Learning: Long term location stability.

Very interesting article. Thank you for posting it.

The author had some interesting questions. A good read.

The major fault line between the North American Plate and the Pacific Plate would appear to be shifting enough to cause problems with GPS over a relatively short period of time. It makes me wonder if the producers of GPS maps monitor the changes with coordinates west of the San Andreas Fault and are making plans to update for coordinate shifts when necessary. It is a small amount but may be significant over time.

llabmik I don't think you have to worry until San Deigo locations start showing up with lats. around 45 degrees.

The geologists are using GPS to monitor the fault movement in California. I've heard they can measure movement of 1 cm. We can assume they have better equipment then I have.

As I recall from California Geology the big San Francisco earthquake in 1906 caused the San Andreas fault to moved 16 feet laterally, so even if there were GPSrs the error wouldn't have been enough to make much of a difference and that would be after a major event. I also recall that there is evidence that the total movement of the San Andreas fault may exceed 600 miles which might create problems... (You think?)....