A New Continuous GPS Network to Monitor Deformations in the Iberian Peninsula (Topo-Iberia Project). First Study of the Situation of the Betic System Area

Abstract

Topo-Iberia is a project funded by the Spanish Research Council that shares interests with Topo-Europe project. Its objective is to understand the interactions in the Iberian Peninsula (SW Europe) between deep, shallow and atmospheric processes, through a multidisciplinary approach linking Geology, Geophysics and Geodesy. In order to achieve the observational goals of the project, three main working groups have been set up: seismic, magneto-telluric and geodetic. The first task of the GPS geodetic working group was to design the new Continuous GPS network to complement other GPS networks which are already operating under the supervision of different institutions. The Betic System is the most active tectonically area in the Iberian Peninsula. As this area in under a NNW-SSE to NW-SE compression regime, two station alignments (from NE to SW and NW to SE) were built, including continuous GPS (CGPS) stations in Northern Africa. Nowadays the Topo-Iberia GPS network includes twenty-six operational stations: 22 installed in different regions of Spain and 4 located in strategically chosen places in Morocco. In this work the state of the art of the CGPS network in the Betic System Area is presented.