Isostasy and Flexure of the Lithosphere

A unique overview of isostasy featuring recent advances in spectral data analysis and understanding of variations in lithospheric strength.

A. B. Watts (Author)

9781009278928, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 November 2023

520 pages
24.3 x 16.9 x 2.8 cm, 1.13 kg

'Simply stated, this textbook is amazing. The concepts of isostasy and crust flexure are traditionally among the most difficult for geology students to grasp. … [it] clearly describes … aspects of isostasy with an immense number of figures, many in color, and relatively elementary mathematics … The included figures helpfully assist readers in understanding the salient points without bogging them down in complex mathematics.… Essential.' M. S. Field, CHOICE

Isostasy is a simple concept, yet it has long perplexed students of geology and geophysics. This fully updated edition provides the tools to better understand this concept using a simplified mathematical treatment, numerous geological examples, and an extensive bibliography. It starts by tracing the ideas behind local and regional models of isostasy before describing the theoretical background, the observational evidence. It now also includes an exploration of the role of flexure in landscape evolution and dynamic topography and discussions of lithosphere memory, inheritance, and new NASA mission topography and gravity data. The book concludes with a discussion of flexure's role in understanding the evolution of the surface features of the Earth and its neighboring planets. Intended for advanced undergraduate and graduate students of geology and geophysics, it will also be of interest to researchers in gravity, geodesy, sedimentary basin formation, mountain building and planetary geology.

1. The Development of the Concept of Isostasy
2. Isostasy and Flexure of the Lithosphere
3. Theory of Elastic Plates
4. Geological Examples of the Flexure Model of Isostasy
5. Isostatic Response Functions
6. Isostasy and the Physical Nature of the Lithosphere
7. Isostasy and the Origin of Geological Features in the Continents and Oceans
8. Isostasy and the Terrestrial Planets
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Geophysics [PHVG]