The Carpathian Region, located at the edge of the East European Platform, presents a unique tectonic setting where major deformation associated with subduction and collision appears to have ceased around 8 million years ago. Yet vertical movements and seismicity continued afterward till the present day, suggesting ongoing crustal deformation and challenging our understanding of intraplate earthquakes and the processes driving these phenomena in an area considered a stable continental interior. In this study, we analyze over two decades of continuous GPS (cGPS) data from 143 permanent stations to estimate both horizontal and vertical crustal motions, constructing the most accurate model of crustal deformation in the region to date. The estimated velocity field indicates a southward drift of the South Carpathians and Moesia relative to Eurasia, with velocities ranging from 0.5 to 2 mm yr⁻¹. We detect a more complex pattern of vertical uplift and subsidence in the foredeep, challenging a previously held view that this region is solely subsiding. This pattern may reflect localized uplift in response to processes such as the Vrancea Slab break-off beneath the South-East Carpathians. Crustal-scale active faults accommodate the observed differential motion, fragmenting the foreland. Furthermore, using a regularized horizontal velocity vector field, we estimate strain rate variations, maximum shear strain, and dilatation patterns across Romania, which align with observed stress regimes and earthquake mechanisms. This agreement validates our results and indicates an influence of surface plate kinematics on the observed seismicity, in addition to the deep Vrancea Slab dynamics. Our findings provide insights into the causes of crustal deformation at the transition between active collision zones and stable continental platforms, enhancing our understanding of intraplate seismicity in regions traditionally considered tectonically stable.

The geographic coincidence of the Chile Ridge slab window and the Patagonia ice fields offers a unique opportunity for assessing the effects of slab window rheology on glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA). Mass loss of these ice fields since the Little Ice Age causes rapid but variable crustal uplift, 12–24 mm/yr around the North Patagonia ice field, increasing to a maximum of 41 mm/yr around the South Patagonia ice field, as determined from newly collected or processed geodetic data. We used these observational constraints in a three-dimensional Maxwell viscoelastic finite element model of GIA response above both the subducting slab and slab window in which the upper-mantle viscosity was parameterized to be uniform with depth. We found that the viscosity of the northern part of the slab window, ~2 × 10¹⁸ Pa·s, is lower than that of the southern part by approximately an order of magnitude. We propose that this along-strike viscosity contrast is due to late Cenozoic ridge subduction beneath the northern part of the slab window, which increases asthenospheric temperature and reduces viscosity

In the last 300 years the window of time for two consecutive large and destructive intermediate-depth earthquakes in Vrancea (Romania) was between 36 and 102 years. An explanation for the larger window of time might be a release of stress produced by a slow-slip-event (SSE). In a vertical sinking slab slightly attached from the Earth’s crust both large earthquakes and SSE are expected to generate a downward movement in the vertical displacements of GPS data. The building-up of stress in the asperity preventing a steady aseismic sinking was expected to be transmitted upwards to faults in the crust and recorded based on a magnetotelluric phase splitting effect. A large stress build-up has been suggested around a fault in the years 2012–2013, but no large earthquake was recorded. We supposed a large SSE in the year 2013–2014 with a duration of 13 months released the accumulated stress. GPS stations in the epicentral region of Vrancea seismic active region supported our suggestion by showing a downward displacement of vertical data obtained for the year 2014. However, the vertical displacements are small and other possible causes than SSE need to be taken into account.

After a great subduction earthquake, viscoelastic stress relaxation causes prolonged seaward motion of inland areas of the upper plate, as was observed around the turn of the century in the area of the 1960 Mw 9.5 Chile earthquake with Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) measurements. However, recent GNSS observations during 2010–2019 indicate a systematic decrease in the velocity of the seaward motion over a region covering the latitudinal range of the southern half of the 1960 rupture. Data from the only long-lived continuous site in this region (COYQ since 1997), situated over 200 km away from the trench, suggest that the decrease in the seaward velocity (or increase in the landward velocity) occurred within a few years prior to 2010. This rapid and regional change cannot be explained by viscoelastic relaxation. We thus propose that the change was caused by a relatively sudden downdip widening of the zone of locking along the megathrust. Using three-dimensional finite element modelling, we find that the observed velocity change cannot be otherwise explained, although the amount of the increase in locking cannot be uniquely determined because of trade-offs between, and uncertainties in, the various parameters involved. For example, the degree of the increase in locking is affected by the value of coseismic slip in 1960 in the southernmost part of the rupture zone. A postseismic deformation model with greater coseismic slip in accordance with the most recent coseismic slip model in the literature better fits COYQ data prior to 2005 and requires greater locking increase afterwards. A model with less coseismic slip requires less locking increase but an additional long-term slow slip event prior to 2005. The rapid surface velocity change and the inferred increase in megathrust locking several decades after a great earthquake present new challenges to the understanding of fault mechanics and subduction zone dynamics.