Global crustal movement and tectonic plate boundary deformation constrained by the ITRF2008

On the basis of the newly released International Terrestrial Reference Frame(ITRF2008) by the International Earth Rotation Service(IERS),a new global plate model ITRF2008 plate for the major plates is established.This ITRF2008-derived model is analyzed in comparison with NNR-NUVEL1A model,which is mainly based on geological and geophysical data.The Eurasia and Pacific plates display obvious differences in terms of the velocity fields derived from the two plate motion models.Plate acceleration is also introduced to characterize the differences of the two velocity fields which obtained from ITRF2008-plate and NNR-NUVEL1A models for major individual plates.The results show that the Africa,South America and Eurasia plates are undergoing acceleration,while the North America and Australia plates are in the state of deceleration motion.