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Monitoring Radial Tectonic Motions of Continental Borders Around the Atlantic Ocean and Regional Sea Level Changes by Space Geodetic Observations

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Advances in Earth Observation of Global Change

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Abstract

In this paper, the possible radial tectonic motions of continental border of both sides of the Atlantic Ocean are estimated based on the International Terrestrial Reference Frame ITRF2000 and the NNR-NUVEL-1A plate motion model. The technique uses the observed VLBI baseline length change rates around the Atlantic Ocean as constraints to estimate the regional geometric change of the Earth, the regional GPS and SLR velocity field data are also processed respectively to confirm the above estimated results. Primarily comparison of the radial tectonic motion results with the observed mean sea level rises around the eastern coast of the North America is performed. We conclude that the average land elevation of continental border around both sides of mid-Atlantic in northern hemisphere probably has a systematically sinking of about 1.57 ± 0.35 mm/year because of the possible radial tectonic motion in this area. Therefore, the approximately same value of extra sea level rise near the eastern coast of the North America probably comes from the crustal radial tectonic motion, but the post-glacial rebound as regarded previously. Further studies and discussion to the possible radial tectonic motions mentioned above using the velocity field data in ITRF2005 and/or in ITRF2008 would be considered so as to address further the estimated results in this work.

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by key laboratory of dynamic geodesy and geophysics, Chinese academy of sciences (L06-03), Shanghai Natural Science Foundation (09ZR1437300) and Key Technologies and Application Research and Develop of Shanghai (08DZ1500300). Prof. Ye Shuhua reviewed the manuscript. The authors would like to thank Dr. Junathan Li of the University of Waterloo, Canada and other reviewers for their reviews and helpful suggestions on this manuscript. The paperwork of this research was mainly completed at Shanghai Galileo Industries, Ltd.

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  1. Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 80 Nandan Road, Shanghai, 200030, China

    Zhigen Yang & Fengchun Shu

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  1. Zhigen Yang
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  2. Fengchun Shu
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Correspondence to Zhigen Yang .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Department of Geography, Universidad Alcala de Henares, Calle Colegios 2, Alcala de Henares, 22801, Spain

    Emilio Chuvieco

  2. , Department of Geography and Environmenta, University of Waterloo, University Avenue West 200, Waterloo, N2L 3G1, Canada

    Jonathan Li

  3. , Dept. Geography, Florida State University, Tallahassee, 32306, USA

    Xiaojun Yang

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Yang, Z., Shu, F. (2010). Monitoring Radial Tectonic Motions of Continental Borders Around the Atlantic Ocean and Regional Sea Level Changes by Space Geodetic Observations. In: Chuvieco, E., Li, J., Yang, X. (eds) Advances in Earth Observation of Global Change. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9085-0_11

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