GNSS Network and Velocity field of Georgia

Continental collisions play a significant role in the evolution of the Earth's continents, being responsible for many major mountain belts. There are two active continent-continent collisions today, India-Eurasia, and Arabia-Eurasia (AR-EU). Because of its young age (less then 30 Ma), limited spatial extent (~600 km across the entire collision zone), and less then 20 years of geodetic studies, the AR-EU continental collision zone offers the opportunity to determine the detailed kinematics of active deformation for the entire region of plate interaction, from the stable Arabian Plate in the south to the stable Eurasian Plate in the north. The Caucasus region is a broad zone of convergence that forms part of the Alpine-Himalayan collision belt. The Greater and Lesser Caucasus mountains roughly extend between the Caspian and Black seas, and are separated by an inter-mountain depression. The region is tectonically and structurally complex. Thus, quantifying the distribution of crustal strain within the collision zone, a principal objective of this research, is important both for clarifying our understanding of the dynamics of continental deformation, and for developing an improved physical basis for estimating and mitigating earthquake hazards in this rapidly developing region

We used the available GPS data throughout the collision zone obtained in the Caucasus region and enhanced the existed GPS network by new permanent stations. We performed trans-section GPS surveys particularly in the eastern part of the Caucasus mountains. This effort utilized and build a new GPS velocity field of 1994-2019. Our study provided new constraints on the eastern part convergence across the Greater Caucasus (Spatial distribution of active faults and their associated slip rates and locking depths) and eastern part of the Achara-Trialeti thrust belt system covering Mtkvari basin as well.