I’ve been interested in geology as long as I can remember and I was amazed when I stumbled across this app on AppShopper.com. It’s called Iapetus from Quadrivium and it shows how the continents of Earth have moved around the planet for the past 600 million years. There are 29 different maps starting from 600 million years ago up to 100 million years into the future. The “detailed” maps are pretty good and you can see what the Earth looked like in every geologic period. You can watch the continents move in either a global view or map view when you rotate your iPhone to landscape mode.

The nice thing about the app is that while viewing the Earth as a globe (portrait) you can have our planet rotate, while viewing it as a map (landscape) you can animate the maps and watch as the continents drift apart and crash together. One thing you can’t do, or I haven’t seen yet, is the ability to zoom into the map. Overall, this app is great for any enthusiast of geology and it’s a steal right now in the App Store for free.