The U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites provide data that are used in a broad spectrum of Earth science disciplines, including geodesy and geodynamics. Currently, there are 24 satellites, each travelling in a 12-hour, circular orbit 20,200 kilometers above Earth. The satellites are positioned so that at least six are nearly always observable from any point on Earth. The GPS satellites transmit ranging codes on two-radio frequency carriers at L-band frequencies, which can be detected by ground-based GPS receivers. Special ground-based stations perform satellite monitoring that permits the locations of GPS receivers to be determined with a high degree of accuracy.
Researchers at UTIG study the motions of tectonic plates, displacements associated with earthquakes, sea-level fluctuations, and Earth orientations by monitoring very precisely the change in the receiver locations over time. With the technology currently available, an accuracy of a few millimeters can be achieved.
UTIG has a number of projects using GPS all over the world, from the Southwest Pacific GPS Project to the Scotia Arc Project (SCARP) to the WAGN project. We have a number of GPS-based projects in the Caribbean:
Collaborative Research: A GPS Study of Caribbean Plate Kinematics and Distributed Deformation Between the Caribbean and North American Plates
Paleo-seismic Investigation of the North American-Caribbean Strike-Slip Plate Boundary, Dominican Republic
GPS Investigation of the North America-Caribbean Plate Boundary (1994)
Publications
Caribbean
General
Publications on Caribbean wide GPS network including results from northeastern Caribbean CANAPE (Caribbean-North America Plate Experiment) network:
Focus on the GPS data from sites within the stable interior of the Caribbean plate:
DeMets, C., Jansma, P., Mattioli, G., Dixon, T., Farina, F., Bilham, R.,
Calais, E., and Mann, P., 2000, GPS geodetic constraints on Caribbean-North
American plate motion, Geophysical Research Letters, v. 27, p. 437-440.
Focus on GPS data from the entire NSF-funded CANAPE network:
Dixon, T., Farina, F., DeMets, C., Jansma, P., Mann, P., and Calais, E.,
1998, Relative motion between the Caribbean and North American plates and
related boundary zone deformation based on a decade of GPS observations,
Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 103, p. 15,157-15,182.
Focus on subset of CANAPE GPS data from the Puerto Rico-Virgin Islands area:
Jansma, P., Lopez, A., Mattioli, G., DeMets, C., Dixon, T., Mann, P., and
Calais, E., 2000, Microplate tectonics in the northeastern Caribbean as
constrained by Global Positioning (GPS) geodesy, Tectonics, v. 19, p.
1021-1037.
Focus on the subset of CANAPE GPS data from the Hispaniola-Bahama platform
oblique collision area:
Calais, E., Mazabraund, Y, Mercier de Lepinay, B., Mann, P., Mattioli, G.,
and Jansma, P., 2002, Strain partitioning and fault slip rates in the
northeastern Caribbean from GPS measurements: Geophysicsal Research Letters,
v. 29, no. 18, 1856, doi:10:1029/2002GL015397, 2002.
Pollitz, F., and Dixon, T., 1998, GPS measurements across the northern Caribbean plate boundary zone; Impact of posteismic relaxation following historic earthquakes, Geophysical Research Letters, v. 25, p. 2233-2236.
Mann, P., Prentice, C., Burr, G., Pena, L., and Taylor, F. W., 1998, Tectonic geomorphology and paleoseismology of the Septentrional fault zone, Dominican Republic, in J. F. Dolan and P. Mann, editors, Active Strike-slip and Collisional Tectonics of the Northern Caribbean Plate Boundary Zone, Geological Society of America Special Paper 324, p. 63-123.
Mann, P., Calais, E.,Ruegg, J-C., DeMets, C., Jansma, P., and Mattioli, G., 2002, Oblique collision in the northeastern Caribbean from GPS measurements and geological observations: Tectonics, v. 21, no. 6, 1057, doi:10.1029?2001TC001304, 2002.
Focus on the subset of CANAPE GPS data from the Caribbean-Northern
South America area:
Weber, J.C., Dixon, T.H., DeMets, C., Ambeh, W.B., Jansma, P., Mattioli,
G., Saleh, J., Sella, G., Bilham, R., and Perez, O., 2001, GPS estimate of
relative motion between the Caribbean and South American plates, and
geologic implications for Trinidad and Venezuela, Geology, 29(1): 75-78.
Focus on northern South America using results from the GPS network operated
by Perez, Bilham, et al.:
Perez, O.J., Bilham, R., Bendick, R., Velandia, J.R., Hernandez, N.,
Moncayo, C., Hoyer, M., and Kozuch, M., 2001, Velocity field across the
southern Caribbean plate boundary and estimates of Caribbean/South-American
plate motion using GPS geodesy 1994-2000; Geophysical Research Letters, v.
28, p. 2987-2990.
Publications - General
Calmant, S., Pelletier, B., Pillet, R., Régnier, M., Lebellegard, P., Maillard, D., Taylor, F.W., Bevis, M., and Recy, J., 1997, Aseismic and co-seismic motions in GPS series related to the Ms 7.3 July 13, 1994, Malekula earthquake, central New Hebrides subduction zone, Geophys. Res. Letts. 24, 3077-3080.
Taylor, F.W. et al. 1995, Geodetic measurements of convergence at the New Hebrides island arc indicate arc fragmentation due to an impinging aseismic ridge: Geology, 23, 1011-1014. Calmant, S., Lebellegard, P., Taylor, F., Bevis, M., Maillard, D., Recy, J., and Bonneau, J., 1995, Geodetic measurements of convergence across the New Hebrides subduction zone; Geophys. Res. Letts., 22, 2573-2576.
Bevis, M., Taylor, F.W., Schutz, B.E., Recy, J., Isacks, B.L., Helu, S., Singh, R., Kendrick, E., Stowell, J., Taylor, B., and Calmant, S., 1995, Geodetic observations of convergence and back-arc spreading at the Tonga island arc, Nature, 374, 249-251.
Taylor, F. W., Quinn, T. M., Gallup, C. G., and Edwards, R. L., 1994, Quaternary plate convergence rates at the New Hebrides arc from the chronostratigraphy of Bougainville Guyot (Site 831), Proc. ODP, Sci. Results, 134, College Station, TX (Ocean Drilling Program) 47-57.Schutz, B. E., Bevis, M. G., Taylor, F. W., Kuang, D., Watkins, M., Recy, J., Perin, B., and Peyroux, O., 1993, The Southwest Pacific GPS Project: Geodetic results from burst 1 of the 1990 field campaign, Bull. Geodesique, 67, 224-240.
Taylor, F. W. , Recy, J., Larue, B.M., Bevis, M., and Schutz, B., 1991, A geodetically positioned shallow platform for tectonics and oceanographic research, in Kumar, M., and Maul, G. A. (eds.), Marine Positioning into the 1990's, Proc. International Symp. on Marine Positioning, October 15-19, 1990, (Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science) Miami, Florida, PIP Printing, Rockville, Maryland, 278-287.