The purpose of the work is to establish the correlation between the change of absolute rotation poles of major tectonic plates based on continuous GNSS stations data. The work investigates 2804 continuous GNSS stations located on Pacific, North American, Eurasian, African, Antarctic, Australian and South American plates during 2002-2021. The components of recent horizontal displacements of continuous GNSS stations have been determined and a map of their distribution pattern has been constructed. The absolute rotation pole in ITRF2014/IGS14 reference frame of the studied tectonic plates has been determined. The obtained values are in good agreement with modern plate models. The definition of average annual rotation poles has been developed and their analysis has been carried out to research the dynamics of their change in time. It has been established that the change in the average annual rotation poles of the North American, African and South American plates occurs synchronously, while their change is asynchronous to the Pacific plate. Simultaneous changes in the average annual rotation poles of Antarctic and African plates were have also been identified.
The African tectonic plate system consists of the Africa Plate, Somali Plate, Arabia Plate, and a few microplates. These plates have complex kinematics and involve both convergent and divergent motion, resulting in various fault systems and geological features, therefore require constant analysis. This paper presents an analysis of the recent kinematics of the African tectonic plate system based on the coordinates and time series of daily solutions of continuous GNSS stations obtained from the Nevada State Geological Survey, which are freely available. A total of 217 continuous GNSS stations were selected for the study, including 126 for the Africa Plate, 49 for the Somali Plate, and 36 for the Arabia Plate. This study involved three stages: horizontal velocity determination, strain rates determination, and rotation pole determination. The horizontal velocities of continuous GNSS stations in the ITRF2014/IGS14 reference frame on the African tectonic plate system during 1996-2022 were obtained. Deformation processes were analysed, particularly at plate boundaries such as the East African Rift System. The horizontal velocities of GNSS stations were used to determine the rotation poles of the African tectonic plate system main plates. The velocities, deformations, and rotation poles of the plates were found to be consistent with previous studies. The results confirmed the presence of different geodynamic processes within the African tectonic plate system.
The main goal is to determine and analyze the recent rotation poles of the main tectonic plates based on measurements of continuous GNSS stations for the period of 2002–2021. Using procedures based on the method of the least squares, we suggested an algorithm to determine recent rotation poles of tectonic plates on the basis of processing time series of daily solutions of continuous GNSS stations. The algorythm was implemented in the MathCAD software package. It uses, generalizes, and modernizes the approaches presented in previous studies. Structurally, this algorithm consists of five consecutive stages: transformation of data into an internal format; compliance check and time series filtering; determination of horizontal displacement rates; compliance check and filtering of specified velocities; determination of rotation poles. The algorithm involves the use of freely available time series of daily solutions of continuous GNSS stations, or any other data prepared in a similar format. The study has developed an algorithm to determine recent rotation poles of tectonic plates. It is based on processing time series of daily solutions of continuous GNSS stations. The algorithm was tested to define the recent rotation poles of the main tectonic plates. We determined the components of recent horizontal displacement vectors of 3169 continuous GNSS stations located on 7 large, 7 medium and 3 micro plates for the period of 2002-2021 in the ITRF2014/IGS14 reference frame. The accuracy of determining the component vectors of horizontal displacements is in the range of 0.9-6.4 mm and is on average 10–15% of the vector length. The research allowed us to construct a map scheme of the spatial distribution of the velocity field of recent horizontal movements of continuous GNSS stations. Recent rotation poles of the main tectonic plates were determined for the period 2002-2021 in ITRF2014/IGS14 reference frame. It was established that, in general, the obtained values of recent rotation poles correlate well with known models of tectonic plate movements. This confirms the correctness of the chosen method, as well as the reliability of the obtained results. Recent rotation poles of tectonic plates are the basis for modeling and analysis of global, regional and local geodynamic processes, so their accurate determination is an urgent and necessary task. GNSS data is an alternative, and recently, practically irreplaceable basis for determining such parameters. The rapid increase in the number of continuous GNSS stations, as well as the high quality of their measurements, contributes to improving the accuracy of determining the recent rotation poles of tectonic plates, but leads to the need for their constant recalculation and refinement. The presented algorithm and the obtained results can be used to develop new and refine existing models of tectonic plate movements and reference frames, as well as to forecast the movements of the Earth’s crust.
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