Measurements at ∼400 campaign‐style GPS points and another 14 continuously recording stations in central Asia define variations in their velocities both along and across the Kyrgyz and neighboring parts of Tien Shan. They show that at the longitude of Kyrgyzstan the Tarim Basin converges with Eurasia at 20 ± 2 mm/yr, nearly two thirds of the total convergence rate between India and Eurasia at this longitude. This high rate suggests that the Tien Shan has grown into a major mountain range only late in the evolution of the India‐Eurasia collision. Most of the convergence between Tarim and Eurasia within the upper crust of the Tien Shan presumably occurs by slip on faults on the edges of and within the belt, but 1–3 mm/yr of convergence is absorbed farther north, at the Dzungarian Alatau and at a lower rate with the Kazakh platform to the west. The Tarim Basin is thrust beneath the Tien Shan at ∼4–7 mm/yr. With respect to Eurasia, the Ferghana Valley rotates counterclockwise at ∼0.7° Myr−1 about an axis at the southwest end of the valley. Thus, GPS data place a bound of ∼4 mm/yr on the rate of crustal shortening across the Chatkal and neighboring ranges on the northwest margin of the Ferghana Valley, and they limit the present‐day slip rate on the right‐lateral Talas‐Ferghana fault to less than ∼2 mm/yr. GPS measurements corroborate geologic evidence indicating that the northern margin of the Pamir overthrusts the Alay Valley and require a rate of at least 10 and possibly 15 mm/yr.

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We present and interpret Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements of crustal motions for the period 1988–1997 at 189 sites extending east‐west from the Caucasus mountains to the Adriatic Sea and north‐south from the southern edge of the Eurasian plate to the northern edge of the African plate. Sites on the northern Arabian platform move 18±2 mm/yr at N25°±5°W relative to Eurasia, less than the NUVEL‐1A circuit closure rate (25±1 mm/yr at N21°±7°W). Preliminary motion estimates (1994–1997) for stations located in Egypt on the northeastern part of Africa show northward motion at 5–6±2 mm/yr, also slower than NUVEL‐IA estimates (10±1 mm/yr at N2°±4°E). Eastern Turkey is characterized by distributed deformation, while central Turkey is characterized by coherent plate motion (internal deformation of <2 mm/yr) involving westward displacement and counterclockwise rotation of the Anatolian plate. The Anatolian plate is de‐coupled from Eurasia along the right‐lateral, strike‐slip North Anatolian fault (NAF). We derive a best fitting Euler vector for Anatolia‐Eurasia motion of 30.7°± 0.8°N, 32.6°± 0.4°E, 1.2°±0.1°/Myr. The Euler vector gives an upper bound for NAF slip rate of 24±1 mm/yr. We determine a preliminary GPS Arabia‐Anatolia Euler vector of 32.9°±1.2°N, 40.3°±1.1°E, 0.8°±0.2°/Myr and an upper bound on left‐lateral slip on the East Anatolian fault (EAF) of 9±1 mm/yr. The central and southern Aegean is characterized by coherent motion (internal deformation of <2 mm/yr) toward the SW at 30±1 mm/yr relative to Eurasia. Stations in the SE Aegean deviate significantly from the overall motion of the southern Aegean, showing increasing velocities toward the trench and reaching 10±1 mm/yr relative to the southern Aegean as a whole.

Active deformation in the eastern Pamir of CentralAsia is concentrated on the margins of the orogen with minor deformation within the high terrain. Along the Trans-Alai mountain front at the northern perimeter of the orogen, Quaternary thrusting is documented by uplifted pediments, now at >500 m above the piedmont, Holocene fault scarps, and large earthquakes with N to NW oriented P axes. Seismicity in the interior of the orogen outlines a N-S belt that includes normal faulting events with E-W oriented T axes. N-S striking, active normal faults in the interiorLake Karakul region are compatible with these earthquakes; they define an asymmetric graben with a master fault at the western basin margin. In the southern Pamirs, dextral strike-slip faults root in the dextral Karakorum Fault, which bounds the Pamirs to the east. A mixture of dextral and reverse offsets totalling 135 m in Pleistocene terraces and 8 m in late Pleistocene/Holocene deposits demonstrates contemporary transpression, indicating average displacement rates of <1 mm/yr. The concentration of young thrusts along the Trans-Alai, the northward migration of thrusting, and the scarcity of other large-scale shortening features within the eastern Pamirs suggest that this part of the orogen moves northward en bloc and causes the progressive annihilation of the intermontane Alai Valley. Widespread dextral shear in the eastern Pamirs, both to the south and north of the extensional Karakul depression, and combined dextral strike-slip and normal faulting in the Muji-Tashgorgan graben of the Chinese Pamirs are interpreted as localized space accommodation phenomena, formed during progressive transfer of compressional deformation along a dextral strikeslip deformation zone with extensional stepovers.

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Earthquake‐triggered landslides are a significant hazard in seismically active regions, but our ability to assess the hazard they pose in near‐real‐time is limited. In this study, we present a new globally applicable model for seismically induced landslides based on the most comprehensive global data set available; we use 23 landslide inventories that span a range of earthquake magnitudes and climatic and tectonic settings. We use logistic regression to relate the presence and distribution of earthquake‐triggered landslides with spatially distributed estimates of ground shaking, topographic slope, lithology, land cover type, and a topographic index designed to estimate variability in soil wetness to provide an empirical model of landslide distribution. We tested over 100 combinations of independent predictor variables to find the best fitting model, using a diverse set of statistical tests. Blind validation tests show that the model accurately estimates the distribution of available landslide inventories. The results indicate that the model is reliable and stable, with high balanced accuracy (correctly versus incorrectly classified pixels) for the majority of test events. A cross‐validation analysis shows high balanced accuracy for a majority of events as well. By combining near‐real‐time estimates of ground shaking with globally available landslide susceptibility data, this model provides a tool to estimate the distribution of coseismic landslide hazard within minutes of the occurrence of any earthquake worldwide for which a U.S. Geological Survey ShakeMap is available.

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We present new estimates of lithospheric shear velocities for the intraplate seismic zones and the Illinois Basin in the U.S. midcontinent by analyzing teleseismic Rayleigh waves. We find that relatively high crustal shear velocities (VS) characterize the southern Illinois Basin, while relatively low crustal velocities characterize the middle and lower crust of the central and northern Illinois Basin. The observed high crustal velocities may correspond to high‐density mafic intrusions emplaced into the crust during the development of the Reelfoot Rift, which may have contributed to the subsidence of the Illinois Basin. The low crustal VS beneath the central and northern basin follow the La Salle deformation belt. We also observe relatively low velocities in the mantle beneath the New Madrid seismic zone where VS decreases by about 7% compared to those outside of the rift. The low VS in the upper mantle also extends beneath the Wabash Valley and Ste. Genevieve seismic zones. Testing expected VS reductions based on plausible thermal heterogeneities for the midcontinent indicates that the 7% velocity reduction would not result from elevated temperatures alone. Instead this scale of anomaly requires a contribution from some combination of increased iron and water content. Both rifting and interaction with a mantle plume could introduce these compositional heterogeneities. Similar orientations for the NE‐SW low‐velocity zone and the Reelfoot Rift suggest a rift origin to the reduced velocities. The low VS upper mantle represents a weak region and the intraplate seismic zones would correspond to concentrated crustal deformation above weak mantle.