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Is Nubia Plate Rigid? A Geodetic Study Of The Relative Motion Of Different Cratonic Areas Within Africa., Mary Wambui Njoroge

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Nubia plate is normally considered to be a rigid plate and as such used in the realization of terrestrial reference frame. Gondwana breakup plate reconstruction, the Cameroon volcanic line, seismicity, and the morphology of the Okavango rift zone (ORZ) suggest the presence of internal deformation within the Nubia plate. To test this hypothesis, six different reference frames were developed from the velocity field of three individual regions (West, Central and South), and of different combinations of them (West+Central, South+Central, and Nubia as a whole). The residual velocities with respect to these references frame help us understand the presence of …