THE TECTONIC GLOBE

stories unfolding on a fluid ground.

2020 | MIT SA+P | critic: Cristina Parreño Alonso

The Tectonic Globe explores a new projection - a shattered Dymaxion where the center of each facet is a confluence of geologic activity. The following investigations map two triangulations with this new globe’s ethos as a guide for reimagining our relationship with the thin surface we inhabit.

MAP 01. EVERYTHING IS A FLUID. (below)

Anything looked at through the lens of a long-enough timescale becomes a fluid. Slowly moving, birthing, dying, shifting, changing. Not even the mountains are static as they crash like waves in the blink of the universe.

above: everything is a fluid. (left) Mapping tectonic plate growth + hot spots - the points + lines along which geology as we know it births and dies. (right) An exaggerated section from Antarctica to South Africa centered around the Mid Atlantic Ridge.

MAP 02. ESTRANGED BASALT. (below)

The mountains in South Africa look eerily similar to the frozen cliffs in Antarctica. Plateaus of basalt map the ever-growing spread of the plates, the islands at their pinnacles small flags of intense geologic activity, birthed in the same spot on the crust, but never to touch again.

above: estranged basalt. (left) mapping the landscapes of basalt that have drifted apart (right) sections through the breaks in tectonic plates and their basalt plateaus

MAP 03. A SCATTERING OF REMOTE ISLANDS. (below)

Characters with the deep and reaching ocean as their stage, remote and far-removed.

above: stories of the remote, characters in the ocean (left) mapping the islands in these two facets of the globe and the tales they tell (right) sections through the islands, their plateaus, and their relation to the breaks in tectonic plates

01. BOUVET ISLAND. The most remote uninhabited island in the world.

02. GOUGH ISLAND. Host to nearly the entire world population of the Tristan albatross. [population: 6, research station']

03. SOUTH GEORGIA. Site of an old whaling station. [population: 16-32, research station]

4. THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. Tales of the scattered islands… Large source of income from sale of postage stamps to collectors… Site of ‘mount asphyxia’, an active volcano… Home of the active strato volcano ‘lucifer hill’… One of eight active lava lakes in the world, this volcano has never been climbed… Most recent erruption in 2016, only landmass on the 59th parallel south.

05. TRISTAN DE CUNHA. Most remote inhabited island in the world. Only access through six day boat trip from South Africa. Longstanding center of the ‘Tristan Hot Spot.’ Lobster nearly only export. [population: 270]

06. PRINCE EDWARD ISLANDS. First recorded discovery by Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne, who, upon landing on New Zealand on the same expedition, died at the hands of the Maori. [population: 50, research station]

07. CROZET PLATEAU. The survivors of the shipwreck of the ‘Princess of Whales’ lived for two years on the island until they were rescued. The crew of the ‘Tamaris’ were stranded on the islands, sent out a note tied to the leg of an albatross, which was found seven months later, but no trace of the crew was ever found. [population: 18-30, research station]

08. KERGUELEN ISLANDS. Included in novels by Edgar Allen Poe and Jules Verne. [population; 45-100]

09. HEARD + MCDONALD ISLAND. Tallest mountain in Australian territory. [Population: 0]

10. BASSAS DA INDIA + EUROPA ISLAND. Covered completely by water during the six hours surrounding high tide… Green sea turtle nesting ground.