Relative motion across the eastern Tibetan plateau: Contributions from faulting, internal strain and rotation rates

A kinematic model comprising 14 rotating, elastic–plastic blocks is used to represent the modern deformation of eastern Tibet and neighboring regions. Block rotations, fault slip rates and permanent strain rates within the blocks are constrained by inverting GPS velocities, slip vector azimuths derived from earthquakes, and fault slip rates derived from geology. The calculated internal strain rates of blocks in eastern Tibet amounts to 10 to 30×10−9/yr, in contrast to relatively low rates (