New GPS speed field for the Euro-Mediterranean area

The study, signed by INGV, on the new GPS speed field for the Euro-Mediterranean area has been published in Annals of Geophysics. The work offers the most recent and complete solution of the horizontal and vertical displacement velocities of 1728 GPS stations located in Italy and surrounding areas, in the international reference system IGb08. The high number of GPS permanent stations offers unprecedented spatial and temporal coverage, which allows to study the deformations of this area where the interactions between the Eurasian and African plates are active. The study consisted in processing the GPS data collected since 1993 with three scientific software. In this way, three independent velocity fields were obtained which, when combined, provide researchers with a single validated solution. It is thanks to the continuous monitoring carried out with GPS networks and the analysis of long series of data that today researchers can study the temporal evolution of geodynamic and tectonic processes and their action on the territory. The work involved several researchers from the National Earthquake Center belonging to the Data Analysis Working Group for Geodesy.