COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: DETERMINATION OF TIME DEPENDENT VELOCITY AND VELOCITY GRADIENT FIELDS FOR EARTHSCOPE

The overriding-objective of this project is to use Earthscope data to determine a high-precision, high resolution, four-dimensional image of crustal deformation for the North America continent on time-scales of days to decades, and spatial-scales of kilometers to thousands of kilometers. This goal will be achieved by analyzing continuous GPS data from Earthscope's Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO) facility, and by expanding upon past experience in the analysis and modeling of plate boundary-scale crustal deformations to better account for time-dependence of crustal motions. The fundamental objective of developing methods to realize four-dimensional solutions of the velocity gradient tensor field will be achieved prior to the full implementation of Earthscope. It is a primary goal to develop a tool that the community can use for future analysis of Earthscope data as the project matures.