Project helps constrain continental dynamics and seismic hazards

The Global Strain Rate Map project II‐8, initiated in 1998 by the International Lithosphere Program (ILP), provides constraints for understanding continental dynamics and for quantifying seismic hazards in general. To date, the Global Strain Rate Map (GSRM) model is a numerical velocity gradient tensor field solution (i.e.,spatial variations of horizontal strain rate tensor components and rotation rates) for the entire Earth surface [ Kreemer et al ., 2003]. The global model consists of 25 rigid spherical plates and ∼25,000 0.6°×0.5° deformable grid areas within the diffuse plate boundary zones which lie between these plates (e.g., western North America, central Asia, the Alpine‐Himalaya belt). This model provides an estimate of the horizontal strain rates, rotation rates, and velocity fields for the diffuse plate boundary zones as well as an estimate of the motions of the spherical caps.