Velocity field in Asia inferred from Quaternary fault slip rates and Global Positioning System observations

We perform a joint inversion of Quaternary strain rates and 238 Global Posi tioning Syst;em (GPS) velocities in Asia fur a self-consistent velocity fie ld. The reference frames for all geodetic velocity observations are determi ned in our inversion procedure, India (IN) moves relative to Eurasia (EU) a bout a pole of rotation at (29.78 degrees N, 7.51 degrees E;, 0.353 degrees Myr(-1)), which yields a velocity along the Himalaya within India that is similar to 73-76% of the magnitude of the IN-EU NUVEL-1A velocity and a vec tor azimuth that is 8-10 degrees clockwise of NUVEL-1A IN-EU vector azimuth . Relative to Eurasia, south China moves at 9-11 mm/yr in the direction 110 -120 degrees with a pole position (64.84 degrees N, 156.74 degrees E, 0.12 degrees Myr(-1)). Amurian block motion has a pole position iri a similar lo cation but at a slower rate (64.61 degrees N, 158.23 degrees E, 0.077 degre es Myr(-1)) and most of the Amurian-Eurasia motion is accommodated by exten sion across Lake Baikal. Tarim Basin moves relative to Eurasia about a pole of rotation at (39.24 degrees N, 98.2 degrees E, -0.539 degrees Myr(-1)) a nd similar to 16-18 mm/yr of shortening is accommodated across the west cen tral Tien Shan. There is distributed E-W extension throughout both southern and north central Tibet. Within southern Tibet, between the longitudes of 77 degrees E to 92 degrees E, the deformation field accommodates similar to 16-19 mm/yr of E-W extension. We compare predicted seismic moment rates wi th those observed in this century iu Asia. Total observed seismic moment ra tes wit,hin the entire area of central and east Asia (2.2 x 10(7) km(2)) in this century are 2.26 +/- 0.7 x 10(20) N m yr(-1) as compared with a predi cted total rate of 2.03 +/- 0.066 x 10(20) N m yr(-1). Comparisons between observed and predicted moment rates within 42 subregions reflect the genera lly unstable process of inferring long-term seismic moment rates from a cat alog of limited duration (94 years), All observation period of similar to 1 0,000 years would be required to reduce uncertainties in observed. seismic: moment rate tu the same sire as the uncertainties in model tectonic moment , rates, inferred from the joint inversion of GPS and Quaternary rates of s train. We show that in general, a better correlation with model tectonic: m oment rate is inferred from the: seismicity catalog by considering the numb ers of earthquakes above a cutoff magnitude (m(b) > 5.0: for the period Jan uary 1, 1965, to January 1, 1999).