Three-dimensional kinematic reference frame of geodetic very long base
line interferometry (VLBI) stations, tied to a geologic plate motion m
odel, was established using the GLB907 solution by first selecting glo
bally distributed stable plate interior stations and then applying a s
mall translation and a rotation for the entire network in a three-dime
nsional space so that the differences in the ''horizontal'' velocities
between the VLBI observations and the model predictions are minimized
. Since the VLBI network is global, we only assume that the horizontal
movements of tectonically stable stations obey a plate motion model;
we need not introduce any unwarranted constraints to the vertical velo
cities of specific stations to realize the frame. A suggestive correla
tion was found between the estimated vertical velocities of North Amer
ican stations and those predicted by a postglacial rebound model. The
revision of the magnetic polarity timescale (MPTS) causes a uniform in
crease or decrease of the predicted velocities, which could be detecte
d as the small difference between tile measured and the predicted rela
tive plate velocities. Direct estimation of the correction suggests th
at the VLBI data fit best to the model when the NUVEL1 model is correc
ted by +3.4% (+/- 1.2%), which differs significantly from the -4.5% de
duced from the astronomical MPTS calibration. This was further confirm
ed by estimating the rotation rates for individual plate pairs.