An analysis of the Ethiopian Rift Valley GPS campaigns in 1994 and 1999

In cooperation with the Geophysical Observatory, Addis Ababa University, the Department of Geodesy and Photogrammetry of the Royal Institute of Technology carried out GPS measurements at three deformation networks in the Ethiopian Rift Valley in 1994 and 1999. For these campaigns the session-to-session repeatabilities were about 5 and 4 mm in the horizontal components and 50 and 10 mm in the vertical components using the IGS precise orbits, respectively. The results show that the stations of the E3 network in the Rift Valley moved with a magnitude of 2.5±1.3 mm/a to the SE, and a magnitude of 21.3±1.4 mm/a to the ENE in the northeast (close to Assab of the Red Sea) relative to the station Addis Ababa on the African plate. The direction of movement is consistent with the local spreading vector of the Red Sea Rift with the N84°E slip direction estimated from seismic data. The sites of the E1 network moved by a rate of about 1–2 mm/a to the SE relative also to the station Addis Ababa. Further to the south there is an indication from our GPS data that the stations on the Somalian plate of the E2 network move by a rate of about 2.5 mm/a to the E or SE relative to the African plate. This motion can also be confirmed by geological and geodynamic data.