A new paper by Dr. Thomas Rockwell and others provides ongoing collision rates of the of the Central American Arc with the South American continent using campaign‐style Global Positioning System (GPS) surveys.
Global Positioning System Constraints on Active Crustal Deformation in Central Panamá
R. A. Bennetta, J. C. Spinlera, K. Comptona, T. K. Rockwellb and E. Gathc
aDepartment of Geosciences, University of Arizona, 1040 East Fourth Street, Tucson, Arizona 85721‐0077 U.S.A rab@geo.arizona.edu
bGeological Sciences, San Diego State University, San Diego, California 92182‐1020 U.S.A.
cEarth Consultants International, 1642 E. Fourth Street, Santa Ana, California 92701‐5148 U.S.A.
Introduction
The tectonic setting of central Panamá has been controlled primarily by the collision of the Central American Arc with the South American continent, beginning in Miocene time (e.g., Coates et al., 2004). Ongoing collision at a rate of about 25 mm/yr has been inferred using campaign‐style Global Positioning System (GPS) surveys from a sparse, long‐baseline network covering the collision zone (e.g., Trenkamp et al., 2002; Fig. 1). The central portion of the Panamá block (Figs. 1 and 2) is commonly described as a nondeforming microplate (e.g., Trenkamp et al., 2002; Bird, 2003; Argus et al., 2011). However, appreciable Pleistocene crustal deformation has been suggested in central Panamá based on an analysis of the landscape and paleoseismological trenches (Rockwell et al., 2010a), and is likely a consequence of ongoing collision diffusely absorbing a fraction of Cocos–Nazca–Caribbean–South America relative plate motion (Rockwell, Bennett et al., 2010).
