Interesting project Frank. I've been enjoying seeing this progress. You've got some good continent shapes and islands there, and the mountain ranges look like spines from continental tectonics. That overal texture is very good too.
Would it be useful to have a pole to pole set of masks you could use to blend between lateral regions, ie textures blended between equator - northern europe - arctic - polar, etc?
What is the polar axis you're using, along x,y,z?