translating map fragments - plate-tectonics using GRASS???

[Simon Cox]

Dear GRASSers

I want to do some broad-scale tectonic modelling which involves 
moving chunks of maps around using translations and rotations.  
Since the maps come in various flavours and involve various 
attributes, I thought it would be best to use a GIS to manage them.  
So, I'm thinking of doing a bit of programming to move (initially) 
vector polygons around maps - v.move or some-such.  If this works, 
I'll think about using these to mask bits of rasters, then jump 
through the reprojection hoops to get the right answers.  

However, since the scales are so broad (large fractions of 
Australia) I need to worry about the curvature of the earth 
in order to preserve areas, scales, etc.  Probably a simple 
spherical earth would be good enough to start with.  

I realise that this all involves spherical geometry, euler poles, 
etc, stuff which is well known to tectonicians.  Many goes have 
been made at producing code to do all of this tuff, but 
unfortunately all the bits that I am aware of reside in 
proprietary packages, only available in compiled form, 
so are unavailable to act as the basis for incorporation.  

I wonder if anyone out there has looked into this problem, 
or could offer any advice?  
-- 
__________________________________________________
Dr Simon Cox - Australian Geodynamics Cooperative Research Centre
CSIRO Exploration & Mining,  PO Box 437,  Nedlands, WA 6009 Australia
T:  +61 9 389 8421    F:  +61 9 389 1906   simon at ned.dem.csiro.au
http://www.ned.dem.csiro.au/AGCRC/people/CoxSimon/