Link to USGS home page
USGS Home
Contact USGS
Search USGS
Coastal & Marine Geology InfoBank

USGS CMG InfoBank: Isostatic Equilibrium

Skip navigational links
Search InfoBank
Home tab FACS tab Activities tab Atlas tab Geology School tab More tab More tab Geology School tabs
   
Dictionaries: The USGS and Science Education   USGS Fact Sheets   Topics   Keywords   Data Dictionary   Metadata Dictionary   Computer Terminology   Digital Formats
InfoBank Terms: Activity ID   activity overview   crew   formal metadata   lines   metadata   NGDC   port stops   project/theme   region   ship   stations   time   virtual globe   year  
Data Types: bathymetry   geodetic positioning   gravity   ground penetrating radar   imagery   LIDAR   magnetics   metering equipment   navigation   samples   seismic   definitions disclaimer  
Data Formats: ARC coverage   E00   FGDC metadata   gridded/image   imaging   material   scattered/swath   Shapefile   vector/polygon  
   
Comment: 22:10 - 23:35 (01:25)

Source: Annenberg/CPB Resources - Earth Revealed - 7. Mountain Building

Keywords: isostasy, crust, gravity, mountain, orogeny, uplift, erosion, mantle, craton, "Jason Saleeby"

Our transcription: Isostasy is the process by which different thickness and different density irregularities in the outer Earth float in gravitational equilibrium with one another.

When you build up a large mountain range, you're liable to have a root underneath and a lot of material piled up high on the Earth's surface, and, ultimately, if you don't have forces to keep it piled up, that is going to tend to want to equilibrate and float in gravitational equilibrium with the other areas around it.

As mountain belts uplift and late in their stages, they may begin to actually undergo extensional collapse or breaking apart at the high levels due to the force of gravity.

At their deeper levels, there may be plastic flow underneath them or compensation by flow in the mantle in order to let whatever root that exists to equilibrate and to come to gravitational equilibrium with the mantle and a lower crust around it.

During this stage of ultimate isostatic equilibration, if there are no longer major forces uplifting the mountain range, then erosion will ultimately win out over the uplift process, and the mountain belt will be beveled to a much flatter lower relief surface.

At this stage the mountain belt is well on its way to becoming part of the craton.

Geology School Keywords

Skip footer navigational links


InfoBank   Menlo Park & Santa Cruz Centers   St. Petersburg Center   Woods Hole Center   Coastal and Marine Geology Program   Geologic Information   Ask-A-Geologist   USGS Disclaimer  

FirstGov button   Take Pride in America button