The Nicoya Peninsula, located off the northwest coast of Costa Rica, is one of two places in the world where land sits directly above the seismogenic zone of a subduction boundary. This unique setting allows for the use of land based GPS and seismic stations in crustal deformation research. The data from these stations will help measure the strain accumulation of the fault and will be useful in determining the fault slip rate, its subsurface geometry, and its locking pattern. These factors will further researcher’s understanding of subduction related earthquakes.

The Nicoya GPS Network is part of a collaborative project between Marino Protti and Victor Gonzales at OVSICORI (Costa Rican Volcano and Seismic Observatory), Tim Dixon at The University of Miami Geodesy Lab, and Susan Schwartz at The University of California, Santa Cruz.

UNAVCO Engineer Sarah Doelger recently traveled to Costa Rica to install six new continuously operating GPS stations. In addition, one existing site was completely replaced with a new GPS monument, receiver, antenna and power infrastructure. Four more existing sites will be upgraded with new receivers and antennas this September.