CHINESE JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICS Vol.52, No.

1, 2009, pp: 2332

NEW MODEL OF ANTARCTIC PLATE MOTION AND ITS ANALYSIS

JIANG Wei-Ping1 , E Dong-Chen2 , ZHAN Bi-Wei2 , LIU You-Wen1
1 GNSS Research Center, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, China 2 Chinese Antarctic Center of Surveying and Mapping, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, China

Abstract Since 1995, Antarctic crustal movement campaign has been taking place by Scientic Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) every year. We analyze SCAR campaign data from 1997 to 2004 and some continuous GPS stations in Antarctica using GAMIT/GLOBK software. Data analysis involves two major procedures. The rst procedure uses the GAMIT software to estimate parameters such as station position and orbital trajectory on a daily basis for a given 24-hour interval from the union of three data sets: (1) the campaign stations, (2) the continuously operating GPS stations in Antarctica, and (3) long-running continuous GPS stations around Antarctica. In the second procedure, we combine the daily solutions with global GPS sub-networks (IGS1, IGS2, IGS3), which is provided by Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), using the GLOBK software in a regional stabilization approach in order to estimate the positions and velocities. Then the present-day crustal movement of the Antarctica plate is discussed in the paper. The position of the rotation pole (58.69 N, 128.29 W) and its rate (0.224( )/Ma) derived from SCAR GPS data is signicantly dierent from the NNR-NUVEL-1A estimations or from some GPS results for the Antarctic tectonic plate. As for the relative angular motion between Antarctic and Australian, the dierences between the results from this paper and some other models are better. All dierences for rotation rate are smaller than 0.01( )/Ma, and for rotation pole are smaller than 4 . GPS results obtained in this paper provide a new and more precise model on the Antarctic plate motion. Key words SCAR, GPS, Velocity eld, Antarctica plate, Crustal movement

1 INTRODUCTION To a very large scale, Antarctica could be divided into two major tectonic domains: the East Antarctica with stable Precambrian shield, and the West Antarctica with the more complex assemblage of accreted terrains. The boundary between the two domains is a major crustal discontinuity marking by the Transantarctic Mountains (TAM)-a range crossing the whole continent with a length of 3500 km and its elevation is up to 4500 m. West Antarctica includes vast areas of extended, submerged, and continental crust[1,2] . The West Antarctic Rift System (WARS) is one of the largest continental rifts in the world. At the same time, it is one of the two main tectonic regions in Antarctica (the other one is the Cratons area in the eastern Antarctica). Dierent from the eastern Cratons region, which is relatively stable, the WARS has a very complex tectonic history in the recent 100 Ma. In addition, the mass change of the Antarctica ice cover is an important reason that causes the crustal movement of the Antarctic continent[3] . To understand the geological structure of Antarctica, see A. Morelli et al.[1] . GPS surveying could provide high precise, large-scale and quasi-real-time quantitative data for crustal movement, which makes it possible to obtain large scale velocity eld of the crustal motion in short time. So far, GPS technology has already become a powerful tool in monitoring the current crustal motion. Many scholars have done researches and analyses on the global crustal motion (including the movement of the Antarctica plate)[46] and the regional block motion[714] . Larson et al.[4] , Sella et al.[5] , and Bouin et al.[15] have investigated the motion of the Antarctica plate already using GPS measurements. Among them, Bouin et al.[15] analyze the motion of the Antarctica plate and its relative motion to the neighboring plates by both the IGS and the SCAR data (using two phases of data in 1995 and 1996). They give the rotation pole of the Antarctica
E-mail: wpjiang@whu.edu.cn

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plate motion at (62.0 N, 146.7 W), with the Euler angular velocity at 0.26( )/Ma, and compare them to the NNR-NUVEL-1A model, nding that there is big discrepancy between them. However, the result obtained is not determined under the global frame. With the continuous perfection of the data processing method, the increasing number of the GPS stations in the Antarctic continent and the longer time span, it is already possible for us to further investigate the presentday crustal movement of Antarctica and establish new motion model with higher accuracy for it, which held important scientic meanings. Under this background, we have integrated the current precise data processing methods, determined a new motion model of the Antarctica plate using data of 8 years, and made comparisons and analyses between the new model and those previous ones. 2 GPS DATA PROCESSING 2.1 Geodetic Data Description The SCAR Epoch Crustal Movement Campaigns (formerly SCAR Epoch GPS Campaigns) have been carried out since 1995 under the umbrella of the Scientic Committee on Antarctic Research, Geoscience Standing Scientic Group (GSSG), the former Working Group on Geodesy and Geographic Information. They are part of the program named Geodetic Infrastructure in Antarctica (GIANT). The main goals of the SCAR Epoch Crustal Movement Campaigns are to establish and maintain a high-precision geodetic reference frame, together with investigations on the movements of the interior parts of Antarctica and its motion with respect to the neighboring plates. Recently, the SCAR GPS Campaigns has become an important component in the frame of the SCAR Group of Specialists on Antarctic Neotectonics (ANTEC). Some international institutions have done researches by using the SCAR GPS Campaign data, and have gained some scientic achievements[15] . The SCAR GPS campaign has been carried out every year since 1995. It covers an observation period of three weeks each year, starting from 00:00 UTC, January 20th, and closing at 24:00 UTC, February 10th. The Institute f ur Planetare Geod asie, Technische Universit at Dresden holds the responsibility for maintaining the Database of the SCAR Epoch Crustal Movement Campaigns. So far, the Great Wall and the ZhongShan GPS stations in China have been participated in 12 (19952006) and 9 (19972006) campaigns respectively. Data analysis in this paper starts from 1997. In 1998, GPS stations involved in the campaign reached the most, while the number of stations reduced gradually after that. GPS data used in the paper is shown in Table 1. 2.2 GPS Data Processing We have analyzed all campaigns and continuous GPS data collected in Antarctica and its peripheral regions from 1997 to 2004, using the GAMIT/GLOBK software[1618] . This approach determines the station position and velocity vectors in a single, self-consistent reference frame[1921] , which is dierent to some degree with previous data processing methods used in the investigations of the motion of Antarctica (see Bouin et al.[15] ). In this way, we could not only weaken the inuence of the net-form change along with time, but also obtain more precise GPS results by unifying data process. Data analysis process involves two major procedures, as described by previous researchers[1921] . First is to use the GAMIT software to estimate parameters such as station position and orbital trajectory on a daily basis for a given 24-hour time span from the union of three data sets: (1) SCAR Epoch Crustal Movement Campaign stations, (2) continuously operation GPS stations in Antarctica, and (3) long-running continuous IGS stations in Antarctica and its peripheral region. In the second procedure, we combine the daily solutions with three global IGS sub-networks (IGS1, IGS2, IGS3), using the GLOBK software in a regional stabilization approach, so as to obtain the time series and the velocity eld. Strategies of daily solution are listed as follows: (1) Daily solution is calculated using ionosphere-free combination (LC), double-dierence, and phase solution.

Jiang W P et al.: New Model of Antarctic Plate Motion and Its Analysis
Table 1 List of SCAR GPS stations
ID ART1 ARCT BELG DAL1 DALL ESP1 FAL1 FERR FOR1 FOR2 FOS1 GRW1 HAR1 MAIT MON1 MAR1 OHG1 PAL1 PRA1 PUN1 REYJ ROT1 SMR1 TNB1 VER1 WASA ZHON Station name Base Artigas Arctowski Belgrano ASH Dallmann Dallmann II Esperanza Falkland Island Ferraz Forster Forster II Fossil Blu Great Wall Hartebeesthoek Maitri Montevideo Marambio OHiggins Palmer Arturo Prat Punta Arenas Rey Jorge Rothera San Martin Terra Nova Bay Vernadsky Wasa Zhongshang Station owner Uruguay Poland Argentina Argentina/Germany Argentina/Germany Argentina U.K Brazil Germany Germany U.K China South Africa India Argentina Argentina Chile/Germany U.S.A Chile Chile Chile U.K Argentina Italy Ukraine Sweden China * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 1997 * 1998 * 1999 * * * * 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

25

(2) Eleven global permanent tracking stations (SANT, HRAO, YAR1, OHI2, VESL, SYOG, MAW1, DAV1, CAS1, MAC1, and MCM4) are constrained as reference stations. (3) Precise satellite orbits and Earth rotation parameters from IGS are used and tightly constrained according to the related accuracy. (4) GPS satellite orbit parameters were estimated together with all station coordinates. (5) The sample rate is 30 seconds, and the cut-o angle is set at 15 degree. (6) Tropospheric delay correction is applied using Saastamoinen model. (7) Antenna phase center corrections for satellites and receivers using the model from IGS. (8) Ocean tide loading correction is applied using the model provided by GAMIT. (9) Model corrections for satellite clock osets (the clock parameters are taken from Broadcast Ephemeris); Model corrections for receiver clock osets (the clock osets are computed from pseudorange observations). We use the GLOBK software to generate time series and estimate velocity eld. Strategies are as follows: (1) For a global analysis, three global sub-networks analyzed by Scripps Orbit and Permanent Array Center (SOPAC), namely IGS1, IGS2 and IGS3, are used to combine with the SCAR Epoch Crustal Movement Campaign stations. The total number of global stations reaches nearly 200. (2) Daily solutions with loose constraints are transformed to International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF)-2000 by estimating a seven-parameter similarity transformation, using up to 24 global sites whose positions are dened in ITRF-2000 (See Fig. 1).

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Fig. 1 Distribution of IGS ducial stations in adjustment

(3) For the continuously observing stations, the position estimates are correlated from one day to the next. Since they are not independent, we place lower bound on their uncertainties by adding white noise to the horizontal (including the south-north component and the east-west component) as well as vertical components respectively (2 mm, 2 mm, 5 mm). 2.3 Results Analysis 2.3.1 Time series By using the GLOBK software, we can get time series for the selected stations from 1997 to 2004, which could be applied to analyze the velocity of stations and their periodical changes. In this paper, we give the time series for campaign station GRW1 located in Antarctic Peninsula, and the continuous station ZhongShan, which is located in East Antarctic (Fig. 2). Notably, for the ZhongShan station, we process the data within a

Fig. 2 The time series of Great Wall and ZhongShan GPS stations

Jiang W P et al.: New Model of Antarctic Plate Motion and Its Analysis

27

time span of 2 or 3 days at regular intervals, apart from the combined calculation of the SCAR campaign measurements. Fig. 2 shows a steady northeast moving trend of the Antarctic Peninsula in horizontal direction, while in vertical direction, the motion is unstable. During the data processing, we can not be sure whether the antenna height at this station in 1998 was right, so in the meantime, the geodetic height is just for reference. The times series of ZhongShan site, which is close to IGS station DAV1, looks strange and interesting. It shows a southwest moving trend of the station in horizontal direction, with certain periodical uctuation in the west and the east component respectively. The movement of ZhongShan site in vertical direction has an obvious periodicity. To explain this kind of periodic motion, there are two major reasons. One is that it belongs to the cyclical changes of the site itself[22] , while the other reason is that, it is caused by the dierent circumstances of snow cover on the antenna[15] . However, according to its anomaly motion in horizontal direction, it is dicult to explain the movement. We will study it in the future. 2.3.2 Velocity Field We estimate velocities for stations in Antarctic after global adjustment. For the coordinates of the stations (20 S90 S) and their velocities, see Table 2, and for the velocity eld, see Fig. 3 and Fig. 4.

Fig. 3 Horizontal motions of SCAR stations and some IGS stations in Antarctic and its adjacency

Fig. 4 Horizontal motions of SCAR GPS stations in King George Island of west Antarctica

From Table 2 and Figs. 34, we can see that, in general, the Antarctica plate is moving towards the south-America plate, while departing from the Australian plate gradually. With respective to the Australian plate, the velocities of GPS sites on the Antarctica plate are 78 cm/a mostly. Some research show that the Australian plate was departing from the Antarctica plate at the speed of 78 cm/a 50 Ma ago[23] , which is also got approval in this paper. Table 2 also shows that, velocities of the GPS stations in the west Antarctica are faster than those in the east Antarctica, and the Antarctica Peninsular is an active region, which could reect the geological structure of the Antarctica and its crustal movements. The east Antarctica has a stable Precambrian shield[3] , while results of aeromagnetic surveys in the west Antarctica show the presence of large volumes of volcanic rock and associated subvolcanic intrusions, of the order of a million km3[24] . In the last million years, volcanism has renewed on at least four of the islands (Deception, Livingston, Greenwich, and King George), which is coincident with rifting and volcanism in the adjacent Branseld basin[25] . Therefore, the west Antarctica (including the Antarctica peninsula) is much more active than the east.

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Table 2 The coordinates and velocities of SCAR GPS and IGS stations
Site VESL GOUG WASA MON1 OHIG LPGS FERR ARCT ART1 GRW1 CORD UNSA RIOG SANT EISL CHAT AUCK MCM4 NOUM MAC1 TIDB TID2 HOB2 ALIC CEDU KARR PERT YAR1 CAS1 DAV1 ZHON KERG MAW1 SYOG RBAY HARK HRAO SUTH FOR2 FOR1 Long. ( W) 2.842 9.881 13.414 56.260 57.900 57.932 58.393 58.469 58.903 58.962 64.470 65.408 67.751 70.669 109.383 176.566 185.166 193.331 193.590 201.064 211.020 211.020 212.561 226.114 226.190 242.903 244.115 244.653 249.480 282.027 283.630 289.744 297.129 320.416 327.922 332.292 332.313 339.190 348.163 348.175 Lat. ( S) 71.674 40.349 73.043 34.888 63.321 34.907 62.086 62.161 62.185 62.216 31.528 24.727 53.785 33.150 27.148 43.956 36.603 77.838 22.270 54.500 35.399 35.399 42.805 23.670 31.867 20.981 31.802 29.047 66.283 68.577 69.371 49.351 67.605 69.007 28.796 25.887 25.890 32.380 70.774 70.778 Sess day 137 61 27 66 242 130 80 51 113 161 82 74 117 367 142 180 184 503 146 342 99 140 172 132 140 148 160 251 351 384 146 361 270 192 33 183 444 147 26 52 1999.02004.1 1997.12000.1 1997.12001.1 1997.12002.1 1997.12004.8 1999.02004.8 SPAN Vew 0.46 20.60 3.37 0.44 14.13 2.25 14.17 10.71 8.77 8.84 0.27 3.44 2.45 19.15 66.13 40.86 3.81 9.05 20.84 11.93 18.01 19.41 14.79 33.18 30.15 38.68 39.19 39.11 2.13 1.27 5.02 5.83 2.04 2.66 18.45 23.87 17.68 15.65 1.75 1.91 Mew 0.24 0.76 0.48 0.64 0.26 0.46 0.26 0.30 0.25 0.25 0.53 1.02 0.46 0.30 0.63 0.23 0.31 0.13 0.39 0.18 0.27 0.28 0.28 0.34 0.28 0.33 0.25 0.44 0.15 0.16 0.17 0.21 0.19 0.23 1.05 0.59 0.25 0.36 0.33 0.27 Vns 8.68 17.39 11.02 10.58 9.41 10.82 17.74 12.75 15.91 16.25 9.87 10.33 9.75 15.79 6.28 31.94 39.16 11.41 45.35 31.31 54.60 54.84 55.81 58.03 58.29 56.86 57.05 55.97 10.26 5.51 7.11 3.22 2.03 2.20 16.35 18.24 17.29 18.27 6.02 6.23 Mns 0.22 0.47 0.44 0.39 0.24 0.29 0.24 0.31 0.23 0.23 0.32 0.56 0.35 0.21 0.36 0.15 0.20 0.12 0.21 0.14 0.17 0.17 0.18 0.20 0.17 0.18 0.16 0.25 0.12 0.14 0.15 0.15 0.18 0.21 0.61 0.44 0.17 0.23 0.35 0.26 U 0.16 10.65 2.12 4.17 7.45 0.52 5.34 18.50 16.44 4.39 2.64 6.95 1.92 0.37 2.81 2.31 1.24 3.01 1.40 0.94 1.66 4.73 2.76 4.48 2.64 2.52 4.34 1.03 4.86 2.65 1.65 3.45 4.33 5.00 0.23 5.85 0.86 1.42 0.60 1.69 Mu 0.47 1.47 1.22 0.99 0.47 0.83 0.50 0.79 0.40 0.40 0.92 2.36 0.69 0.49 1.06 0.41 0.40 0.31 0.57 0.35 0.51 0.47 0.40 0.63 0.42 0.54 0.38 0.68 0.29 0.31 0.36 0.35 0.41 0.52 2.41 1.54 0.44 0.65 1.15 0.58 (mm/a) (mm/a) (mm/a)

1999.12003.1 1997.12004.1 1997.12004.1 2000.12004.1 1999.42004.8 2000.42004.8 1999.12001.1

1997.12004.8 1997.12003.8 1997.12004.8 1998.12004.8 1997.12004.8 1997.12004.8

1997.12004.8 1997.12004.8 1998.12004.8

1997.12004.8 1998.12003.4 1999.02004.8 1998.12004.8 1997.12002.1

1997.12004.8 1997.12004.8 1997.12004.8 1998.12004.8 2001.12003.4 1998.12000.4 1998.12004.8 1999.42004.8 1997.12004.8

1997.12004.8

1999.02004.8 2001.12004.0 1998.12004.1

Note: Vew denotes the east-west component of velocity, while Mew denotes the MSE (mean square error) of the east-west component; Vns denotes the north-south component of velocity, while Mns denotes the MSE of the north-south component; U denotes the vertical component of velocity, while Mu denotes the MSE of the vertical component.

Jiang W P et al.: New Model of Antarctic Plate Motion and Its Analysis

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Table 3 gives the velocity eld of GPS sites in the Antarctica plate calculated by the model developed in this paper (SCAR), REVEL 2000[5] , Larson 1997[4] and ENS 97[15] . From the second to the eighth column, it represents the east-west component of the velocity eld and its precision, the north-south component and its precision respectively, using dierent models. From Table 3, we can see that the number of stations in the Antarctica plate calculated by Sella et al.[5] in 2002 is 9, with 8 of them are the same as used in this paper, while Larson[4] calculates 2 stations and ENS 97 calculates 6. According to Table 2 and Table 3, we nd that although the results show consistency with previous researches in the trend[4,5,15,26] , major dierences exist both in quantity and direction aspects. Except for the 5 mm discrepancy at the OHIG site, majority dierence of the velocity eld between SCAR and REVEL 2000 is 12 mm/a. And there is signicant deviation between SCAR and ENS 97, at 56 mm/a mostly. If only considering the precision, the accuracy in the north-south and east-west components of the GPS velocity eld calculated by SCAR model are mostly 0.20.5 mm/a, which is superior to the other three models, thus providing reliable data to develop the motion model of the Antarctica plate.
Table 3 Horizontal velocities of SCAR, REVEL 2000[5] , Larson(1997)[4] and ENS 97[15] for determining the plate motion of Antarctica (unit: mm/a)
Site ACRT ART1 CAS1 DAV1 DUM1 FERR FOR1 FOR2 GRW1 KERG MAW1 MCM4 MCM3 OHIG PALM SYOG VESL WASA ZHON VSCARE 10.70.3 2.10.2 8.80.3 VSCARN 16.00.3 5.50.2 17.70.2 6.20.3 6.00.3 12.80.3 3.70.6 11.60.7 6.60.7 8 6 152 26 135 104 132 VREVELE VREVELN VENS97E VENS97N VLarsonE VLarsonN

1.30.2 14.20.3 1.90.3 1.80.3 8.80.3 5.80.2

10.30.1

2.10.7

16.20.4 3.20.2 11.40.1 9.40.2 2.20.2 11.00.5 7.10.2 8.70.2 2.00.2

2.00.2 9.00.1

3.50.7 10.60.7

5.20.8

12.20.6 14.70.8 14.11.9 0.31.0 8.21.8

3.60.7

5.30.7

81 148 135

101 115 520

14.10.3 2.70.2 3.40.5 0.50.2

11.71.5 4.41.2 4.71.4

10.10.9

15.31.9

8.71.5

10.51.4 11.81.7

5.00.2

3 PLATE MOTION ANALYSIS Using the site velocities of 16 stations in the Antarctic plate under ITRF2000 and the velocities of these 16 stations with respect to the Australian plate, we calculate the rotating motion of the Antarctica plate in the cases of no-net-rotation (NNR) and relative to the Australian plate, respectively. Comparisons have been made between dierent models (Table 4 and Table 5). For easy to compare, Table 5 shows the rotation velocity of Australian plate with respect to Antarctica plate using dierent models. Both in Table 4 and Table 5, SCAR represents the results obtained in this study, and ENS 97 represents the achievements done by Bouin et al.[15] . From Table 4 we can see large discrepancies exist between NUVEL-1A and the other four models, which take GPS measurements as their observables. The reason is that, in the NUVEL-1A model, there are systematic errors in the estimates of the opening rate between Antarctica plate and the other three plates, namely South-

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Table 4 Comparison of rotation velocities for the Antarctica plate

Angular velocity (( )/Ma) SCAR REVEL 2000 Larson et al. (1997) NNR-NUVEL-1A ENS 97 0.224 0.226 0.24 0.24 0.264 Latitude ( N) 58.69 58.48 60.5 63.0 62.0 Longitude ( W) 128.29 134.00 125.7 115.9 146.7 max ( ) 0.4 1.6 6.6 min ( ) 0.3 1.0 3.6 ( ) 74.8 32 1 (( )/Ma) 0.01 0.01 0.03

Note: max , min denote the length of the semi-major axis and the semi-minor axis of the error ellipse, respectively. denotes the clockwise length azimuth angle from the north. denotes the precision of the angular velocity.

Table 5 Comparison of relative angular motions for the Australian/Antarctic plates

Angular velocity (( )/Ma) SCAR REVEL 2000 Larson et al.(1997) NNR-NUVEL-1A ENS 97 0.648 0.653 0.65 0.65 0.66 Latitude ( N) 12.16 14.71 9.8 13.2 10.9 Longitude ( E) 41.68 39.70 43.2 38.2 41.6 max ( ) 0.2 1.6 4.4 1.3 min ( ) 0.1 0.8 2.6 1.0 ( ) 86.6 33 20 63 (( )/Ma) 0.001 0.004 0.01 0.01

Note: max , min denote the length of the semi-major axis and the semi-minor axis of the error ellipse, respectively. denotes the clockwise length azimuth angle from the north. denotes the precision of the angular velocity.

America plate, Africa plate and Nazca plate. It was this kind of mist that has increased the inaccuracy of the plate motion of Antarctica[27] . As a result, the large dierences between NUVEL-1A and the other models are within expectation. Considering the GPS results, as for the angular velocity and the latitude of the Euler pole, results obtained in this paper are close to that of REVEL 2000, while the longitude has a major dierence between these two models. There are two reasons to explain this phenomenon. Firstly, the number of observation stations and the time span of data applied are dierent, for example, there are 2 stations used in the Larson model, with a time span of more than 2 years, while ENS 97 involves 6 stations with a time span from 1995 to 1998, and REVEL 2000 processes data from 1993 to 2000 using 7 stations. In this paper, however, we collect data of 16 stations spanned from 1997 to 2004. Secondly, dierent models adopt dierent methods. Although ENS 97 uses GAMIT software to do the calculation, the result is not determined under the global frame; Both Larson et al. and REVEL 2000 adopt GIPSY to process data but with dierent observation models[28] ; Here, we select the GAMIT software to do the calculation work and the analysis is done under the global frame by using more than 200 IGS stations, so our method and data model adopted are more developed and perfect than previous ones. Thus the plate motion model determined by SCAR could be more reliable than the other models, whether from its data processing method and the distribution of stations, or the precision of velocity eld aspect. In the NUVEL-1A model, motion of the Antarctica plate is restrained mainly by the relative movement to the Australian plate. Accurately speaking, the Australian-Antarctica plate boundary data provides better geometric covering than other plate boundaries when deciding the Euler pole of the relative motion between plates[15] . Therefore, it is very signicant to investigate the movement of the Antarctica plate by analyzing and comparing the relative motion between the Australian plate and the Antarctica plate determined by dierent sets of data or methods. Table 5 shows closeness between these ve models on the whole in the motion of the Antarctica plate with respect to the Australian plate. The angular velocity has a discrepancy of about 0.01( )/Ma, while the longitude and latitude of the Euler pole have discrepancies within 4 . Dierences between the ve models are better than the results shown in Table 4. There are two reasons to explain the closeness to NUVEL-1A: the motion model of the Antarctica plate is mainly constrained by the rotation motion relative to the Australian plate in the

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NUVEL-1A model, and at the same time, as for the solution mode determined by the GPS measurements, relative motion could eliminate some systematic errors. In short, comparing with the NUVEL-1A model, or those previous GPS models, our research provides a more accurate motion model for the Antarctica plate because of the more rigorous method and larger sets of data used in the model. 4 CONCLUSION By analyzing the SCAR campaign data from 1997 to 2004, data of some continuous GPS stations in Antarctica, together with the global GPS sub-networks provided by SOPAC, namely IGS1, IGS2, and IGS3, using GAMIT/GLOBK software, we have determined the time series of the SCAR campaign stations, and resolved their site positions and velocities. Based on the time series, we have discussed the movement of the Great Wall and ZhongShan GPS stations. Then we have discussed the network deformations according to the tectonic structures, calculated and analyzed the angular velocity and position of the rotation pole of the Antarctica plate and the values relative to the Australian plate. Some comparisons have been made between NUVEL-1A and REVEL 2000. GPS result shows the Euler pole of the Antarctica plate at (58.69 N, 128.29 W) and its angular velocity at (0.224( )/Ma), which is signicantly dierent from the NNR-NUVEL-1A predictions and some previous GPS results. With respect to the Australian plate, there is a discrepancy of about 0.01( )/Ma in the angular velocity between our research and other known models, while for the position of the rotation pole, the dierence is within 4 . Comparing with the NUVEL-1A model, or those previous GPS models, our research provides a more accurate motion model for the Antarctica plate because of the more rigorous method and larger sets of data used in the process, thus could provide a new motion model with higher accuracy to describe the movement of the Antarctica plate. In a word, GPS surveying well describes the present-day crustal movement of the Antarctica plate. There is no doubt that further GPS observations and investigations will play a vital role in resolving the dynamic mechanism problem of its current crustal movement. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The research was supported by State 863 projects (2007AA12Z312), The 10th Five-Year Key Projects in Geomatics by the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping (1469990324236-04-06), and the New Century Outstanding Support Program for the Talents by the Ministry of Education. We thank everyone who participated in collecting the vast amounts of GPS data used in this study. We thank MIT for providing the GAMIT/BLOBK software. Pictures have been produced with the GMT package[29] . REFERENCES
[1] Morelli A, Danesi S. Seismological imaging of the Antarctic continental lithosphere: a review. Global and Planetary Change, 2004, 42(1-4): 155165 [2] Ten Brink U S, Hackney R I, Bannister S, et al. Uplift of the transantarctic mountains and the bedrock beneath the East Antarctic ice sheet. J. Geophys. Res., 1997, 102(B12): 2760327621 [3] Farrell W E. Deformation of the earth by surface loads. Reviews of Geophysics, 1972, 10(3): 761797 [4] Larson K M, Freymueller J, Philipsen S. Global plate velocities from the Global Positioning System. J. Geophys. Res., 1997, 102(B5): 99619981 [5] Sella G F, Dixon T H, Mao A. REVEL: A model for recent plate velocities from space geodesy. J. Geophys. Res., 2002, 107(B4): 20812110 [6] Zhu W Y, Fu Y, Li Y, et al. NNR constraint in ITRF2000 and the new global plate motion model NNRITRF2000VEL. Science in China (Series D) (in Chinese), 2003, 33(Z1): 111 [7] Zang S X, Chen Q Y, Ning J Y, et al. Determination of Euler parameters of Philippine Sea plate and the inferences. Science in China (Series D) (in Chinese), 2001, 31(6): 441448 [8] Wang M, Shen Z K, Niu Z J, et al. Present-day crustal movement of Chinese mainland and active block model.

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Chinese J. Geophys.

Vol.52, No.1

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