Geodetic monitoring of tectonic deformation in the Australian region

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Abstract
A number of geodetic techniques exist for measuring instantaneous crustal motions and deformations. Over distances of a few hundred kilometres, conventional terrestrial methods can achieve accuracies of about 1–2 parts in 106 for horizontal positions, but most existing triangulation networks in Australia are of lower accuracies. Geodetic levelling can provide height‐difference measurements with an accuracy of a few mm for points separated by about 100 km, but actual accuracies are often much lower than this. For points separated by longer distances, from a few 100 km to several 1000 km, space techniques can provide precisions of 5–10 cm. Two experiments carried out in Australia confirm that these precisions can be reached. A laser ranging experiment between sites near Canberra and Perth produced a baseline that is precise to better than 10 cm, and a radio‐interferometry experiment between Canberra, Parkes and Sydney produced baselines with precisions of 10 cm. Further evaluation of both systems is required, but the present results indicate that crustal deformations of the order of 10 cm can be measured with repeat surveys.

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