Reilinger This grant provides partial support of the costs of acquiring 3 global positioning satellite (GPS) receivers which will be monumented and operated quasi-continuously in Morocco, North Africa. In addition to these receivers, 26 additional receivers will be operated in campaign mode as part of a kinematic study of the motions across the African-Iberian plate boundary in the western Mediterranean that is being funded by the Earth Sciences Geophysics Program (EAR-9814964). Reilinger's campaign style GPS monitoring of plate motions in Turkey and the Caucasus has ground-truthed the kinematics of this complex region which had previously only been inferred based on seismology and field mapping. GPS data from the western Mediterranean are needed to constrain the overall picture of plate tectonic motions throughout the Mediterranean region and Reilinger's extensive field experience in the often physically and politically challenging environs in this region makes him aptly qualified for the job. The equipment acquired through this grant together with research funding from the Geophysics program, will facilitate a logical extension of Reilinger's past 10 years of research in this region. Reilinger has teamed up with researchers from Cornell University and international collaborators from Spain, Portugal and Morocco. Indeed, the Moroccans will be maintaining and operating the requested GPS receivers which will be operating quasi-continuously. As a result, Reilinger has brokered considerable cost savings in terms of man power in seeing this project to completion and in exchange, NSF is providing an infrastructural technology transfer that is both scientifically and politically appealing. ***
