Plate kinematics and deformation status of the Antarctic Peninsula based on GPS

Abstract

Antarctic GPS data from more than 20 stations were reanalyzed using the Bernese GPS Software, version 4.2, to provide a regional densification solution for the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF) 2000. In addition to the ITRF Antarctic results, two regional solutions with different strategies of the geodetic datum realization are analyzed. The analyses indicate that relative motion between the Antarctic Peninsula and East Antarctica is no larger than 1–2 mm/year, confirming reconstructions suggesting minimal amounts of relative motion between East and West Antarctica in recent geological time. The residual deformation signals are relatively small and provide constraints on models of postglacial rebound. They amount to 1–2 mm/year in the horizontal. Uplift rates are much less precisely determined, but uplift of nearly 10 mm/year in the Northern Antarctic Peninsula is probably significant. Uplift rates elsewhere in the Antarctic Peninsula are smaller.