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 Gondwana Research 22 (2012) 1068–1072

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Gondwana Research
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/gr

Rigid Indian plate: Constraints from GPS measurements

P. Mahesh a,⁎, J.K. Catherine a, V.K. Gahalaut a, Bhaskar Kundu a, A. Ambikapathy a, Amit Bansal a,
L. Premkishore a, M. Narsaiah a, Sapna Ghavri a, R.K. Chadha a, Pallabee Choudhary b, D.K. Singh c,
S.K. Singh c, Subhash Kumar c, B. Nagarajan c, B.C. Bhatt d, R.P. Tiwari e, Arun Kumar f,
Ashok Kumar g, Harsh Bhu h, S. Kalita i
a
National Geophysical Research Institute (CSIR), Hyderabad 500007, India
b
Institute of Seismological Research, Ahmedabad, India
c
Survey of India, Hyderabad, India
d
Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Kodaikanal, Tamilnadu, India
e
Department of Geology, Mizoram University, Aizwal, India
f
Department of Earth Sciences, Manipur University, Imphal, India
g
Department of Physics, Tezpur University, Tezpur, India
h
Department of Geology, Sukhadia University, Udaipur, India
i
Department of Environmental Sciences, Guwahati University, Guwahati, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: We analyze GPS data from 26 sites located on the Indian plate and along its boundary. The large spatial coverage of
Received 27 September 2011 the Indian plate by these sites and longer data duration helped us in refining the earlier estimates of the Euler pole
Received in revised form 11 January 2012 for the Indian plate rotation. Our analysis suggests that the internal deformation of the Indian plate is very low (b1–
Accepted 13 January 2012
2 mm/year) and the entire plate interior region largely behaves as a rigid plate. Specifically, we did not infer any
Available online 14 February 2012
significant difference in motion on sites located north and south of the Narmada Son failed rift region, the most
Handling Editor: A. Aitken prominent tectonic feature within the Indian plate and a major source of earthquakes. Our analysis also constrains
the motion across the Indo-Burmese wedge, Himalayan arc, and Shillong Plateau and Kopili fault in the NE India.
Keywords: © 2012 International Association for Gondwana Research. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Global positioning system
India Plate motion
Euler pole
Lithospheric plate interiors
Failed rift regions

1. Introduction
Precise estimation of plate motion improves our understanding of
plate dynamics that governs plate boundary deformation, regional neo-
tectonics, earthquake occurrence processes, and stability of plate interior
regions. The geodetic methods, particularly the GPS measurement, have
become very effective tool in characterizing plate motion and crustal de-
formation. However, it requires good number of evenly distributed obser-
vation sites on and across the plate to constrain its motion. In the past
10 years, several permanent GPS sites have been established in the Indian
region. We use these data to estimate the plate motion and to assess the
rigidity of the plate. In the past, a few such efforts have been made. Most
of the previous studies used GPS data in the stable Indian region from two
sites only, namely HYDE and IISC (Sella et al., 2002; Bettinelli et al., 2006).
Hence these studies were confined to estimate the plate motion at global
scale and relative motion between two plates at plate boundaries. Jade et
al. (2007) used GPS data from five sites within the plate interior from
2003 to 2006. The data from two sites, namely, IISC at Bangalore and
DELH at Delhi, were for the period from 1997/98 to 2006. All the sites
used by them are located along a north–south transect and there is not
much coverage in the east–west direction. Banerjee et al. (2008) used
the most comprehensive data set from 12 GPS sites located in the Indian
plate interior. Along with the estimation of the Euler pole for the Indian
plate motion, they opined that the almost east–west trending Narmada
Son failed rift zone accommodates about 2±1 mm year− 1 of shortening
in the north–south direction. Here in this article, we analyze the GPS data
from more than 26 GPS sites in the Indian plate region (Fig. 1) to con-
strain the Indian plate motion, to assess the stability of the Indian plate
and to estimate the deformation in the plate boundary regions.
2. GPS data and analysis

⁎ Corresponding author. We processed the GPS data from continuous GPS sites of the Indian
E-mail address: mahesh.purushotham@gmail.com (P. Mahesh). National GPS network along with the campaign data of good quality and

1342-937X/$ – see front matter © 2012 International Association for Gondwana Research. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.gr.2012.01.011
 P. Mahesh et al. / Gondwana Research 22 (2012) 1068–1072 1069

Fig. 1. GPS site velocities in Indian reference frame. Relatively larger error ellipse at a few sites (e.g. at Delhi, DELH) is due to less duration of the data. Note very low deformation
within the plate interiors. NSFR, Narmada Son failed rift; PGFR, Pranhita Godavari failed rift; SP, Shillong Plateau; KF, Kopili fault; IBW, Indo-Burmese wedge. Earthquakes (M ≥ 4)
are shown with pink circles from the USGS catalogue.

longer duration collected from the Indian plate interior regions. The pole gives a velocity of 54.05 ± 0.1 mm year − 1 towards N49.4° at
campaign mode GPS sites are occupied annually for at least 3 days. HYDE IGS site. The pole is located about 8° east of the previous esti-
The continuous and campaign mode GPS observations of 26 sites mates of the Euler poles and hence closer to the Indian plate. At the
(Fig. 1) from 2003 to 2011 are processed together with 21 IGS sites same time there is about 13% increase in the angular velocity as com-
(namely, BAHR, COCO, DARW, DGAR, GUAM, HYDE, HRAO, IISC, KARR, pared to that by Banerjee et al. (2008) (Table 1). To assess the reliabil-
KIT3, KUNM, LHAS, LHAZ, MALD, MALI, PERT, POL2, SELE, SEY1, ity of our estimated pole, we estimated the average root mean square
WUHN and URUM) surrounding the Indian plate and available from residuals after subtracting the predicted motion of the Indian plate
the Scripps Orbital and Positioning Centre (SOPAC). We used GAMIT, corresponding to the estimated Euler pole from the GPS derived ve-
version 10.4 (Herring et al., 2010a,b), to estimate the time series of locity for the sites in the stable India plate region (Fig. 1). We did it
site coordinates and their velocities. The site position estimates and for all the previous studies using their estimates of site velocity and
their rates were estimated in ITRF2008 (Altamimi et al., 2011) by stabi- Euler pole. We found that in our case the average residual with
lizing more stable continuous sites and core IGS reference sites using 0.76 mm year − 1 was the minimum. In case of Banerjee et al. (2008)
GLOBK, GLORG (Herring et al., 2010a,b). Coseismic corrections were and Jade et al. (2007), we found average residual as 1.71 and
applied to remove the coseismic offsets from the GPS sites that were 3.47 mm year − 1, respectively. Such an analysis assured us that the
affected by the 26 December 2004 Sumatra–Andaman earthquake
(Mw 9.2). In the supplementary figure the correction applied to IISC
Table 1
time series is demonstrated. Station velocity uncertainties are estimated Comparison of Euler poles for Indian plate motion.
using site specific estimate of white noise and an assumed random walk
noise of 0.75 mm year− 1/2 (Mao et al., 1999). The velocity uncertainties Euler pole Latitude Longitude Angular velocity
Reference °N °E Degree/Myr
are not significantly affected by applying the random walk. Indian refer-
ence frame is realized by determining the plate rotation parameters that India/ITRF2008 51.4 ± 0.07 8.9 ± 0.8 0.539 ± 0.002
Present study
minimize the velocities of 13 sites which include 10 continuous and 3
India/ITRF2000 52.9 ± 0.21 − 0.2 ± 3.7 0.499 ± 0.008
campaign mode GPS sites, all representing the stable Indian plate located Banerjee et al. (2008)
far away from the deforming boundary regions. India/ITRF2000 51.7 ± 0.5 − 15.1 ± 1.5 0.469 ± 0.01
Jade et al. (2007)
3. Results India/ITRF2000 51.4 ± 1.6 − 10.9 ± 5.6 0.483 ± 0.01
Bettinelli et al. (2006)
India/ITRF2000 50.9 ± 5.1 − 12.1 ± 0.6 0.486 ± 0.001
We estimated the velocity at sites located on the Indian plate and Socquet et al. (2006)
estimated the Euler pole of Indian plate rotation by stabilizing the site India/ITRF1997 53.7 − 13.9 0.483
velocity of 13 sites on the stable India plate region. Our estimated Sella et al. (2002)
India/ITRF2000 53.1 2.2 0.519 ± 0.019
pole of rotation for the Indian plate is located at 51.41 ± 0.07°N,
SOPAC Website
8.97 ± 0.8°E with an angular velocity of 0.539 ± 0.002°/Myr. Such a
1070 P. Mahesh et al. / Gondwana Research 22 (2012) 1068–1072

Table 2
Estimated velocity at sites in ITRF08 and Indian reference frame.

Site ITRF 2008 Indian reference frame

Long. Lat. Ve Vn Sig.E Sig.N Ve Vn RHO

LUMA 94.475 26.22 37.78 23.36 0.14 0.13 − 3.07 − 13.95 0.007
IMPH 93.925 24.749 30.47 19.77 0.15 0.14 − 10.81 − 17.51 0.012
TZPR 92.78 26.618 41.14 26.78 0.13 0.12 0.95 − 10.42 0.011
AZWL 92.73 23.724 35.11 29.01 0.59 0.44 − 6.26 − 8.2 0.03
SHIL 91.885 25.566 39.26 30.93 0.29 0.26 − 1.13 − 6.21 0.01
GWHT 91.661 26.153 40.02 29.53 0.14 0.13 − 0.05 − 7.59 0.007
BHUB 85.792 20.263 37.9 37.55 0.16 0.15 − 3.21 1.11 0.018
ALHB 81.808 25.309 37.8 36.54 0.37 0.34 0.04 0.79 0.038
PLVM 81.645 17.273 40.48 35.37 0.36 0.31 − 1.06 − 0.36 0.061
GSIL 80.943 26.891 34.95 37.15 0.14 0.13 − 1.73 1.57 0.01
JBPR 79.876 23.129 39.09 34.29 0.23 0.21 0.68 − 1.08 0
TONK 79.602 19.51 39.31 34.9 0.3 0.27 − 0.83 − 0.41 0.048
HANL 78.973 32.779 28.11 28.91 3.44 3.31 − 4.52 − 6.26 0.049
HYDE 78.551 17.417 41.06 35.2 0.15 0.14 0.15 0.12 0.027
DEHR 78.055 30.325 33.9 34.07 0.25 0.25 0.06 − 0.88 0.028
RSCL 77.6 34.128 24.7 20.29 0.3 0.29 − 6.6 − 14.56 0.053
IISC 77.57 13.021 42.4 35.19 0.13 0.12 − 0.28 0.33 0.017
KDKL 77.465 10.232 43.92 34.49 0.28 0.24 0.13 − 0.35 0.021
BHOP 77.447 23.209 37.35 34.31 0.23 0.2 − 0.43 − 0.51 0.023
DELH 77.126 28.482 31.96 36.36 0.59 0.52 − 2.72 1.63 0.017
ARKW 73.939 17.23 40.62 34.63 0.19 0.17 0.44 0.71 0.011
PUNE 73.882 18.558 40.55 34.17 0.33 0.27 1.06 0.27 0.016
GOKL 73.727 17.4 40.48 34.17 0.13 0.12 0.42 0.31 0.011
UDAI 73.713 24.58 36.05 34.17 0.27 0.25 − 0.05 0.32 0.027
IITB 72.916 19.133 38.56 33.43 0.15 0.14 − 0.44 − 0.19 0.02
ISRG 72.66 23.215 36.13 32.35 0.21 0.19 − 0.53 − 1.2 0.013

IGS sites
DGAR 72.37 − 7.27 47.37 33.55 0.13 0.13 − 1.3 0.07 0.031
KIT3 66.885 39.135 27.76 4.91 0.11 0.11 3.79 − 26.77 − 0.03
SEY1 55.479 − 4.674 25.03 11.46 0.13 0.12 − 23.84 − 15.7 0.094
BAHR 50.608 26.209 30.54 29.99 0.15 0.14 0.69 5.13 − 0.012
MALI 40.194 − 2.996 25.45 16.52 0.2 0.18 − 23.09 − 2.89 0.15
HRAO 27.687 − 25.89 18.14 18.92 0.19 0.2 − 39.52 6.91 0.214
GUAM 144.868 13.589 − 9.9 5.71 0.13 0.12 − 61.81 − 20.35 − 0.169
DARW 131.133 − 12.844 35.51 59.87 0.12 0.11 − 5.86 28.17 − 0.065
KARR 117.097 − 20.981 38.9 58.41 0.11 0.11 − 0.8 22.84 − 0.059
PERT 115.885 − 31.802 39.41 57.08 0.13 0.12 5.19 21.29 − 0.045
WUHN 114.357 30.532 31.6 − 12.55 0.12 0.11 − 13.88 − 48.62 − 0.002
KUNM 102.797 25.03 30.56 − 19.23 0.13 0.12 − 13.06 − 56.58 0.006
COCO 96.834 − 12.188 45.29 52.89 0.17 0.15 − 0.89 15.48 − 0.072
LHAS 91.104 29.657 46.58 15.42 0.11 0.1 8.26 − 21.66 0.037
LHAZ 91.104 29.657 46.58 15.42 0.11 0.1 8.26 − 21.66 0.037
URUM 87.601 43.808 32.66 4.2 0.21 0.22 3.82 − 32.45 0.078
SELE 77.017 43.179 28.08 3.52 0.1 0.11 3.33 − 31.16 − 0.005
POL2 74.694 42.68 27.2 4.07 0.1 0.11 3.02 − 30.02 − 0.016
MALD 73.526 4.189 50.41 36.6 0.5 0.37 4.77 2.79 0.066

Euler pole estimated by us is the most appropriate and represents
plate motion all over the Indian plate. The velocities of sites in the stable
Indian region in Indian reference frame are quite small (Fig. 1 and
Table 2), suggesting low internal deformation of the plate interior
regions which is below the resolution of present day uncertainties asso-
ciated with the geodetic data (b1–2 mm/year). A few sites located near
the plate boundary region show differential movement consistent with
the convergence accommodated at that plate boundary (Figs. 1 and 2).
4. Discussions
4.1. Internal deformation of the plate interiors
The plate interior regions of the Indian plate experience minimum
deformation, which causes rare occurrence of earthquakes in these
regions. Important of these earthquakes that occurred in recent past
are the 1993 Latur earthquake (Mw 6.2), 1997 Jabalpur earthquake
(Mw 5.8), and 2001 Bhuj earthquake (Mw 7.6). The last two of
these earthquakes occurred in the failed rift regions within the stable
Indian plate. Occurrence of these earthquakes may imply rapid
deformation of Indian plate. Paul et al. (1995) reoccupied the triangu-
lation monuments of 1860s in south India using GPS and suggested
no significant shear strain. Using repeat GPS measurements of a few
sites in the stable India region, Paul et al. (2001) estimated north–
south shortening strain rate as low as 2–6 × 10 − 9/year. Recently,
Banerjee et al. (2008) tested the hypothesis that the Indian plate
motion can be described by two plates wherein the east west trend-
ing Narmada Son failed rift zone across the central India segments
the plate in two parts, although they found that such a model better
fit the data but statistically it was not significant (Banerjee et al.,
2008). We also tested the hypothesis of two plate model and found
that it does not improve the data fitting in any significant way and
hence we suggest that the Narmada Son failed rift zone or any other
fault or the failed rift in the Indian plate do not segment the plate in
two or more plates. Specifically, we did not find any significant
change in velocity in north–south direction (Fig. 2), i.e. across the
Narmada Son failed rift zone in the Indian plate. The Indian plate
motion can be best described by a single Euler pole and the plate be-
haves as a rigid plate with low strain accumulation which is below the
resolution of present day geodetic data (Figs. 1 and 3). We suggest
 P. Mahesh et al. / Gondwana Research 22 (2012) 1068–1072 1071

Fig. 2. A north–south transect showing north–south component of the site velocity in the Indian reference frame. All the sites within the plate interior regions (south of Delhi) show
velocity less than ±2 mm/year (shown with gray shading), suggesting that the plate behaves as a rigid plate and the strain accumulation rate, if any, is below the resolution of
present day GPS observations. There is no apparent deformation across NSFR. RSCL is located to the north of the Higher Himalaya and its site motion represents surface convergence
rate across the Himalaya. DEHR, though located in the Outer Himalaya, shows negligible velocity, suggesting strain accumulation on the subsurface detachment. Sites located in the
deforming NE India region are enclosed in a rectangle. Note relative motion between TZPR and GWHT suggesting motion across the Kopili fault. Relative motion between IMPH and
AZWL represents accommodation of part of the relative motion between India and Sunda plates. About 6 ± 1.5 mm/year of convergence is accommodated between Shillong plateau
and Indian plate.

that the occasional occurrence of earthquakes in the plate interiors
and in the failed rift regions is due to the localized deformation, prob-
ably caused by weak rheology, and such deformation does not affect
the velocity at sites located far from the earthquake region
(Mazzotti, 2007). Thus, although the failed rifts of the Indian plate
are the locales of earthquakes, they do not affect the Indian plate
motion and do not segment the plate in two or more plates.
4.2. Motion across plate boundary regions
4.2.1. Motion across the Indo-Burmese wedge
The predominantly northward motion of about 36 mm/year of the
India plate with respect to the Sunda plate along its eastern boundary
in the NE India (Socquet et al., 2006) is accommodated through
dextral motion along the Sagaing fault in the east and in the Indo-
Burmese wedge in the west. A few sites located in the Indo-Burmese
wedge indicate such motion. The plate boundary in the Indo-Burmese
wedge appears to be between Aizwal and Imphal sites and it accommo-
dates about 16 ± 2 mm year− 1 of dextral motion (Figs. 1 and 2) (Kundu
et al., submitted for publication). Such a motion is consistent with the
earthquake occurrence in the region (Kundu and Gahalaut, 2012).

4.2.2. Deformation in the Shillong Plateau region

Fig. 3. Residuals of site velocity in Indian reference frame for the sites located in the
stable Indian plate which are stabilized to estimate Euler pole of rotation for the Indian
plate. The circle represents velocity of ± 2 mm/year. Residual velocity at all the sites is
less than 2 mm/year and is close to 1 mm/year, which indicates that the Indian plate is
rigid and there is very little deformation in the plate interior regions and across major
tectonic structures.
The Shillong plateau is assumed to accommodate some of the
India–Eurasia plate motion which is evident from previous GPS mea-
surements (Jade et al., 2007; Banerjee et al., 2008), occurrence of the
great 1897 Shillong Plateau earthquake (Mw 8; Bilham and England,
2001) and low temperature thermometry data (Clark and Bilham,
2008). Previous GPS measurements suggested 4–7 mm/year southward
motion of the Shillong plateau in India fixed reference frame. We also
obtained a similar velocity (about 6±1.5 mm year− 1) of sites located
on and north of the Shillong plateau (Fig. 1). It is to be ascertained
whether the motion across the Shillong Plateau affects convergence in
the Himalayan region and whether the low seismicity in the Bhutan
region (immediately north of the Shillong Plateau) is due to such process
(Gahalaut et al., 2011).
4.2.3. Kopili fault
A prominent fault, referred as the Kopili fault, is located between
the Shillong Plateau and Mikir hills, the two main topographic
1072 P. Mahesh et al. / Gondwana Research 22 (2012) 1068–1072
features of the region. The approximately northwest–southeast ori-
ented lineament is considered to be seismically active and extends
up to the Himalaya in the north (Kayal et al., 2006). The two GPS
sites, GWHT and TZPR, separated by a distance of about 120 km, are
located on either sides of the Kopili fault. These sites show differential
motion of about 3.0 ± 1.5 mm year − 1 and imply dextral motion on
the northwest–southeast trending fault. The geodetically inferred
motion across the Kopili fault is consistent with the earthquake
focal mechanisms in the region. Two focal mechanism solutions are
available in the Harvard CMT catalogue corresponding to earthquakes
on October 5, 1999 (Mw 5.2) and February 23, 2006 (Mw 5.4) which oc-
curred close to the Kopili fault (within 25–30 km). Additionally, Kayal et
al. (2010) reported focal mechanism of an earthquake which occurred
on August 19, 2009 (Mw 5.1) on Kopili fault. All these focal mechanisms
are quite similar to each other and indicate dextral motion on the NW-
SE oriented nodal plane. Thus the GPS derived differential motion on
the Kopili fault is consistent with the earthquake focal mechanisms.
This is the first geodetic evidence in support of the active Kopili fault.
4.2.4. Himalayan arc
One of the sites (RSCL at Leh) is located north of the Higher Himalaya
and shows a motion of about 16.2 ± 0.2 mm year− 1 with respect to the
Indian plate. This rate is consistent with the estimate of Holocene rate of
convergence of about 18 mm year− 1 accommodated in the Himalaya
(Molnar, 1990; Bilham et al., 1997; Avouac, 2003). The other site
(DEHR) located in the Outer Himalaya shows negligible motion with
respect to India, suggesting that the detachment under the Outer and
Lesser Himalaya is locked and is accumulating strain (Banerjee and
Bürgmann, 2002) for future large Himalayan earthquake.
5. Conclusions
Our analysis of the GPS data from various sites located on the Indian
plate results in estimation of a new and improved Euler pole of rotation
for the Indian plate which is located at 51.44 ± 0.07°N, 8.9 ± 0.8°E with
an angular velocity of 0.539 ± 0.002°/Myr. We find that the internal de-
formation across the plate and across major structures within the plate
interior regions is very low (b1–2 mm/year) and the plate behaves as a
single rigid plate. Motion at sites located in the Indo-Burmese wedge
along the eastern boundary of the Indian plate suggests that part of
the India–Sunda motion is accommodated in the Indo-Burmese
wedge as dextral motion. The sites across the Shillong plateau show a
relative convergence of about 6 ± 1.5 mm year− 1 with respect to the
Indian plate. A well known fault in the region, the Kopili fault, also
shows dextral motion of 3 ± 1.5 mm year− 1. Sense of motion across
this fault is consistent with the earthquake focal mechanisms. Motion
at sites located in the Himalaya arc is consistent with the Holocene con-
vergence rate of about 18 mm/year and model of strain accumulation
on the Himalayan detachment.
Acknowledgements
Comments from Roland Bürgmann and two anonymous reviewers
helped us in improving the article. We acknowledge financial support
from Seismology Division, MoES. We thank Survey of India, Dehradun
for providing GPS data from several sites.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at doi:10.
1016/j.gr.2012.01.011.
View publication stats
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