I found this resources key made by @Chairwoman Roxelana in a really old worldbuilding thread here, I made is a little bit smaller and want to use it but I don't know where to put any of the resources besides maybe coal (wherever forests where in the permian/carboniferous). Any input?
Tellurus: a worldbuilding project
- Thread starter Imperator Frank
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It might help to randomize it. You could create a list of places, and for each mineral, you'd generate a list of numbers from 1 to 10, each number corresponding to a place. If it's a ten for a certain location (or nine for more common ones), then that place has a deposit of that mineral.
I don’t know much about geology, but I’d look at where deposits of these minerals occur in real life. If there are any patterns you notice, take note and place the minerals in locations which are similar.
There's to be something with Gold more commonly appearing in very old layers of rock, least I remember reading something to that affect in a book on both the human and geophysical history of South Africa. Iron I know is very, very, very common. If I recall copper can also be fairly, but less common. Tin is somewhat rare, but I don't really know what the pattern is for its appearance. For a long period of time Lapis Lazuli basically only came from one area of the world in any significant quantities, so you could do something similar with it. A lot of the others I know may have patterns, but I can't remember them off the top of my head, and what I just outlined could be quite wrong. I think Gustavus's advice is probably the best rule of thumb here.
From my recollection, tin in ancient times was concentrated in hilly/low montane areas.
That could be very helpful, but isn't it still somewhat rare and not found commercially in every hilly/low montane area? There was a reason for the vast trade networks of the Bronze Age, especially those involving the movement of tin from often far off locations to others, such as Tin mined in Cornwall making its way to the Middle East.
Yeah, I remember Spain being a source of tin as well. It is certainly quite rare. I'm not a geologist so I don't know what conditions would yield a lot of tin somewhere.
Marble is just condensed limestone, so it would be found in places meeting these conditions: 1) millenia ago, the area was a shallow sea with coral reefs, 2) the land was subject to compression and then being pushed back up above ground. This will make it most common in places with ancient volcanic activity and uplift zones, but less prominent in more recently active tectonic zones. (Think the old, worn, knobby landscape of the Mediterranean and Appalachia versus the newer, still very tall and ragged mountains like the Rockies or Himalayas.)
ST15RM
Banned
@Imperator Frank are you doing this project anymore? It's been dead for a (lil) while.
I will im just really busy with real life and other things right now. Sorry everyone.
Having some family issues at the moment, I'll come back when things are more settled. Sorry everyone! .
Depends how 'accurate' you want to be.
(1) If you want to be as geologically accurate as possible, you need to look at the geology for each resource.
For example, the Wikipedia article on Tin lists Cassiterite as the main source mineral; its page says that it's found 'in alluvial or placer deposits,' is 'widespread minor constituent of igneous rocks' and 'concentrated in high temperature quartz veins and pegmatites associated with granitic intrusives.' So tin resources should be places where there are alluvial/igneous rock landscapes.
(2) If you want a less-labour-intensive but still realistic percentage / location spread, look up the percentage occurrence of each of the resources (for example 'Tin is the 49th most abundant element in Earth's crust, representing 2 ppm compared with 75 ppm for zinc, 50 ppm for copper, and 14 ppm for lead'), use those percentages with a random generator as suggested by @Falkanner above and compare with general knowledge of where the resources occur on Earth (oil in deserts, low-lying seas, etc).
(3) If you just want a random spread, just use the percentages without worrying about where they end up geologically.
I've just found this thread, so if I'm off-base with how you're doing the world-building overall, I apologise.
I made the watershed map have different, standardized colors, and added more. Opinions?
I made more of the rivers in Serratar "minor" instead of the normal color on the next map, so it shouldn't look so messy on the climate/elevation maps.