# How to calculate a best-fitting Euler pole from a fault trace?

**URL:** https://discourse.gplates.org/t/how-to-calculate-a-best-fitting-euler-pole-from-a-fault-trace/1238
**Category:** Q&A
**Created:** [7 June 2025 17:22 UTC](https://discourse.gplates.org/t/how-to-calculate-a-best-fitting-euler-pole-from-a-fault-trace/1238 "2025-06-07T17:22:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![granite-rhyolite](https://discourse.gplates.org/user_avatar/discourse.gplates.org/granite-rhyolite/32/380_2.png) [@granite-rhyolite](https://discourse.gplates.org/u/granite-rhyolite)
#### Post date: [7 June 2025 17:22 UTC](https://discourse.gplates.org/t/how-to-calculate-a-best-fitting-euler-pole-from-a-fault-trace/1238/1 "2025-06-07T17:22:10Z")

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Howdy,

I’m currently working on a detailed kinematic-palinspastic model of the North American Cordillera. In Alaska and western Canada there are many strike-slip faults (e.g. the Tintina fault system) that [transect and offset](https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Terranes-of-the-Canadian-Alaskan-Cordillera-Inset-shows-terrane-groupings-and-tectonic_fig1_274989201) accreted terranes and parts of the former continental margin.

 ![AK_YT_BC_faults](https://discourse.gplates.org/uploads/default/original/1X/e4ae75a78a3c722c3de0c6ca948e11a78946701e.jpeg)

As can be seen in the above screenshot, the traces of the strike-slip faults tend to follow arc segments of circles with various radii and center coordinates. Therefore, rotating one side of such a fault around the best-fit Euler pole of the fault trace, to bring piercing points into alignment, would closely approximate the pre-offset configuration (aside from some slight kinks associated with local zones of transpression and transtension).

Is there a tool, GPlates or otherwise, that would allow me to calculate a best-fitting Euler pole location and circle radius from the trace of a strike-slip fault (or a segment of such a fault)? Such a tool would save me a lot of time and manual adjustment. And if GPlates doesn’t currently have such a tool, I think it should be added in a future version.