sbom","scorecard":null,"host":{"name":"GitHub","url":"https://github.com","kind":"github","repositories_count":286080680,"owners_count":34047266,"icon_url":"https://github.com/github.png","version":null,"created_at":"2022-05-30T11:31:42.601Z","updated_at":"2026-05-26T15:22:16.424Z","status":"online","status_checked_at":"2026-06-08T02:00:07.615Z","response_time":111,"last_error":null,"robots_txt_status":"success","robots_txt_updated_at":"2025-07-24T06:49:26.215Z","robots_txt_url":"https://github.com/robots.txt","online":true,"can_crawl_api":true,"host_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub","repositories_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories","repository_names_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repository_names","owners_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/owners"}},"keywords":["3d-printing","3mf","blender","earth","educational","globe","puzzle","stl","tectonic-plates","topography"],"created_at":"2025-10-05T21:54:01.202Z","updated_at":"2026-06-08T03:31:27.601Z","avatar_url":"https://github.com/amalon.png","language":"Makefile","funding_links":["https://liberapay.com/jameshogan/donate","https://www.paypal.me/jamesahogan"],"categories":[],"sub_categories":[],"readme":"![Tectonic Puzzle by James Hogan](docs/banner.jpg)\n\nTectonic Plates Puzzle for 3D Printing\n======================================\n\n*By James Hogan. Originally published at\n[github.com/amalon/tectonic-puzzle](https://github.com/amalon/tectonic-puzzle).*\n\nThis project is to create a 20cm diameter 3D printable magnetic globe puzzle of\nthe Earth's tectonic plates and internal structure. This is a little smaller\nthan a 10-pin bowling ball.\n\nWatch the following YouTube video to see it in action:\n\n[![3D Printed Tectonic Plate Puzzle](https://img.youtube.com/vi/p5AyktacpZE/0.jpg)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5AyktacpZE)\n\nThe puzzle consists of the following parts:\n\n - 2 labelled yellow inner core hemispheres, attached together magnetically.\n   \u003cbr /\u003e\n   \u003cimg src=\"docs/core_inner.jpg\" alt=\"Inner Core\" title=\"Inner Core\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n   \u003cimg src=\"docs/core_inner.jpg\" alt=\"Inner Core\" title=\"Inner Core\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n - 4 labelled orange outer core quadrants.\n   \u003cbr /\u003e\n   \u003cimg src=\"docs/core_outer.jpg\" alt=\"Outer Core\" title=\"Outer Core\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n   \u003cimg src=\"docs/core_outer.jpg\" alt=\"Outer Core\" title=\"Outer Core\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n   \u003cimg src=\"docs/core_outer.jpg\" alt=\"Outer Core\" title=\"Outer Core\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n   \u003cimg src=\"docs/core_outer.jpg\" alt=\"Outer Core\" title=\"Outer Core\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n   - No magnetic attachment (the outer core is liquid after all).\n - 8 unique labelled red mantle segments, attached together magnetically.\n   \u003cbr /\u003e\n   \u003cimg src=\"docs/mantle1.jpg\" alt=\"Mantle 1\" title=\"Mantle 1 (NWW)\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n   \u003cimg src=\"docs/mantle2.jpg\" alt=\"Mantle 2\" title=\"Mantle 2 (NW)\"  width=\"96\" /\u003e\n   \u003cimg src=\"docs/mantle3.jpg\" alt=\"Mantle 3\" title=\"Mantle 3 (NE)\"  width=\"96\" /\u003e\n   \u003cimg src=\"docs/mantle4.jpg\" alt=\"Mantle 4\" title=\"Mantle 4 (NEE)\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n   \u003cimg src=\"docs/mantle5.jpg\" alt=\"Mantle 5\" title=\"Mantle 5 (SEE)\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n   \u003cimg src=\"docs/mantle6.jpg\" alt=\"Mantle 6\" title=\"Mantle 6 (SWW)\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n   \u003cimg src=\"docs/mantle7.jpg\" alt=\"Mantle 7\" title=\"Mantle 7 (SW)\"  width=\"96\" /\u003e\n   \u003cimg src=\"docs/mantle8.jpg\" alt=\"Mantle 8\" title=\"Mantle 8 (SE)\"  width=\"96\" /\u003e\n   - Each is additionally uniquely labelled, to aid quick assembly:\n     - The first letter is \"N\" for Northern hemisphere or \"S\" for Southern\n       hemisphere.\n     - The second letter is \"E\" for Eastern hemisphere or \"W\" for Western\n       hemisphere.\n     - The second letter may be repeated for far east or far west segments, i.e.\n       the night-time hemisphere at noon GMT.\n   - Each has 6 magnet slots to attach to 3 other mantle segments.\n   - Each has magnet slots to attach the 28 tectonic plate pieces to.\n   - The outside shape corresponds to the approximate shape of the Moho\n     discontinuity, the boundary between the mantle and the crust, vertically\n     exaggerated 5x.\n - 28 colourful tectonic plate pieces, magnetically attached to the mantle\n   segments, on a single 256mm build plate.\n   - 20 main plate groups. Micro-plates that are too small for magnets are\n     physically connected to neighbouring plates, but separated by a trench to\n     mantle depth.\n     \u003cbr /\u003e\n     \u003cimg src=\"docs/plate_caribbean.jpg\" alt=\"Caribbean\" title=\"Caribbean, Panama, North Andes\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n     \u003cimg src=\"docs/plate_cocos.jpg\" alt=\"Cocos\" title=\"Cocos\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n     \u003cimg src=\"docs/plate_nazca.jpg\" alt=\"Nazca\" title=\"Nazca, Easter, Juan Fernández, (Galapagos)\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n     \u003cimg src=\"docs/plate_scotia.jpg\" alt=\"Scotia\" title=\"Scotia, Sandwich\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n     \u003cimg src=\"docs/plate_arabia.jpg\" alt=\"Arabia\" title=\"Arabia, Aegean Sea, Anatolia\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n     \u003cimg src=\"docs/plate_india.jpg\" alt=\"India\" title=\"India, Burma\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n     \u003cimg src=\"docs/plate_somalia.jpg\" alt=\"Somalia\" title=\"Somalia\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n     \u003cimg src=\"docs/plate_sunda.jpg\" alt=\"Sunda\" title=\"Sunda\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n     \u003cimg src=\"docs/plate_yangtze.jpg\" alt=\"Yangtze\" title=\"Yangtze, Okinawa\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n     \u003cimg src=\"docs/plate_amur.jpg\" alt=\"Amur\" title=\"Amur\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n     \u003cimg src=\"docs/plate_okhotsk.jpg\" alt=\"Okhotsk\" title=\"Okhotsk\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n     \u003cimg src=\"docs/plate_philippine.jpg\" alt=\"Philippine\" title=\"Philippine Sea, Mariana\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n     \u003cimg src=\"docs/plate_caroline.jpg\" alt=\"Caroline\" title=\"Caroline, Banda Sea, Birds Head, Maoke, Molucca Sea, North Bismarck, South Bismarck, Solomon Sea, Timor, Woodlark, (Manus)\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n   - 6 major plate groups are split in halves long-ways to reduce wastage due to\n     filament changes during printing.\n     \u003cbr /\u003e\n     \u003cimg src=\"docs/plate_north_america2.jpg\" alt=\"North America 2\" title=\"North America 2, Rivera, Juan de Fuca\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n     \u003cimg src=\"docs/plate_north_america1.jpg\" alt=\"North America 1\" title=\"North America 1\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n     \u003cimg src=\"docs/plate_south_america2.jpg\" alt=\"South America 2\" title=\"South America 2, Altiplano\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n     \u003cimg src=\"docs/plate_south_america1.jpg\" alt=\"South America 1\" title=\"South America 1\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n     \u003cimg src=\"docs/plate_africa2.jpg\" alt=\"Africa 2\" title=\"Africa 2\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n     \u003cimg src=\"docs/plate_africa1.jpg\" alt=\"Africa 1\" title=\"Africa 1\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n     \u003cimg src=\"docs/plate_eurasia1.jpg\" alt=\"Eurasia 1\" title=\"Eurasia 1\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n     \u003cimg src=\"docs/plate_eurasia2.jpg\" alt=\"Eurasia 2\" title=\"Eurasia 2\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n     \u003cimg src=\"docs/plate_australia1.jpg\" alt=\"Australia 1\" title=\"Australia 1, New Hebrides, Balmoral Reef, Conway Reef, Niuafo'ou, Tonga 1\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n     \u003cimg src=\"docs/plate_australia2.jpg\" alt=\"Australia 2\" title=\"Australia 2, Kermadec, Tonga 2\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n     \u003cimg src=\"docs/plate_antarctica2.jpg\" alt=\"Antarctica 2\" title=\"Antarctica 2, Shetland\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n     \u003cimg src=\"docs/plate_antarctica1.jpg\" alt=\"Antarctica 1\" title=\"Antarctica 1\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n   - The Pacific plate is split into thirds.\n     \u003cbr /\u003e\n     \u003cimg src=\"docs/plate_pacific1.jpg\" alt=\"Pacific 1\" title=\"Pacific 1\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n     \u003cimg src=\"docs/plate_pacific2.jpg\" alt=\"Pacific 2\" title=\"Pacific 2\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n     \u003cimg src=\"docs/plate_pacific3.jpg\" alt=\"Pacific 3\" title=\"Pacific 3\" width=\"96\" /\u003e\n   - The locations of volcanoes are shown as red dots on the surface (which may\n     merge where volcanoes are close together). Most volcanoes are a short\n     distance from plate boundaries, however some are so close to plate\n     boundaries they aren't visible in this model.\n   - A fixed depth of mantle is embedded in each piece to allow space for\n     magnets and to physically connect grouped microplates.\n   - Each is shaped corresponding to the topology of the land and ocean floor,\n     and the depth of the Moho discontinuity, to fit against the mantle\n     segments.\n     - Lines of latitude and longitude at 10 degree intervals in the ocean are\n       raised to sea level, allowing both the topology of the sea floor and the\n       depth of the ocean to be seen.\n     - Topology is vertically exaggerated 5x to make it more visible.\n     - High frequency surface topology (e.g. mountains) in the 5400x2700 DEM are\n       exaggerated a further 2x relative to a 1/7.5 scaled down 720x360 DEM.\n       This exaggerates fine features without scaling up the larger features or\n       plate depths.\n\nThe tectonic plate pieces are multi-coloured on all sides. The colours have been\nlimited to 4 (as supported by the BambuLab AMS lite) with the following colours\nbeing prioritised:\n - Blue represents the sea floor. This is important to distinguish land and sea,\n   and allow recognition of familiar landmasses \u0026 oceans.\n - Green represents land (including Ice \u0026 Sand, such as Antarctica). This is the\n   recognisable colour associated with land, and makes the whole thing\n   pleasantly colourful.\n - Dark grey represents crust, allowing the relative crust depth to be visible\n   on the sides of the plates. Though not heavily used, its an important aspect\n   of the model to represent the thickness of the crust, and representing crust\n   with green to allow for other colours wouldn't look right.\n - Red represents mantle and volcanoes. Each plate must embed a fixed depth of\n   mantle to increase its thickness (especially thin oceanic crust).\n\nThe data and geometry nodes exist in the blend file to generate colouring for\nsand and ice, however these haven't been used due to the priorities described\nabove.\n\nThe mantle and core segments limit multi-colour to the first few layers for\ntext labels. The colours are chosen to approximate relative heat, however they\nmake no attempt to precisely match any colour temperatures of inner parts of\nthe earth:\n - The mantle is red with white text, matching the underside of the tectonic\n   plate pieces.\n - The outer core is orange with black text.\n - The inner core is yellow with black text.\n\nNote that due to a few small parts and the use of strong magnets, this model is\nnot suitable for young children.\n\n\nUser Guide\n==========\n\nA PDF user guide is available for download as part of the\n[Github releases](https://github.com/amalon/tectonic-puzzle/releases).\nGet `guide.pdf` for the colour version, or `guide_bw.pdf` for the black \u0026 white\nversion.\n\n\nPrint Guide\n===========\n\n3D printing of this model by others for fun or profit is encouraged, as is\nmaking improvements to it, please refer to [License](#license) for details.\n\nFor printing, please download the 3MF file from the latest\n[release on Github](https://github.com/amalon/tectonic-puzzle/releases) or from\n[Maker World](https://makerworld.com/en/models/1763244-tectonic-plate-magnetic-globe-puzzle)\nrather than the source files in this repository.\n\nSee the [Print Guide](docs/printing.md) for details.\n\n\nUpgrading\n=========\n\nInterfaces between parts may change between releases, so consult the interface\nversions below before mixing parts from different releases.\n\n| Release                                                             | Mantle-Mantle | Mantle-Plates | Highlights |\n| ------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------- | ------------- | ---------- |\n| [v1.0](https://github.com/amalon/tectonic-puzzle/releases/tag/v1.0) | version 1     | version 1     | Original version. |\n| [v1.1](https://github.com/amalon/tectonic-puzzle/releases/tag/v1.1) | version 1     | version 1     | Reduced the part resolution from 0.15mm to 0.2mm. |\n| [v1.2](https://github.com/amalon/tectonic-puzzle/releases/tag/v1.2) | **version 2** | version 1     | **Interface between mantle pieces changed to double number of magnets.** |\n| [v1.3](https://github.com/amalon/tectonic-puzzle/releases/tag/v1.3) | version 2     | version 1     | Added Volcanoes to tectonic plate pieces. |\n\nOnly the latest release will be on [Maker\nWorld](https://makerworld.com/en/models/1763244-tectonic-plate-magnetic-globe-puzzle)\ndue to storage limitations, but all past releases are preserved [on\nGitHub](https://github.com/amalon/tectonic-puzzle/releases).\n\n\nDevelopment\n===========\n\nIf you wish to make changes to the model, you'll need to use the files in this\nrepository. The high resolution models are largely generated procedurally from\nthis repository and various downloaded resources by Blender geometry nodes.\nPlease refer to the [Development Guide](docs/development.md) for details.\n\n\nDonate\n======\n\nThis model was designed to teach my home educated kids about plate tectonics in\na fun and engaging way, however it took a significant amount of time and effort\nto create. I've intentionally made it free of charge, but if you are pleased\nwith the result, please consider supporting me by donating with\n[Liberapay](https://liberapay.com/jameshogan/donate) or\n[PayPal](https://www.paypal.me/jamesahogan). Many thanks!\n\n\nLicense\n=======\n\nThe tectonic plate boundaries and tectonic plate shapes found in the raw mesh\ndata of the objects in the \"Plate Boundaries\" and \"Tectonic Plates\" collections\nof the `tectonic-puzzle.blend` file (excluding all dynamic modifiers) are\nimported (largely unmodified) from [Hugo Ahlenius' World tectonic plates and\nboundaries repository](https://github.com/fraxen/tectonicplates.git).\n- They're made available here under the [Open Data Commons Attribution\n  license](http://opendatacommons.org/licenses/by/1.0/).\n- Attribution: James Hogan, Hugo Ahlenius, Nordpil and Peter Bird.\n- Plates have been combined together, and joined when split across the\n  international date line.\n\nThe volcano locations found in the mesh attributes of the\n\"GVP\\_Volcano\\_List\\_Holocene\" mesh in the \"Volcano\" collection of the\n`tectonic-puzzle.blend` file are Public Domain, and are imported with\npermission from the [Global Volcanism\nProgram](https://volcano.si.edu/volcanolist_holocene.cfm), 2025. [Database]\nVolcanoes of the World (v. 5.3.2; 30 Sep 2025). Distributed by Smithsonian\nInstitution, compiled by Venzke, E.\nhttps://doi.org/10.5479/si.GVP.VOTW5-2025.5.3\n\nAll remaining contents of this project (especially the Makefile and all other\nparts of the blend file such as other meshes, geometry nodes, and python\nscripts, but excluding [data files downloaded by the\nMakefile](docs/development.md#sources) are free software: you can redistribute\nit and/or modify it under the terms of the [GNU General Public\nLicense](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html) as published by the Free\nSoftware Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any\nlater version.\n\nThis program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY\nWARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A\nPARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.\n\nFor the purposes of the GPL, the contents of this project are considered the\n\"source code\" (since they are the preferred form for making modifications), and\nany exported 3d meshes which derive from this project (including the\nplaceholder meshes in `3mf/`, renderings in `docs/`, release files, and 3d\nprints) are considered \"Object code\", and should only be distributed according\nto the terms of the GPL, along with the following attribution notices:\n- Copyright © 2025 James Hogan.\n- Contains tectonic plate information from [Hugo Ahlenius' World tectonic\n  plates and boundaries\n  repository](https://github.com/fraxen/tectonicplates.git), which is made\n  available under the [Open Data Commons Attribution\n  license](http://opendatacommons.org/licenses/by/1.0/).\n- Contains heightmap information based on GEBCO 2020 Grid and [preprocessed by\n  Sean\n  Bradley](https://sbcode.net/topoearth/gebco-heightmap-5400x2700/#license)\n- Contains colour information based on the specular texture map of Earth from\n  [Solar System Scope](https://www.solarsystemscope.com/textures/).\n- Contains Moho depth information from the GEMMA crustal model.\n  D. Sampietro, M. Reguzzoni, M. Negretti (2013). The GEMMA crustal model:\n  first validation and data distribution. In: Proceedings of the ESA Living\n  Planet Symposium, 9-13 September 2013, Edinburgh (UK), ESA SP-722\n- Contains volcano locations from the [Global Volcanism\n  Program](https://volcano.si.edu/volcanolist_holocene.cfm), 2025.\n  [Database] Volcanoes of the World (v. 5.3.2; 30 Sep 2025). Distributed by\n  Smithsonian Institution, compiled by Venzke, E.\n  https://doi.org/10.5479/si.GVP.VOTW5-2025.5.3\n\n3D printing of this model by others for fun or profit is encouraged, as is\nmaking improvements to it, as long as the terms of the GPL are followed. I.e.\nplease make clear where you got it, and document the attributions above. Any\nmodifications can only be distributed under a compatible license, and\ndistribution of the resulting models should also make the altered source files\navailable, as prescribed by the GPL.\n","project_url":"https://awesome.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/projects/github.com%2Famalon%2Ftectonic-puzzle","html_url":"https://awesome.ecosyste.ms/projects/github.com%2Famalon%2Ftectonic-puzzle","lists_url":"https://awesome.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/projects/github.com%2Famalon%2Ftectonic-puzzle/lists"}