JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 104, NO.

B12, PAGES 29,147-29,155, DECEMBER 10, 1999

The Amurian Plate motion and current plate kinematics

in eastern Asia

Kosuke Heki,• Shin'ichi

Miyazaki,
2HiroakiTakahashi,
3MinoruKasahara,
3
Fumiaki Kimata,4Satoshi
Miura,
sNikolayF.Vasilenko,
6
AlexeiIvashchcnko,
6andKi-DokAn7

Abstract. We useGlobalPositioningSystem(GPS) velocitydatato modeleasternAsianplate

kinematics. Out of 15 stationsin Korea,Russia,China,andJapanstudiedhere,threesites
consideredto be on the stableinteriorof the hypotheticalAmurianPlateshowedeastward
velocitiesas fastas-•9-10 mm/yrwith respectto the EurasianPlate. They werestationary
relativeto eachotherto within 1 mm/yr, andthesevelocityvectorstogetherwith thoseof a few
additionalsiteswereusedto accuratelydeterminethe instantaneous angularvelocity(Euler)
vectorof the AmurianPlate. The predictedmovementbetweenthe Amurianandthe North
AmericanPlatesis consistent with slip vectorsalongthe easternmarginof the JapanSeaand
Sakhalin,whichreducesthe necessityto postulatethe existenceof the OkhotskPlate. The Euler
vectorof the AmurianPlatepredictsleft-lateralmovementalongitsboundarywith the southChina
block,consistent with neotectonicestimates of the displacement
at the Qinlingfault,possiblythe
southernboundaryof the AmurianPlate. The AmurianPlateoffersa platformfor modelsof
interseismic strainbuildupin southwest Japanby the PhilippineSeaPlatesubduction at the
NankaiTrough. Slip vectorsalongthe Baikalrift, theboundarybetweenthe Amurianandthe
EurasianPlates,are largelyinconsistent with the GPS-basedEuler vector,suggesting an intrinsic
difficultyin usingearthquake slipvectorsin continentalrift zonesfor suchstudies.

1. Introduction along their boundariessuch as magnetic anomaliesat mid-

The tectonicsof easternAsia is characterizedby two major
factors,subductionof oceanicplates such as the Pacific Plate
(PA) andthe PhilippineSeaPlate(PH) and eastwardexpulsion
of relativelysmallcontinentalplatescausedby the collisionof
India with Eurasia [Molnar and Tapponnier, 1975].
Zonenshainand Savostin[ 1981] first proposedthe existenceof
one such plate, the Amurian Plate (AM), coveringnortheast
China,the Koreanpeninsula,the JapanSea,andthe southeastern
part of Russia,on the basisof regionaltectonicsand seismicity.
In Japanit overridesPH along the Nankai Trough, subducts
beneaththe North American Plate (NA) or the Okhotsk Plate
(OK), another plate suggestedby Zonenshainand Savostin
[ 1981], alongthe easternmarginof the JapanSea [Tamakiand
Honza, 1985], andpossiblycollideswith the northeast Japanarc
in the centralpart of Japan. Angularvelocity(Euler) vectorsof marginwith the EurasianPlate (EU), and by reinterpreting
majorplatesworldwidehavebeendeterminedwith dataobtained
•Division of EarthRotation, National
AstronomicalObservatory,to EU as small as-1 mm/yr. As suggested
Mizusawa,Iwate,Japan.
2Geographical SurveyInstitute,
Tsukuba,
Ibaraki,
Japan.
3Hokkaido University,
Sapporo,Hokkaido,
Japan.
4Nagoya University,
Nagoya, Aichi,Japan.
5Tohoku University,
Sendai, Miyagi,
Japan.
6Institute
of MarineGeology andGeophysics,RussianAcademy
of Positioning System (GPS), and Doppler orbitographyand
Science,Far EasternBranch,YuzhnoSakhalinsk,Russia.
7NationalGeography Institute,
Suwon, Kyonggi,
Korea.
Copyright1999by theAmericanGeophysical Union.
Papernumber 1999JB900295.
0148-0227/99/1999JB900295509.00
oceanicridges,transformfault strikes,and interplateearthquake
slip vectors[Minster and Jordan, 1978; DeMets et al., 1990].
However, this method has not been effective for eastern Asian
platesbecausetheir boundariesmay be diffuse,andthe relatively
sparseseismicityhas not yielded enoughinterplateearthquake
slip directiondata.
Euler vectorsfor plateswith limited kinds of data (e.g., only
slip directions)are often indirectlyestimatedrelying on the
closureof adjacentplate motioncircuits[e.g., Seno, 1977]. in
thisway,Senoet al. [1996]concluded
thatthe OK canbe
distinguishedfrom NA (argumentsby Seno et al. [1996] are
based on the absenceof AM, and Wei and Seno [1998] later
proposedAM's existence). With a similarapproach,Wei and
Seno [1998] determined the Euler vector of AM using
earthquakeslip vectorsalong the Baikal rift, AM's northern
the
earthquakesin the easternmargin of the Japan Sea and the
Nankai Trough, as AIvI-OK and AM-PH, respectively. They
found an AM-EU Euler pole in southernSiberiawith a small
rotationrate that predictseastwardmovementin Korea relative
by Senoand Wei
[1998], they rely primarily on slip direction data, and their
solutionis not stronglyconstrained.
Space geodetictechniques,such as very long baseline
interferometry(VLBI), satellite laser ranging (SLR), Global
radiopositioning integratedby satellite(DORIS) are startingto
providea new type of data,horizontalvelocitiesof observing
stations. Analysis of these data has demonstratedthat
movementsof majorplatesover a geodetictime window(a few
years)are consistent with thoseaveragedover a few millionsof
years[Heki, 1996; Sengoku,1998; Larsonet al., 1997; Crdtaux
et al., 1998]. These data are useful especiallyfor ill-posed

29,147
29,148 HEKI ET AL.: AMURIAN PLATE MOTION

cases of Euler vector determinations,e.g., the AM-EU case,
becausethey providevelocities(i.e., bothdirectionsandrates)at
necessary pointson the platein question. Othervirtuesare that
they do not requireexactknowledgeof plateboundaries andthat
they canevenlet us drawthe plateboundarywhenthe pointsare
denselydistributed.
The JapanesenationwideGPS array GPS Earth Observation
Network (GEONET) [Tsuji et al., 1995; Miyazaki et al., 1996,
1997], composedof nearly 1000 permanentGPS observing
stations,is startingto revealthe interseismic crustaldeformation
field in the Japanese islands. However,an understanding of the
plate tectonic setting outside Japan, including the possible
existenceand kinematicsof AM and OK, is indispensable to
properinterpretationof the results. As suggested by Ishibashi
[ 1995], the majorityof recentlargeearthquakes in Japanseemto
haveoccurredalongthe easternboundaryof AM. Clarification
of its kinematics is important to discuss recurrence of
earthquakes alongthe easternmarginof the JapanSea,aswell as
the distributionof the seismiccouplingin theNankaiTrough.
In this article,at first we examinevelocitiesof GPS pointsin
easternAsia to test for the AM's existence. If points in the
region hypothesizedas AM move relative to EU and do not
movewith respectto eachother,we will estimatethe AM's Euler
vectorand compareits relativevelocityalongthe boundarywith
availablegeophysicaldata.
2. New GPS Sites and Data Analysis
We analyzeddatafrom severalGPS sitesin easternAsia with
time spanslongerthan a year shownin Figure la. In Korea the
National GeographicalInstitutehasbeenoperatinga GPS station
at Suwon (SUWN), •50 km south of Seoul, since 1995.
AnotherGPS stationin Taejon(TAEJ), •200 km southof Seoul,
contributesto the InternationalGPS Service for Geodynamics
(IGS). In China we analyzedGPS datafrom threeIGS points,
Xi'an (XIAN), Shanghai(SHAO), and Wuhan (WUHN). In
Russia, in addition to an IGS site in Irkutsk (IRKT) and a
WesternPacificIntegratedNetwork (WING) [Kato et al., 1998a]
GPS site in Vladivostok (VLAD), GPS data are obtainedfrom
receiverswe deployed in Oxa (OXA) and Yuzhno Sakhalinsk
(YUZH), Sakhalin. We also analyzeddata from five GEONET
stationsin northem Kyushu (0087 and 0091) and the Chugoku

140' 60'

40'

?^

40'

30'

/.• GP$-
120' 130' 140'

Figure 1. (a) Velocitiesof GlobalPositioning

System(GPS)pointswithrespect to EU andtheir 1c•errorellipses.
Darkandlightshadedarrowsarethoseobtained by ourselves
andbyLi et al. [ 1998],respectively.Thenorthern
boundary of AM, afterWeiandSeno[ 1998],is shownwitha solidline.(b) TheGPSvelocities at Tsukuba,Japan,
andShanghai, China,arecompared withthoseobtainedby verylongbaseline interferometry
(VLBI) [Heki,1996].
Error ellipsesalsoindicate1c•uncertainties.
 HEKI ET AL.'
district(0073, 0074, and 0075), southwestJapan. Data from
the Tsukuba(TSKB) IGS stationin northeastJapanare also
analyzedin orderto compareitsvelocitywith VLBI results.
Out of these stations, SUWN, TAEJ, and VLAD are
considered to be on the stable interior of AM. IRKT, on the
westernflank of the Baikal riff, is just beyondAM's boundary
with EU. SHAO and WUHN lie on the southChina block (SC)
being extrudedeastwardslightlyfasterthan 1 cm per year with
respectto EU [Holt et al., 1995; Peltzer and Saucier, 1996], and
XIAN liesjust north of the Qinling fault, which is the eastward
extensionof the Altyn Tagh fault and boundsSC from the block
north of it [Peltzer et al., 1985]. Since the easternmargin of
AM is ambiguousnear Sakhalin, it is not clear at the moment
whether OXA and YUZH are on AM or NA (OK). The five
GEONET stations and TSKB are on AM and NA (OK),
respectively,but their velocitiesare affectedby elastic strain
causedby the subduction of PH andPA.
GPS data were analyzedusingthe precisepoint positioning
techniqueof the GIPSY/OASIS software[Zumbergeet al., 1997].
Figure 2 showsthe time seriesof horizontalpositionof TAEJ,
Korea. From these time series we estimated of AM not coveredby our points.
site velocities
accurateto -•1-2 mm/yr or better(theseoriginalerrors,obtained
a posteriorifrom the dispersionof the datapointsaroundthe best
fit lines, are shownin parentheses in Table 1). GPS satellite 3. Estimation
orbits are based on International Terrestrial Reference
(ITRF), whosekinematicpart is adjustedto matchwith the no-
net-rotation(nnr)-NUVELla plate motion model [Argus and
Gordon, 1991; DeMets et al., 1994]. Site velocitiesobtained
from such time series are converted to those relative to the stable
partof EU by subtracting the absoluterotationof EU.
There are two factorsthat may make actualuncertaintiesof
the estimatedsite velocitieslarger than those inferred by the
simple linear regression. The first one is the systematic
behaviorof daily coordinatesolutionsotherthan linear changes.
In fact, we can see patternsof variousperiodswith amplitudes
from a few millimetersto 1 cm aroundthe bestfit linesin Figure
2, possiblycausedby, for example,atmospheric delaygradients
[MacMillan, 1995] and otherfactorsnot properlymodeledin the
data analysissoftware. In estimatingsite velocitieswe assume
that individualdataare statisticallyindependent,and so presence
of such a correlation makes us underestimatethe velocity
uncertainties[Mao et al., 1999]. The other factor comesfrom
the inconsistencyof the ITRF kinematicreferenceframeand the
nnr-NUVELla plate motionmodelin easternAsia. This arises
because we did not use fixed references within the stable interior
oo TAEJ
= 0
• -5o
' I
1996 1997 1998
Year
Figure 2. Daily horizontalpositionsof Taejon,Korea,-•1995-
1998 with 1(5 error bars. Solid lines are the best fit lines for the
temporal changes of the east and north components. The
variationsof the coordinatesare basedon the kinematicpart of
the InternationalTerrestrialReferenceFrame (ITRF).
AMURIAN PLATE MOTION 29,149
of EU but simplysubtracted
the EU rotationfrom the raw
velocities of the GPS sites. To evaluate such additional errors,
we compare ourvelocities withthosederivedusingVLBI [Heki,
1996]at two of the sites,Shanghai,
China,andTsukuba,Japan
(Figurelb). The VLBI resultsare obtainedvery differently;
thatis, no satelliteorbitinformationis used,time spansaremuch
longer, and consistency with the plate motion model is
performed in a globalscale[Heki,1996],andsotheagreement
of thesetwo pairsof velocities
wouldgivean objectivemeasure
of suchvelocityuncertainties.We adopt1.1 mm/yr,the root-
mean-squarevalue of the differencesin the horizontal
components of thetwovelocitypairs,astheerrorto be addedto
the original velocityuncertainties.The errorsmade more
realisticby addingthis errorare givenwithoutparentheses in
Table 1 and are used to estimate Euler vectors.
Figurel a includesvelocityvectorsof two GPS stationson
AM, Changchun(CHCH) and Tianjin (TNJN). They are
reportedby Li et al. [1998] withoutinformationon velocity
uncertainties,
but their observingtime spanslongerthan 1 year
suggest
thattheycanbe usedassupplementary
datain theparts
of the AM Euler Vector
Frame
Three points on the stable part of AM, namely, SUWN,
TAEJ, and VLAD, are found to move by-•9-10 mm/yr toward
E-ESE (Figure l a). Such velocities are faster than those
predictedby Weiand Seno[ 1998]by an orderof magnitudeand
deflectedclockwiseconsiderablyfrom the predictions. These
threepointsdo not haveappreciablemovements relativeto each
other and are treatedhere as the core stationsin estimatingthe
Euler vector of AM. Their spatialcoverageis, however,not
large enoughto resolveaccuratelythe pole positionand the
rotation rate. Hence we add two more points, YUZH and
XIAN, that do not move with respectto the core sites(i.e., we
rely primarily on GPS resultsto discernpointswithin AM).
XIAN is in the Weihe grabenat the southerntip of the Ordos
block, and the absenceof conspicuous faultsdividingthis block
from AM [seePeltzerand Saucier,1996, Figure2] suggests that
the block movessimilarlyto AM. XIAN is only a few tensof
kilometersnorth of the Qinling fault, the northernboundaryof
SC [Zhanget al., 1995]. However,if the lockingdepthof the
fault is not much larger than 10-15 km, the buildup of elastic
strainbetweenthe blockswould affectthe velocityat XIAN less
than 1 mm/yr. YUZH is eastof the presumedAM-NA (OK)
boundaryin Figure l a, but geologicaland seismological records
are not decisiveenoughto draw a clearboundarythere. Here
we assumethat the five sites, SUWN, TAEJ, VLAD, XIAN, and
YUZH, are within AM and usethem for the inversion.
The southwardvelocitycomponentof thesesitesincreases to
the east,implyinga moderateclockwiserotationof AM, opposite
to the counterclockwisesensesuggestedby Zonenshainand
Savostin [1981] and Wei and Seno [1998]. Horizontal site
velocitiesare the vectorcrossproductsof the Euler vectorand
'
the GPS point positionvectors,and threecomponents of the
Euler vector can be estimatedby the linear least squares
inversion [see, e.g., Heki, 1996]. Here we used the five
velocitiesand their observationalerrors(Figure 3a). The pole
positionwas well constrained (Figure3b), with the weighted
root-mean-square (WRMS) of the postfitvelocityresidualsas
small as 0.39 mm/yr. Sites CHCH and TNJN,. which are not
used in the inversion, seem to move consistentlywith the
estimated movement of AM. IRKT on the EU side of the
 29,150 HEKI ET AL.: AMURIAN PLATE MOTION

Table 1. Velocitiesof SpaceGeodeticStationsWith Respectto the EurasianPlate

Station Period Velocity,mm/yr Error,"
mm/yr
Name Latitude,Longitude, From To North East North East Plate
oN oE

GPS PointsAnalyzedin ThisStudy

SUWN 37.3 127.1 April 30, 1995 June9, 1998 -2.7 8.4 1.2 (0.4) 1.3 (0.7) AM
TAEJ 36.4 127.4 April30, 1995 June9, 1998 -3.2 8.4 1.2 (0.4) 1.3 (0.6) AM
VLAD 43.2 131.9 Feb. 9, 1996 Oct. 2, 1997 -4.4 8.7 1.6 (1.1) 1.9 (1.6) AM
XIAN 34.4 109.2 July 11, 1996 April 21, 1998 -0.5 9.1 1.4 (0.9) 1.9 (1.5) unknown
YUZH 47.0 142.7 July28, 1995 July30, 1997 -6.0 7.4 1.4 (0.9) 1.8 (1.4) unknown
GEONET 0073 35.5 133.7 July 17, 1995 June9, 1998 0.0 4.0 1.2(0.5) 1.4(0.8) AMb
GEONET 0074 35.4 133.1 July 17, 1995 June9, 1998 0.0 3.6 1.2(0.5) 1.4(0.8) AMb
GEONET 0075 35.0 132.2 July 17, 1995 June9, 1998 0.8 4.3 1.2(0.5) 1.4(0.8) AMb
GEONET 0087 33.7 130.5 July 17, 1995 June9, 1998 -3.5 3.4 1.2(0.5) 1.4(0.9) AMb
GEONET 0091 33.5 129.9 July 17, 1995 June9, 1998 -3.6 7.1 1.3(0.6) 1.5(1.0) AM•
IRKT 52.2 104.3 Oct. 3, 1995 June9, 1998 -0.8 6.8 1.3(0.6) 1.4(0.8) EUb
OXA 53.6 142.9 July25, 1995 Aug. 15, 1997 -5.6 -1.0 1.5 (1.0) 1.6 (1.2) unknown
SHAO 31.1 121.2 April 30, 1995 June9, 1998 -3.9 12.3 1.2 (0.4) 1.4 (0.8) SC
TSKB 36.1 140.1 April 30, 1995 June9, 1998 2.2 -21.0 1.1(0.3) 1.2(0.5) NA(OK)•
WUHN 30.5 114.4 Jan. 25, 1996 June9, 1998 -5.2 11.8 1.2 (0.5) 1.5 (1.0) SC

Supplementary
GPSData
TNJN½ 38.9 117.3 -1.7 10.9 ...d ...d
CHCH½ 43.6 125.4 -1.9 11.4 ...a ...a AM
Taipeie 25.0 121.5 July1995
r Oct.1996
r -5.2 17.1 0.9 1.4 SC
VLBI Data From Heki [1996]
Seshan25 30.9 121.2 April 10, 1988 Aug. 12, 1992 -4.2 10.3 1.2 1.2 SC
Tsukuba 35.9 140.1 July19,1984 Aug.1,1991 2.7 -21 1.4 1.3 NA(OK)b
Abbreviationsare AM, the Amurian Plate;EU, the EurasianPlate;OK, the OkhotskPlate;NA, the North AmericanPlate;
SC, the southChinablock;VLBI, verylongbaselineinterferometry;
GPS,GlobalPositioning
System.
Valuesin parentheses
forGPSpointsanalyzed
byusdenote
rawerrorsobtained
bylinearregression.
Velocity
possibly
affected
byneighboring
plates.
½DatafromLi et al. [1998].
Errorsnotavailable.
DatafromKaroet al. [ 1998a].
Exactdatesnotavailable.

Baikalriff, oneof thebestconstrained partsof theAM boundary, relative velocitiesof GPS pointsand the velocityof Tsukuba
moves in the same direction as AM with a somewhat smaller rate with respectto the stablepart of EU obtainedby VLBI [Heki,
(6.8 mm/yr). Since seismicityis relatively low and no major 1996]. We thusobtainedthe AM-PH Euler vectorof (44.0øS,
active faults are known in the northwestern flank of the Baikal 24.3øW, 1.482 deg/Myr).
rift [see,e.g., Calais et al., 1998, Figure 1], mostof the IRKT
motionwouldbe dueto of the extensional elasticstrainingneara 4. Discussion
divergentplate boundarybetweenrifting episodes[Heki et al.,
4.1. Relative Movements With the South China Block
19931.
The AM-EU Euler vectors we obtained are summarized in The regionnorth of the E-W trendingQinling fault hasbeen
Table 2. Reflectingthe moderateclockwiserotation,the poles vaguelyreferredto as the north China block [e.g., Zhang et al.,
were estimated far to the south of the Amurian Plate in contrast 1995]. The XIAN velocityobtainedin this studyas well as the
to those in northern Siberia reported in earlier studies distributionof activefaultssuggests thatAM extendsasfar south
[Zonenshainand Sarostin, 1981; Wei and Seno, 1998]. The as the Qinling fault, although velocities at more points are
obtained AM-EU Euler vector was combined with the EU-NA needed to rule out the possibility that the velocity field is
Euler vectorof NUVEL l a [DeMetset al., 1994] to calculatethe complicatedthereand that the XIAN velocitycoincidedwith the
AM-NA Euler vectorof (77.9øS, 16.2øE,0.226 deg/Myr). In AM velocityby chance. Preliminaryresultsof the northChina
orderto derivethe AM-PH Eulervector,it is inappropriate to use GPS networkof-90 sitesby Zhao et al. [1997] showscrustal
the EU-PH Euler vector of Seno et al. [1993], by whom deformationof not more than a coupleof millimetersper year
earthquakesat the Nankai Troughwere treatedas thoseof EU- over a broadareacoveringfrom Ordosto the Yellow Seacoast.
PH. Hence we use the one reportedrecentlyby Kotake et al. HenceAM seemsto extendas far southas the Qinling fault, as
[1998], who derived the EU-PH Euler vector directly using far as current crustal movements are concerned.
 HEKI ET AL.: AMURIAN PLATE MOTION 29,151

100 ß [1998a], which is not usedin the inversion,is found to be fairly

a •o.• 12o
ø 14o' consistentwith the obtainedSC movement. SC is predictedto
rotate counterclockwiseabout Euler pole north of Sakhalin,
resulting in 11.5 mm/yr eastwardmovement and 6.0 mm/yr
southwardmovement south of the Qinling fault near XIAN.
This eastwardmovementis fasterthan the 8.4 mm/yearthat the
AM-EU Euler vectorpredictsnorth of the fault, consistentwith
the left-lateralstrike-slipmovementof the E-W trendingQinling
fault [Peltzeret al., 1985], althoughthe rate is somewhatsmaller
thanthe time-averaged rate of 7.2 + 2.2 mm/yrsuggested by the
offsetsof entrenchedrivers acrossthe Qinling fault near Xi'an
[Zhang et al., 1995]. Significantsouthwardmovementof SC
relative to AM near Xi'an is also consistent with the NW-SE
crustal extensionat a graben near Xi'an, althoughthe rate is
larger than 2.0 + 2.5 mm/yr toward N I40øE estimatedfrom
seismicprofilesby Zhang et al. [ 1995].

4.2. Baikal Rift and StanovoyMountains

The locationof and relativemotionon the AM-EU boundary

are best constrainedalong the Baikal rift and in the Stanovoy
mountains. Our estimated AM-EU Euler vector suggests
almost E-W divergencealong the Baikal rift and left-lateral
strike-slipmovementalong the boundaryeast of it (Figure 5).
The slip vectorsof 13 EU-AM earthquakes alongthis boundary
listed by Wei and Seno [ 1998] showa bimodaldistribution;four
of themtrendnearlyE-W, and the resttrendNW-SE (Figure 6a).
-30' - The predictedAM-EU relative motion directionsare consistent
only with the former group. The AM-EU Euler pole by Wei
and Seno [ 1998] is placedto explaintheseslip vectorsandhence
betterexplainsthesedatathanours.
In Figure 6a are plotted 10 GPS point velocitiesobtained
.60'" by campaign-based GPS observations aroundLake Baikal over 4
yearsby Calais et al. [1998] (originally,they fixed Irkutsk,but
Figure 3. (a) Among the GPS velocitiesshownas thick shaded we addedthe IRKT velocity and its error in Table 1 to make
arrows, those used to estimate the AM-EU Euler vector are themrelativeto EU). The directionsof the velocityvectorsare
plottedtogetherwith thin solid arrows,which are the velocities more consistent with the AM-EU Euler vector obtained here than
predicted by the estimated AM-EU Euler vector. Five with the earthquakeslip vectors. The inconsistency is therefore
horizontal velocities at SUWN, TAEJ, VLAD, XIAN, and not due to the detachmentof the Baikal region from AM, but
YUZH are used for inversion. Thin shaded arrows show
would imply an inherentproblemin usingslip directiondata in
velocitiespredicted by theestimated
AM-EU Eulervectorat grid
continentalrift zone for Euler pole determinations. Recent
pointsconsidered to be on AM. (b) Estimatedpositionof the
comparison alongthe EastAfricanRift betweenslip vectorsand
Eulerpoleandits 1{•errorellipse.
the Somali Plate velocity derived by spacegeodesysuggested
that slip directionsare controlledmoreby the rift geometry(i.e.,
slip vectorstend to be normal to the rift axis) than the plate
The observedvelocitiesof SHAO and WUHN, on the south motion [Chen et al., 1998]. They speculatedthat such an
China(SC) block,relativeto EU areverysimilarto the velocity inconsistencycan be explainedby the idea that when rock has
field solution3 of Holt et al. [1995] derivedusingearthquake preexisting faults, slip on these faults is favored over the
strain rates within central and eastern Asia. These two stations formation of a new fracture. Moreover, the Euler vector of Wei
hardly move relative to one another,and we estimatedthe SC- and Seno [ 1998] mispredictsthe velocitiesof the threecoreGPS
EU Euler vectorusingthesetwo vectors(Table 2). Figure4 stationson AM reportedhere; they are differentin azimuthsby
showsthe Euler pole positionsand predictedvelocities(with -30ø-45 ø andby an orderof magnitudein lengths(Figure6b).
respectto EU) of points on SC along with the AM movement Calais et al. [1998] suggestedthat the crustalextension
derivedin this study. The velocityof Taipei after Kato et al. rate of the Baikal rift zone is 4.5+1.2 mm/yr in a WNW-ESE

Table 2. EulerPolePositions
andRotationRatesEstimated
UsingGPSData
PlatePair Pole AngularRate,deg/MyrErrorEllipse,deg
LatitudeLongitude to {•o IJmaxIJmin•m•x GPSPointsUsedforInversion

AM-EU 22.3ø S 106.6øE -0.091 0.016 20.5 3.5 19.3 SUWN,TAEJ,VLAD, XIAN, andYUZH
SC-EU 61.2 øN 142.0ø E 0.206 0.123 23.3 2.2 38.7 WUHN and SHAO

Parameter
(maxis theazimuthof themaximumaxismeasured
clockwise
fromthenorth.
 29,152 HEKI ET AL.: AMURIAN PLATE MOTION

60' directionfrom a local GPS network. Our resultssuggestedthat

Irkutsk, their fixed reference, is not fixed to EU (i.e., crustal
extensionoccursNW of Irkutsk, too), and our EU-AM Euler
vector suggestsa "macroscopic" estimateof the extensionrate,
betweenpointswell separatedfrom the rift, of---1 cm/yr. The
time-averagedextensionrate in the Baikal rift zoneover the last
50' 30 Myr is consideredto be slowerthan I mm/yr [Zorin and
Cordell, 1991], and the currentfasterextensionrate impliesthat
AM acceleratedsometimepossiblyin the last few Myr. One
puzzlingfact is that althoughIRKT is on the EU sideof the rift,
IRKT movesrelativeto EU at slightlyfasterthan onehalf of the
AM-EU divergencerate at the rift. If this excesseastward
40'
movementwas significant(the excesscomponentis <2(5), there
might be someamountof extensiondistributedin a broadzone
northwestof the rift. The presentdensityof permanentGPS
pointsin northernAsia, however,doesnot allow us to drawany
conclusion on this issue.

30'

4.3. Eastern Margin of the Japan Sea and Sakhalin

The present study implied that YUZH's motion is
consistentwith its being on AM, suggestingthat the AM-NA
20' (OK) boundarylies somewhereeastof it. Movementssimilar
to YUZH are also found in the GEONET velocity field in
northernmost Hokkaido, where the eastward components
graduallydecreasetowardthe south[Tada et al., 1997; Kato et
al., 1998b]. This fact also suggeststhat the AM-NA (OK)
Figure 4. Predictedmotionsof AM (Figure 3a) and of SC
boundaryis fartherto the eastthan depictedin Figure l a. On
estimatedusing the velocities of SHAO and WUHN. Thin
shadedarrowsshowpredictedvelocitiesat grid points. Solid the other hand, OXA movesdifferentlyfrom AM (Figure 7a),
arrowsshowpredictedvelocitiesat GPS pointswhosevelocities and AM-NA (OK) boundary seemsto lie west of it in the
areusedfor the inversions. SC-EU(with 1(5errorellipse)and northernmostSakhalin. The detailed velocity field over the
SC-AM Euler pole positionsare shown with white circles. whole islandwill be clarifiedby the futuredeploymentof several
Velocityvectorof Taipeiis takenfromKatoet al. [ 1998a]. more GPS receivers in Sakhalin.

120' 140' 60'

40'

PH

Figure5. Movements of EU, NA (thispartcouldbeOK buttheAM-NA Eulerpolewasusedto calculate the

relativemovements in Figure5), andPH relativeto AM alongitsboundary areshownasthinshaded arrows.
Thickarrowswith 1(5errorellipsesarethevelocities
of GPSpointsasviewedfromAM. Whitecircleswithbars
showinterplateearthquake slipvectordirectionsalongtheseboundaries. Slipvectorsin the JapanTrench
(between PA andeitherNA or OK) arealsoshownhere. Slipdirection dataandtheiruncertainties
areafterSeno
et al. [ 1993, 1996]and WeiandSeno[ 1998].
 HEKI ET AL.: AMURIAN PLATE MOTION 29,153

movementof OK. For example,Riegel et al. [1993] advocated

110' 120' • that its southwardextrusionis causedby the convergingmotion
betweenNA and EU, and, in fact, additionof-•2-3 mm/yr right-
lateral movementin the easternmarginof the JapanSea would
deflect the convergencedirectionsup to 10ø counterclockwise,
resultingin a betterfit with the earthquake
data. However,the
slip vectorsare lesssensitiveto trench-normalvelocitiesadded
by incorporatingOK, so the overallmovementof OK therestill
remains unclear. Data in the Kuril Trench do not strongly
constrain the movement of OK either, because faster plate
50'

140' 145'
..

40'-

;0'

Figure 6. (a) Slip directionsof interplateearthquakes (white

circleswith bars,dataafter14/el andSeno[1998])alongtheAM-
EU boundary of theBaikalrift andthevelocities
of gridpointsin
AM predicted by our Euler pole (dark shaded arrows).
Velocities(relativeto EU) of GPSpointsin a localnetworkby
Calais et al. [1998] are shownwith solid arrows(with lo error
ellipses)alongwiththe IRKT velocity(a thickshaded arrow).(b)
GPSvelocitiesat thethreecoresites(TAEJ, SUWN, andVLAD) 45'
comparedwith thosepredictedby the AM-EU Euler vectorof
14/eland Seno [1998]. This map is drawnwith the Mercator
projection poleat theirAM-EU Eulerpolesothatthe predicted b I • I • I i I I
velocitieslie parallelwith the frame.
120
i Eastern
margin
of
the
Japan
Sea AM-NA
hisstud
DeMets [1992] suggested
that NA extendssouthto 41øN
fromanalysis of slip vectorsin the JapanandKuril Trenches.
Senoet al. [ 1996]alsoconfirmed thattheseslipvectors
canbe 90 .........................................
explainedequallywell with the NUVELI NA-PA Eu!er vector
andwiththeirownOK-PAEulervector. Senoet al. [1996],
however,
foundthatslipvectors
alongtheeastern
marginof the
JapanSeaand Sakhalinare not compatible
with the NUVELI 60
NA-EU Euler vector, and OK needsto exist to accountfor this I l

deviation
(AM wasnotassumed to existthere). In Figures
7b 40 45 50 55
we compareslipdirections
of earthquakesalongthiszone(data
Latitude
from Senoet al. [1996]) with thosecalculatedusingvarious
Euler vectors. There our AM-NA Euler vector offers a fit
Figure 7. (a) Velocitiesof grid pointsin AM with respectto NA,
slightlyworsethanthe EU-OK pole of Senoet al. [1996] but calculatedon the basisof the AM-NA Euler vector,are shownas
muchbetterthan the NUVEL1 NA-PA Euler pole (an F test thin shadedarrows. The AM-NA (OK) boundaryshownas a
showsthatthe improvement of the fit by adoptingthe poleof dashed line is tentative and should be revised on the basis of
Senoet al. [ 1996] insteadof our AM-NA poleis significant at future GPS surveyresultsin Sakhalin. Velocitiesat OXA and
the 95% confidence level). The introduction of AM reducesthe YUZH are plotted as those relative to NA. The star showsthe
slip vectordiscrepancy in the easternmarginof the JapanSea, epicenterof the 1995 north Sakhalinearthquake. Three slip
directiondata are also shown.(b) The slip directiondata along
which is one of the strongestreasonsto postulateOK's
existence. the easternmarginof the JapanSeaand Sakhalinare compared
with thosepredictedby the Euler polesof AM-NA (this study,
Thediffuseseismicbeltin theCherskiymountains,
Siberia, darkshadedline), EU-OK (Senoet al. [1996], light shadedline),
suggested
as the OK's northernmargin,canneverbe explained andEU-NA (NUVEL1, thin solidline). Slip directiondataand
by AM, andourstudydoesnotruleoutthepossibilityof a slow their uncertainties
areall afterSenoet al. [ 1996].
 29,154 HEKI ET AL.: AMURIAN PLATE MOTION

convergencethere makes the slip vectors less sensitiveto its either fixing an arbitrarysite within the arc or usingonly the
trench-parallelmovement. Figure 7a showsthat OXA moves relativemovementswithin the arc, leavingbehindthe eastward
southeastwardby -5 mm/yr with respectto NA. The east movementof the inner arc as a mystery. The five GEONET
componentcouldbe explainedby theNA's interactionwith AM, stations in Figure 5 move northwestwardrelative to AM,
but its south componentmay not be accountedfor without suggesting that the samekind of displacement as in the outerarc
assumingthe OK's existenceand its extrusiontowardthe Pacific prevailsalso in the inner arc. Herebywe proposethat AM
Ocean. However,it is possiblethat transientcrustalmovements shouldbe fixed as a referencewheninterpretingthe interseismic
following the May 28, 1995, Sakhalin earthquake(Mw= 7.0, velocityfield of southwest Japanin termsof the AM-PH plate
Figure 7a), detectedby interferometricsyntheticapertureradar convergence.
(InSAR) [S.Ozawa et al., 1999], affectedestimatesof the secular
movement of this GPS site (although there is no appreciable 5. Conclusions
nonlinearbehaviorin its movement). It is thereforepremature
to draw a decisiveconclusionon this issueat this stage. A In the presentstudywe concludethat,(1) The existenceof
reliabledetermination of the OK Eulervectorwill probablycome the AmurianPlatehasbeenconfirmedusingGPSvelocitydata.
from GPS observations in Kamchatkathatstarteda few yearsago (2) The Euler vector of the Amurian Plate has beenestimatedon
[Takahashiet al., 1997]. the basisof a posterioriplate boundaries. It is fairly different
The presentstudypredictsthat the convergence rate along from earlierstudies. (3) The resultingEulervectorpredictsthe
the easternmarginof the JapanSea(if assumedto be AM-NA) is Amurian Plate movement consistentwith geophysicaland
-16-18 mm/yr, which is fasterand more uniform (both in rate geologicalobservations of relativeplate movementsalong its
and direction)alongthe marginthansuggested by Weiand Seno boundary,with the exceptionof slipvectordatain theBaikalriPr.
[1998]. Severallarge earthquakeswith slips as large as 3 m, The existenceof the OkhotskPlateneedsto be examinedagain
e.g., the July 12, 1993, Hokkaido-Nansei-Oki earthquake in lightof thepresence of theAmurianPlate. (4) Determination
(Mw=7.6) [Kuge et al., 1996], have recentlyoccurredthere. If of the Amurian Plate parametershas paved the way for
this is the characteristicsize of the interplateearthquakes,they interseismic crustaldeformation studiesin southwest
Japan.
might recur every 200 years. Historic seismicactivity studies, Spacegeodeticobservations have potentialof revealing
however,suggestthat this is not the case [Senoet al., 1996]. kinematicsof tectonic plates or crustal blocks even when
One explanationis the existenceand the eastwardretreatof OK conventionalnongeodeticapproachesare not successful. In
that reducesthe convergence rate alongthat boundary. Another spite of difficultiesin deployingGPS receiversin someof the
explanation is that the seismic coupling coefficient there is regions, stemmingfrom political and accessibilityproblems,
significantly less than unity, like other subduction zones endeavors of researchers are reducing the numbers of
[Pacheco et al., 1993], which makes the recurrenceinterval geophysicallyinterestingregionswithout GPS measurements.
longeror visible earthquakessmaller[Heki et al., 1997;Heki and We will soon be able to fully discussthe plate tectonicsof
Tamura, 1997]. eastern Asia, a region whose plate kinematics are poorly
understood.
4.4. Nankai Trough
Acknowledgments. We thank Tstsuzo Seno (University of
Figure 5 showsthat the earthquakeslip vectorsalong the
Tokyo) for various discussions,St6phaneMazzotti (Ecole Normale
Nankai Trough are consistentwith thosepredictedby the AM- Sup6rieure)
for the preprint,Zhen-KangShen(UCLA) for unpublished
PH Euler vector derived here. The Euler vectors of PH derived GPSdatain northChina,andPo-FeiChen(Northwestern University)for
by Seno [1977] and Senoet al. [1993] have long beenusedas providinghis resultson the East African Riff. The GPS stationat
standards,but both of these studies did not postulatethe Vladivostokis established andmaintained by TeruyukiKato(University
existenceof AM andtreatedtheslipvectordataalongtheNankai of Tokyo) and Mikhail D. Gerasimenko (Institute of Applied
Mathematics,Russia). Critical reviewsby Jeff Freymueller,SethStein,
Troughas thoseof PH-EU. Philosophically, we needto revise and an anonymousreviewer improvedthe quality of the paper. A
the PH Euler vector,taking accountof the AM movement,but softwarepackage,GenericMappingTool (GMT), was usedto plot the
sucha revisionwould be fairly minor becauseAM's eastward figures.
movementof-1 cm/yr at the Nankai Troughdeflectsthe vector
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K. Heki, Division of Earth Rotation, National Astronomical
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(heki•miz.n ao.ac.jp)
M Kasahara,H. Takahashi,Instituteof SeismologyandVolcanology,
GraduateSchoolof Science,HokkaidoUniversity,Kita-10 Nishi-8 Kita-
ku, Sapporo,Hokkaido060-0810,Japan.(mkasa•eos.hokudai.ac.jp,
hiroaki@eos.hokudai. ac.jp)
F. Kimata,ResearchCenterfor SeismologyandVolcanology,
GraduateSchoolof Science,NagoyaUniversity,Chikusa-ku,Nagoya,
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A. Ivashchenko,N. F. Vasilenko,Instituteof Marine Geologyand
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S. Miyazaki, GeographyandCrustalDynamicsResearchCenter,
GeographicalSurveyInstitute,1 Kitazato,Tsukuba,305-0811, Japan.
(miyazaki•gsi-mc.go.jp)
(ReceivedJanuary13, 1999; revisedJune21, 1999;
acceptedAugust20, 1999.)