Geodynamics of Africa from continuous GPS data: analyses and implications

Details Geodynamics of Africa from continuous GPS data: analyses and implications Geodynamics of Africa from continuous GPS data: analyses and implications

Apr 2003

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003eaeja.....7725f&link_type=abstract

EGS - AGU - EUG Joint Assembly, Abstracts from the meeting held in Nice, France, 6 - 11 April 2003, abstract #7725

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

The advent of space-geodetic techniques has dramatically improved the estimation of present-day plate motions: the velocity of discrete points on the Earth's surface can currently be obtained at sub-centimetre level in the ITRF2000 global reference frame, using a multitude of systems amongst which GPS (Global Positioning System) is prominent. Although the distribution of the reference GPS stations globally has a biased concentration towards Europe and North America, a significant number of stations have been installed during the last few years in areas previously void of stations that meet IGS (International GPS Service) quality requirements. In Africa, the number of continuous stations has increased significantly in the last two to three years, in particular due to the efforts of the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO) in collaboration with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Daily processing of a network of continuous GPS stations commenced during 2002 in the framework of a research program dedicated to Africa. Although most of the stations are part of the IGS network, stations managed by the groups that are collaborating in this project are also included. For the entire network, all available data have been processed since 1996 (at the time, just three sites). Currently, this network contains nearly 30 stations located on Africa and surrounding continents. The solutions processed by the Delft Institute for Earth-Oriented Space Research (DEOS) are compared with the solutions produced by HartRAO for a similar network. This allows a direct evaluation of the reliability of both solutions that are estimated using different software packages (GIPSY and GAMIT) and different strategies to obtain solutions in ITRF2000. This aspect is investigated considering the disadvantages brought about by the continental scale of the networks and the sparse and non-uniform distribution of reference stations in the region. Finally, the derived velocity field is discussed in the frame of the tectonic settings of Africa. The implications on the relative motions, with respect to other plates, are discussed in detail using a global plate model developed using the entire ITRF2000 data set updated with the Africa GPS network solutions. Although data are limited for the Somalia region, the division of the African plate in two blocks: Nubia and Somalia, is also debated in detail.

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