Development of stand-alone application for computing plate tectonic motion over the earth’s surface / Ahmad Zikri Abd Aziz

Plate tectonic motion is the displacement of the plates over the earth’s surface that usually occurs due to earthquakes. Significant displacements can be detected in regions with high seismic activities. Therefore, the plate tectonic motion is emphasized where the rate of movement is calculated periodically every year. Hence, this study aimed to develop a stand-alone application to automatically calculate the plate tectonic motion with reference to Euler's theorem. A plate tectonic calculator (PTC) was developed based on optimized parameters and formulations that are efficiently capable to calculate the motion in any region. Furthermore, the set of formulations from Euler’s theorem that has been revised into a comprehensive form, were verified using manual calculation in MATLAB. The formulations were categorized into two stages which are inverse Euler pole problem in Local Geodetic Coordinate System (LG CS) and direct Euler pole problem in LG CS. After integrating the PTC using C# programming language through Visual Studio, the sample coordinates and velocities of stations from four cases were used to test the developed application. Moreover, the effectiveness of the developed PTC was further assessed by comparing the output with the existing Euler pole calculator (EPC). Evidently, the result showed no significant differences in all parameters for each case. This is because the differences were too small and did not exceed the tolerance range of standard deviation for each parameter involved. Consequently, this research has achieved all objectives and the expected outcomes. In addition, it could assist the current detection of plate tectonic motion more effectively in the given regional area.