The long-term objective of this project is to improve our understanding of the kinematics and dynamics of continental collision and associated mountain-building processes along the Alpine-Himalayan collision zone. Towards this end, the PIs wish to begin establishing and monitoring a network of Global Positioning System (GPS) sities in the Pamir-Tien Shan region of Soviet Central Asia, ideally involving joint observation and measurement by American receivers monitoring the NAVSTAR satellites and Soviet receivers monitoring GLONASS satellites. The GPS network in the USSR would be interconnected with GPS networks being established along other segments of the Alpine- Himalayan belt, including the eastern Mediterranean network and the Nepal and Tibet networks. This is a one-year project intended to establish the necessary agreements with Soviet conuntermarts to untake the GPS monitoring program. If these preliminary efforts prove successful, future proposals will be submitted for support of actual establishment and minitoring of a regional GPS network, beginning in 1991.
