Overview
- The peer-reviewed study in Science maps eastern Tibet moving eastward by up to about 25 millimetres per year, with slower zones near 10 millimetres per year.
- Researchers identify the Kunlun Fault as far weaker than assumed, enabling the plateau’s interior to collapse and flow eastward.
- The analysis resolves vertical ground changes of roughly plus or minus 5 millimetres per year across the Tibetan Plateau.
- Strain-rate maps highlight rapid deformation along the Altyn Tagh, Kunlun and Xianshuihe fault systems.
- Using more than 44,000 Sentinel-1 radar images and over 14,000 GNSS measurements, the team delivers the largest continental geodetic dataset yet and says it will refine seismic-hazard models across Asia.