Recent crustal movements of northern Vietnam from GPS data

The Red River Fault system has a special position in northern Vietnam, forming the boundary between Sunda and South China blocks. The other fault systems include the Dien Bien Phu, Da River and Son La faults. GPS technology has been used to measure recent tectonic activity along these fault zones during the recent years. It is for the first time when all measurement data have been analyzed by GAMIT/GLOBK to get the ITRF2000 solutions for point absolute motion rates of the study area. GPS data collected at 27 stations in northern Vietnam from 1994 to 2007 have shown that the southwestern and northeastern sides of the Red River Fault are moving eastward at the same rate of 34.5 ± 1 mm/yr and southward, at slightly different velocities of 12 ± 1 mm/yr and 13 ± 1 mm/yr, respectively.