The principal investigator and his students have recently developed the NUVEL-1 global plate motion model. This project will build on NUVEL-1 to obtain new global models for geologically current 'absolute' plate motion, i.e., the motion of the plates relative to reference frames external to any one plate. The models will include a description of plate motion relative to the hotspots and plate motion relative to various no-net-torque reference frames, including the reference frame in which there is no net rotation of the lithosphere. New methods for calculating the errors in no-net-rotation and no-net-torque models will be formulated.
