scholarly journals CARIB18: A Stable Geodetic Reference Frame for Geological Hazard Monitoring in the Caribbean Region

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 680 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guoquan Wang ◽  
Hanlin Liu ◽  
Glen Mattioli ◽  
Meghan Miller ◽  
Karl Feaux ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reference Frame ◽  
Vertical Direction ◽  
Differential Method ◽  
Plate Motion ◽  
Caribbean Region ◽  
Geological Hazard ◽  
International Gnss Service ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Regional Reference

We have developed a Stable Caribbean Reference Frame 2018 (CARIB18) using long-term continuous observations from 18 continuously operating Global Positioning System (GPS) stations fixed on the margins of the stable portion of the Caribbean plate. The frame stability of CARIB18 is approximately 0.7 mm/year in the horizontal direction and 0.9 mm/year in the vertical direction. A method that employs a total of seven parameters for transforming positional time series from a global reference frame (IGS14) to a regional reference frame is introduced. The major products from this study include the seven parameters for realizing CARIB18 coordinates and three-component site velocities of 250 continuous GPS stations (>3 years) with respect to CARIB18. Geological hazard monitoring using GPS has traditionally been performed using the carrier-phase differential method that requires single or multiple reference stations to be simultaneously operated in the field. CARIB18 allows for precise geological hazard monitoring using stand-alone GPS, which substantially reduces field costs and simplifies logistics for long-term geological hazard monitoring. Applications of CARIB18 in plate motion, post-seismic, and volcano monitoring and research are demonstrated in this article. The regional reference frame will be periodically updated every few years with more reference stations and longer periods of observations to mitigate the degradation of the frame over time and will be synchronized with the updates of the International GNSS Service (IGS) IGS reference frame.

scholarly journals Ulbe Bosma, The Making of a Periphery. How Island Southeast Asia Became a Mass Exporter of Labor. New York: Columbia University Press, 2019. ISBN 9780231188524 and ISBN 9780231547901

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Ulbe Bosma
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Caribbean Region ◽  
Columbia University ◽  
Asian Studies ◽  
Island Southeast Asia ◽  
Scant Attention ◽  
The Caribbean

Many books have been written about the incorporation of the Caribbean region, South Asia, Africa and Latin America into the global economy. Remarkably, few have dealt with Island Southeast Asia or Maritime Southeast Asia as a macro-region. For the Caribbean nations, it has been amply discussed how the legacies of the plantation economies consisted of meagre economic growth and massive unemployment. Conversely, scant attention has been given to the question how societies in Island Southeast Asia were turned into providers of cheap commodities and how this impacted their long-term development prospects. This silence is even more remarkable considering some striking parallels with Caribbean socio-economic trajectories. Today, emigration of millions is the fate of Island Southeast Asia, as it is for the Caribbean region. To break the silence and to invite further discussion I wrote The Making of a Periphery: How Island Southeast Asia Became a Mass Exporter. After reading the review by Dr Aguilar on this book in a previous issue of this journal, I felt that it could be worthwhile to highlight some of the main points of my argument about the peripheral integration of Island Southeast Asia in the global economy. I am grateful to the editors of the International Journal of Asian Studies for granting me the opportunity to do so.

scholarly journals GOM20: A Stable Geodetic Reference Frame for Subsidence, Faulting, and Sea-Level Rise Studies along the Coast of the Gulf of Mexico

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 350
Author(s):  
Guoquan Wang ◽  
Xin Zhou ◽  
Kuan Wang ◽  
Xue Ke ◽  
Yongwei Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Reference Frame ◽  
Time Window ◽  
Tide Gauge ◽  
Vertical Direction ◽  
Geodetic Reference Frame ◽  
Regional Reference ◽  
And Sea Level

We have established a stable regional geodetic reference frame using long-history (13.5 years on average) observations from 55 continuously operated Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) stations adjacent to the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). The regional reference frame, designated as GOM20, is aligned in origin and scale with the International GNSS Reference Frame 2014 (IGS14). The primary product from this study is the seven-parameters for transforming the Earth-Centered-Earth-Fixed (ECEF) Cartesian coordinates from IGS14 to GOM20. The frame stability of GOM20 is approximately 0.3 mm/year in the horizontal directions and 0.5 mm/year in the vertical direction. The regional reference frame can be confidently used for the time window from the 1990s to 2030 without causing positional errors larger than the accuracy of 24-h static GNSS measurements. Applications of GOM20 in delineating rapid urban subsidence, coastal subsidence and faulting, and sea-level rise are demonstrated in this article. According to this study, subsidence faster than 2 cm/year is ongoing in several major cities in central Mexico, with the most rapid subsidence reaching to 27 cm/year in Mexico City; a large portion of the Texas and Louisiana coasts are subsiding at 3 to 6.5 mm/year; the average sea-level-rise rate (with respect to GOM20) along the Gulf coast is 2.6 mm/year with a 95% confidence interval of ±1 mm/year during the past five decades. GOM20 provides a consistent platform to integrate ground deformational observations from different remote sensing techniques (e.g., GPS, InSAR, LiDAR, UAV-Photogrammetry) and ground surveys (e.g., tide gauge, leveling surveying) into a unified geodetic reference frame and enables multidisciplinary and cross-disciplinary research.

scholarly journals EVOLUTION OF REGIONAL RESPONSE PREPAREDNESS IN THE WIDER CARIBBEAN THROUGH RAC/REMPEITC-CARIBE: ENHANCING A LONG TERM CYCLE

2008 ◽  
Vol 2008 (1) ◽  
pp. 1117-1122
Author(s):  
Benjamin Couzigo ◽  
Brian Peter ◽  
Herbert Silonero
Keyword(s):  
Capacity Building ◽  
Central America ◽  
Oil Pollution ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Contingency Planning ◽  
Caribbean Region ◽  
Regional Centre ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Caribbean

ABSTRACT RAC/REMPEITC-Caribe is a United Nation'S Regional Activity Centre, established in 1994 by the International Maritime Organization and the United Nations Environment Program for the Caribbean Sea. The Centre exists to assists countries in the Wider Caribbean region and Latin America to prevent and respond to major oil pollution incidents. While developing a systematic approach to capacity building, resulting in comprehensive regional projects including the Caribbean Islands Regional OPRC Plan and the Central America CAOP Project (design to establish a Central America Regional OPRC Plan), the constant interaction of the Centre within the region with the various cultures of response preparedness, regularly raises the following questions:– How to improve a standard, constant, and effective system for capacity building in regards to contingency planning?– How to improve the co-operation between the regional partners?– How to define a better mechanism for funding? The analysis of the last ten years activities developed by the Centre shows the alternation of established priorities developed under the objectives of the strategic plan for enhancing regional response preparedness. Key components for the definition of a long term development cycle, required to build capacity, and enhance regional co-operation, are identified. The elements to stand out are:– the development of a constructive succession in the activities thematic;– a time frame of 5 years to complete a cycle for a regional centre with RAC/REMPEITC characteristics;– the key role of metrics to assess priorities for the cycle;– the need of a common overview of the process to facilitate co-operation / co-ordination;– the need of sustained commitment. The identification of those parameters allow a regional centre to clarify the status of national contingency planning for governments, establish the extent of training and exercises needed in the region and most importantly, facilitates the synchronization of resources and support between stakeholders.

0.5 Degree: A Turning point

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jayaka Campbell ◽  
Michael Taylor ◽  
Arnoldo Bezanilla-Morlot ◽  
Tannecia Stephenson ◽  
Abel Centella-Artola ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Turning Point ◽  
Caribbean Region ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Regional Variations ◽  
The North ◽  
Perturbed Physics Ensemble ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Physics Ensemble ◽  
Hadley Centre

<p>Although the Caribbean region is considered amongst the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate and climate change, there are very few regional studies or studies matching the regions small scale and size that evaluate or quantify the impacts of these future changes.  The absence becomes even more stark when the long-term temperature goals (LTTGs) of 1.5°C, 2.0°C and 2.5°C above pre-industrial warming levels are considered. By selecting, validating and downscaling a subset of the Hadley Centre’s 17-member Perturbed Physics Ensemble for the Quantifying Uncertainty in Model Predictions (QUMP) project, future changes for both the LTTGs as well as mid and end of century are evaluated, for the entire Caribbean and its six (6) sub-regional zones. Showing distinct and significant sub-regional variations, on average the Caribbean was found to be 2.1°C (>4°C) warmer and 40% (70%) drier by mid-century (end of century). Analysis of the LTTGS shows that the region surpasses lowest target, 1.5 °C, before the end of the 2020’s and experiences progressive warming that spread equatorward as successive thresholds are attained 2.0°C (2030’s) and 2.5°C (2050´s). The far western, the southern and the eastern Caribbean are found to be up to 50% drier at 1.5°C, with intensifications noted for changes at 2.0°C with a reversal of a wet tendency in the north and central Caribbean. The sub-regional variations that exist shows that although the Caribbean lags the globe in its attainment of the LTTGs some of its six subregions are more comparable to the global than the Caribbean mean with the transition from 1.5°C to 2.0°C seeming to represent a turning point for the Caribbean.</p>

scholarly journals Comparison and Assessment of Three ITRS Realizations

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 2304
Author(s):  
Jiao Liu ◽  
Junping Chen ◽  
Peizhao Liu ◽  
Weijie Tan ◽  
Danan Dong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Variation ◽  
Reference Frame ◽  
Terrestrial Reference Frame ◽  
International Gnss Service ◽  
Scale Parameters ◽  
Position Time Series ◽  
Variation Characteristics ◽  
Long Term Trends ◽  
Orientation Parameters

A terrestrial reference frame (TRF) is derived based on historical geodetic data and is normally updated every 5–6 years. The three most recent International Terrestrial Reference System (ITRS) realizations, ITRF2014, DTRF2014, and JTRF2014, were determined with different strategies, which has resulted in different signals in the reference frame parameters. In this paper, we used the continuous site position time series of International GNSS Service (IGS) from 1995 to 2020 as a benchmark to investigate the characteristics of the three frames. In the comparison, the ITRS realizations were divided into the determination and prediction sections, where the site coordinates of the TRFs were extrapolated in the prediction period. The results indicated that the orientation and scale parameters of the ITRF2014, and the IGS solutions showed excellent agreement during the determination period of ITRF2014, while, during the prediction period, the orientation parameter diverged from IGS with rates of 11.9, 5.5, and 8.4 as/yr, and the scale degraded with a rate of −0.038 ppb/yr. The consistency of the origin parameters between the DTRF2014 and the IGS solutions during the two periods changed from 0.07, 0.11, and −0.15 mm/yr to −0.17, −0.18, and −0.12 mm/yr; the consistency of orientation parameters from −3.6, −1.9, and 2.9 as/yr to 15.9, −2.3, and 13.2 as/yr; and the consistency of scale from 0.007 to −0.005 ppb/yr. In the comparison between the JTRF2014 and IGS solutions, annual signals in the origin differences were 1.5, 3.0, and 2.4 mm in the X, Y, and Z components, respectively, and the temporal variation trends in different periods disagreed with their long-term trends. Obvious trend switches in the rotation parameters were also observable, and the complex temporal variation characteristics of the scale offsets may be related to the scale definition strategy applied in different TRFs.

scholarly journals Update China geodetic coordinate frame considering plate motion

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pengfei Cheng ◽  
Yingyan Cheng ◽  
Xiaoming Wang ◽  
Yantian Xu
Keyword(s):  
Velocity Field ◽  
Reference Frame ◽  
Interpolation Method ◽  
Plate Motion ◽  
Optimal Interpolation ◽  
Normal Equation ◽  
Coordinate Frame ◽  
International Gnss Service ◽  
Regional Control ◽  
Alignment Result

AbstractChina Geodetic Coordinate System 2000 (CGCS2000), as the formal national coordinate reference frame, has been used for 20 years. The coordinates of all Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) stations in China need referring to this system. To this end, the first step is to align the coordinates of all stations, usually included in a regional GNSS network, with a given International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF), then these coordinates are corrected to the CGCS2000 in consideration of plate movement. For a better alignment result, regional control stations are needed and their coordinates were estimated from the combination of constraint-free normal equation systems provided by several International GNSS Service (IGS) analysis centers. The effect in using these refined coordinates, which determine a regional coordinate datum, on the alignment result should be evaluated by the coordinate corrections of the regional control stations to the regional coordinate datum, i.e. smaller corrections mean better alignments of the two associated frames. The test results show that the refined coordinates are more accurate than the ones calculated from the station's velocity, and are well aligned with the ITRF2005. Moreover, for obtaining the coordinates of GNSS stations in an updated CGCS2000 frame, a gridded linear velocity field based on the estimated velocities at 1025 CGCS2000 stations was generated for mainland China using the optimal interpolation method, the inverse distance weighting, which is selected from five interpolation methods. The overall precisions of the constructed velocity field at all stations in the East (E) and, North (N) directions are 0.78 mm/a and 0.95 mm/a, respectively. For evaluating the accuracy of the updated CGCS2000 frame, monthly solutions for the coordinates of some CGCS2000 CORS stations in the ITRF2014 during the period from 2000.0 to 2018 were obtained and the Root Mean Square (RMS) of the differences between the coordinates corrected to the CGCS2000 and the known coordinates at these stations are about 2–3 cm.

Paleomagnetic and structural study of the NEastern Caribbean plate as mean to give paleogeographic constrains for fauna dispersal.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leny Montheil ◽  
Douwe Van Hinsbergen ◽  
Philippe Münch ◽  
Pierre Camps ◽  
Mélody Philippon
Keyword(s):  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Plate Boundary ◽  
Vertical Axis ◽  
Plate Motion ◽  
Lesser Antilles ◽  
Caribbean Region ◽  
Greater Antilles ◽  
Caribbean Plate ◽  
The Bahamas ◽  
The Caribbean

<p>Since the Eocene, the northeastern corner of the Caribbean plate is shaped by the indentation of the buoyant Bahamas platform with the Greater Caribbean Arc, the suture of a portion of the Antillean subduction zone along Cuba and Hispaniola and the subsequent relocation of the plate boundary along the strike slip Cayman Trough. Puzzlingly enough, these major re-arrangements followed a plate motion reorganization (Boschmann et al., 2014). During this kinematic reorganization, the Lesser Antilles trench initiated (or subduction intensified) along the eastern boundary of the Caribbean plate and progressively bent, resulting in an increase of subduction obliquity from south to north (Philippon et al., 2020a). This curvature has been, and still may be, associated with deformation within the Caribbean plate. Interestingly, in the 10-15 Ma following the plate reorganization, a hypothetical, now submerged “landbridge” allowed the dispersion of terrestrial fauna from South America to the Greater Antilles: the GAARlandia landbridge (land of Greater Antilles and Aves Ridge). Although it has been recently shown that Puerto Rico and the Northern Lesser Antilles where connected once forming a land mass called GrANoLA around 33-35 Ma (Philippon et al., 2020b), these rapids and drastics geodynamical changes may have impacted the regional paleogeography, which remains to be constrained. The intraplate deformation in the north-est Caribbean region associated with the plate reorganization, the Bahamas indentation, and the plate boundary curvature likely hold the key to (part of) the evolution of this landbridge.<br>At present day, the N-Eastern border of the Caribbean plate shows parallel to the trench faults dissecting the plate in a sliver-like manner. This “sliver” is cross cutted by perpendicular to the trench faults in four crustal blocks: Gonave, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico and the Northern Lesser Antilles. Present-day and past kinematics of these blocks, and even their existence, are still debated.</p><p>In this study, in the course of the French GAARAnti project, we focus on paleomagnetically determined vertical axis rotations that affected Puerto Rico and the Northern Lesser Antilles blocks since the Eocene, and use these to inform kinematic reconstructions constrained by regional structural analysis and Ar<sup>40</sup>-Ar<sup>39</sup> geochronology. These reconstructions will be used to refine the paleogeographic evolution of the NEastern edge of the Caribbean plate since the Eocene in order test the GAARlandia hypothesis.</p><p>A new set of paleomagnetic data (180 Oligo-Miocene specimens of sediments sampled in 18 sites) indicates that the Puerto Rico block underwent an early to mid-Miocene 10° counterclockwise (CCW) rotation. This result clearly differs from those of Reid et al., 1991 who concluded a Late Miocene 25° CCW rotation and that is currently used by the community to interpret the tectonic history of the northeastern Caribbean plate. The use of a larger dataset, that geographically covers the entire island, and of a more recent reference frame explain the difference observed between the two results. This new result will lead to a re-interpretation of the tectonic evolution of the region that will be integrated in a regional kinematic reconstruction.</p>

African Caribbean Residents of Edinburgh in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Williams
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
British Empire ◽  
Caribbean Region ◽  
African Caribbean ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Eighteenth And Nineteenth Centuries

Scotland is gradually coming to terms with its involvement in slavery and colonialism as part of the British Empire. This article places the spotlight on the lives of African Caribbean people who were residents of Edinburgh during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. I discuss their varied experiences and contributions: from runaways and men fighting for their freedom in the Scottish courts to women working as servants in city households or marrying into Edinburgh high society. The nineteenth century saw activism among political radicals from abolitionists to anticolonialists; some of these figures studied and taught at Edinburgh University. Their stories reflect the Scottish capital’s many direct connections with the Caribbean region.

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