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Monitoring Present-day Tectonic Motion in Papua New Guinea

The Geodynamics Group has been involved in a major long-term project to measure and model present-day tectonic motion in Papua New Guinea since the first GPS surveys there in 1990. The program is run in cooperation with the National Mapping Bureau, the Papua New Guinea University of Technology, Lae and the Rabaul Volcano Observatory. The monitoring network spans almost the entire country with particular dense network across the South Bismarck/Pacific Plate boundary in New Ireland and east New Britain. A similar program is being conducted in the Ramu-Markham Valley region by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
 
  NEW:    Duke of York Islands - Are They Sinking? Find out here
 
 
 
  Figure 1. First-order tectonic model of Tregoning et al. (1998). WL: Woodlark Plate; SB: South Bismarck Plate.
 
  Major field campaigns using modern P-code receivers have been conducted in 1996 and 1998 with additional site occupations each year since 1997. Velocities have been estimated at over 20 sites, leading to a first-order tectonic model for the region (Tregoning et al., 1998).
 
  Current research is concentrating on:
 

• identifying the deformation field between the South Bismarck and Pacific Plates
• measuring the velocity field along the northern coastline of New Guinea and throughout the Highlands
• establishing a monitoring network across the western end of the Bismarck Sea Seismic Lineation