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The 1.8m Problem: Why Australia Has Two National Datums
The Indo-Australian plate moves at approximately 7 centimetres per year —one of the fastest-moving tectonic plates on Earth. GDA94, defined at 1994.0, diverged from global WGS84/ITRF realizations by roughly 1.7—.0 metres by the 2010s. ICSM officially quantifies the GDA94→GDA2020 shift as approximately 1.8m north-east, and mandates use of the official NTv2 grid transformation for all precision surveys.
Any GIS workflow treating GDA94 and GDA2020 as equivalent without transformation will accrue this error silently, with compounding drift relative to current WGS84 realizations.
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The $50,000 Geodetic Drift Liability: NAD83 vs WGS84
Because the North American Plate moves ~2cm/year, NAD83(2011) and WGS84(G1762) currently diverge by over 2.2 meters. Using a "standard" GPS WGS84 coordinate for a high-precision NAD83 cadastral staking has triggered $50,000 Professional Liability claims for foundational rework and utility misplacement.