The orange-white-purple diverging color palette was suggested in the article
Light, A. and P.J. Bartlein (2004) The end of the rainbow? Color schemes for improved data graphics. EOS Transactions of the American Geophysical Union 85(40):385
Matteo Niccoli recommends it for seismic data as a replacement for the familiar red-white-blue pallete (color=g in Madagascar). Now the Light-Bartlein palette is available to Madagascar plotting programs, such as sfgrey, as color=lb. See the following example from rsf/rsf/sfgrey:
More information:
