Recent revisions to the geomagnetic time scale indicate that global plate motion model NUVEL‐1 should be modified for comparison with other rates of motion including those estimated from space geodetic measurements. The optimal recalibration, which is a compromise among slightly different calibrations appropriate for slow, medium, and fast rates of seafloor spreading, is to multiply NUVEL‐1 angular velocities by a constant, α, of 0.9562. We refer to this simply recalibrated plate motion model as NUVEL‐1A, and give correspondingly revised tables of angular velocities and uncertainties. Published work indicates that space geodetic rates are slower on average than those calculated from NUVEL‐1 by 6±1%. This average discrepancy is reduced to less than 2% when space geodetic rates are instead compared with NUVEL‐1A.

We determine best-fitting Euler vectors, closure-fitting Euler vectors, and a new global model (NUVEL-1) describing the geologically current motion between 12 assumed-rigid plates by inverting plate motion data we have compiled, critically analysed, and tested for self-consistency. We treat Arabia, India and Australia, and North America and South America as distinct plates, but combine Nubia and Somalia into a single African plate because motion between them could not be reliably resolved. The 1122 data from 22 plate boundaries inverted to obtain NUVEL-1 consist of 277 spreading rates, 121 transform fault azimuths, and 724 earthquake slip vectors. We determined all rates over a uniform time interval of 3.0m.y., corresponding to the centre of the anomaly 2A sequence, by comparing synthetic magnetic anomalies with observed profiles. The model fits the data well. Unlike prior global plate motion models, which systematically misfit some spreading rates in the Indian Ocean by 8-12mmyr-', the systematic misfits by NUVEL-1 nowhere exceed -3 mm yr-'. The model differs significantly from prior global plate motion models. For the 30 pairs of plates sharing a common boundary, 29 of 30 P071, and 25 of 30 RM2 Euler vectors lie outside the 99 per cent confidence limits of NUVEL-1. Differences are large in the Indian Ocean where NUVEL-1 plate motion data and plate geometry differ from those used in prior studies and in the Pacific Ocean where NUVEL-1 rates are systematically 5-20 mm yr-' slower than those of prior models. The strikes of transform faults mapped with GLORIA and Seabeam along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge greatly improve the accuracy of estimates of the direction of plate motion. These data give Euler vectors differing significantly from those of prior studies, show that motion about the Azores triple junction is consistent with plate circuit closure, and better resolve motion between North America and South America. Motion of the Caribbean plate relative to North or South America is about 7mmyr-' slower than in prior global models. Trench slip vectors tend to be systematically misfit wherever convergence is oblique, and best-fitting poles determined only from trench slip vectors differ significantly from their corresponding closure-fitting Euler vectors. The direction of slip in trench earthquakes tends to be between the direction of plate motion and the normal to the trench strike. Part of this bias may be due to the neglect of lateral heterogeneities of seismic velocities caused by cold subducting slabs, but the larger part is likely caused by independent motion of fore-arc crust and lithosphere relative to the overriding plate.

S U M M A R YWe describe best-fitting angular velocities and MORVEL, a new closure-enforced set of angular velocities for the geologically current motions of 25 tectonic plates that collectively occupy 97 per cent of Earth's surface. Seafloor spreading rates and fault azimuths are used to determine the motions of 19 plates bordered by mid-ocean ridges, including all the major plates. Six smaller plates with little or no connection to the mid-ocean ridges are linked to MORVEL with GPS station velocities and azimuthal data. By design, almost no kinematic information is exchanged between the geologically determined and geodetically constrained subsets of the global circuit-MORVEL thus averages motion over geological intervals for all the major plates. Plate geometry changes relative to NUVEL-1A include the incorporation of Nubia, Lwandle and Somalia plates for the former Africa plate, Capricorn, Australia and Macquarie plates for the former Australia plate, and Sur and South America plates for the former South America plate. MORVEL also includes Amur, Philippine Sea, Sundaland and Yangtze plates, making it more useful than NUVEL-1A for studies of deformation in Asia and the western Pacific. Seafloor spreading rates are estimated over the past 0.78 Myr for intermediate and fast spreading centres and since 3.16 Ma for slow and ultraslow spreading centres. Rates are adjusted downward by 0.6-2.6 mm yr −1 to compensate for the several kilometre width of magnetic reversal zones. Nearly all the NUVEL-1A angular velocities differ significantly from the MORVEL angular velocities. The many new data, revised plate geometries, and correction for outward displacement thus significantly modify our knowledge of geologically current plate motions. MORVEL indicates significantly slower 0.78-Myr-average motion across the Nazca-Antarctic and Nazca-Pacific boundaries than does NUVEL-1A, consistent with a progressive slowdown in the eastward component of Nazca plate motion since 3.16 Ma. It also indicates that motions across the Caribbean-North America and Caribbean-South America plate boundaries are twice as fast as given by NUVEL-1A. Summed, least-squares differences between angular velocities estimated from GPS and those for MORVEL, NUVEL-1 and NUVEL-1A are, respectively, 260 per cent larger for NUVEL-1 and 50 per cent larger for NUVEL-1A than for MORVEL, suggesting that MORVEL more accurately describes historically current plate motions. Significant differences between geological and GPS estimates of Nazca plate motion and Arabia-Eurasia and India-Eurasia motion are reduced but not eliminated when using MORVEL instead of NUVEL-1A, possibly indicating that changes have occurred in those plate motions since 3.16 Ma. The MORVEL and GPS estimates of Pacific-North America plate motion in western North America differ by only 2.6 ± 1.7 mm yr −1 , ≈25 per cent smaller than for NUVEL-1A. The remaining difference for this plate pair, assuming there are no unrecognized systematic errors and no measurable change in Pacific-North America motion ...

[1] NNR-MORVEL56, which is a set of angular velocities of 56 plates relative to the unique reference frame in which there is no net rotation of the lithosphere, is determined. The relative angular velocities of 25 plates constitute the MORVEL set of geologically current relative plate angular velocities; the relative angular velocities of the other 31 plates are adapted from Bird (2003). NNR-MORVEL, a set of angular velocities of the 25 MORVEL plates relative to the no-net rotation reference frame, is also determined. Incorporating the 31 plates from Bird (2003), which constitute 2.8% of Earth's surface, changes the angular velocities of the MORVEL plates in the no-net-rotation frame only insignificantly, but provides a more complete description of globally distributed deformation and strain rate. NNR-MORVEL56 differs significantly from, and improves upon, NNR-NUVEL1A, our prior set of angular velocities of the plates relative to the no-net-rotation reference frame, partly due to differences in angular velocity at two essential links of the MORVEL plate circuit, Antarctica-Pacific and Nubia-Antarctica, and partly due to differences in the angular velocities of the Philippine Sea, Nazca, and Cocos plates relative to the Pacific plate. For example, the NNR-MORVEL56 Pacific angular velocity differs from the NNR-NUVEL1A angular velocity by a vector of length 0.039 ± 0.011°a −1 (95% confidence limits), resulting in a root-mean-square difference in velocity of 2.8 mm a −1. All 56 plates in NNR-MORVEL56 move significantly relative to the no-net-rotation reference frame with rotation rates ranging from 0.107°a −1 to 51.569°a −1.Components: 6300 words, 5 figures, 5 tables.

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