Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Equilibrium in the earth's crust such that the forces tending to elevate landmasses balance the forces tending to depress landmasses.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In physical, balance or equilibrium; the property of attaining a condition of stable equilibrium when under the action of permanent stress.
Wiktionary
- n. geology The state of balance or pressure equilibrium thought to exist within the Earth's crust, whereby the upper lithosphere floats on denser magma beneath.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Geol.) The state or quality of being isostatic. general equilibrium in the earth's crust, supposed to be maintained by the yielding or flow of rock material beneath the surface under gravitative stress. By the theory of
isostasy each unit column of the earth, from surface to center, has approximately the same weight, and the continents stand higher than the ocean beds chiefly because the material of the crust has there less density.
WordNet 3.0
- n. (geology) a general equilibrium of the forces tending to elevate or depress the earth's crust
Etymologies
- From iso- + Ancient Greek στάσις. (Wiktionary)
- iso- + Greek stasis, a standstill; see stā- in Indo-European roots + -y2. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Hasterok, D., and D.S. Chapman, Continental thermal isostasy I: methods and sensitivity, J.”
“The dominant ones were tree rings, and ice cores, but others like varves, pollen, lichens, historic soil temperatures, sea level (eustasy), land levels (isostasy) require similar audits.”
“Dipping an unsweetened madeleine into my coffee, I begin dictating my column, due later that hour, on the recent encyclical reaffirming the doctrine of isostasy (I approve).”
All Things Rich and Amiable: Another Day in the Life of Junior W. Buckeye
“[1] The figure of the earth and isostasy from measurements in the U.S. Dept. of Commerce and Labor, 1909, p. 175.”
“There are a number of facts which support this so-called theory of isostasy, according to which the crust of the earth is not capable of sustaining any very great weight, though it may be at the outside rigid, but is itself essentially like a flexible membrane resting on a layer of viscous fluid.”
“But if the theory of isostasy is true, one would at first say that there could be no great accumulation through a geologic period of stresses which would finally yield in the shape of folded mountain ranges.”
“The figure of the earth and isostasy from measurements in the U.S. Dept. of Commerce and Labor, 1909, p. 175. 2.”
“But this load of sediments, transferred from the dry land to the ocean margins and shallow seas, disturbed the balance of weight (isostasy) which normally keeps the continental platforms above the level of the ocean basins (which as shown by gravity measurement are underlain by materials of higher specific gravity than the continents).”
Dinosaurs With Special Reference to the American Museum Collections
“This state of equilibrium, which was first recognised by Pratt, as part of the dynamics of the Earth's crust, has been named isostasy.”
“Second, Mallorca appears to be particularly well suited to the task, because neither tectonics nor isostasy -- geological forces of crustal motion -- over-complicate the record.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘isostasy’.
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Pet Rocks and Carbon Footprints
Soil samples for stone soup.
palynology, stratigraphy, tse'bit'ai, tse bitai, tse bit ai, bitai, minette, maar, lithosphere, peridotite, gneiss, gabbro and 115 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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phrontistery - i
from phrontistery.info
iamatology, iamb, ianthine, iatraliptic, iatramelia, iatrarchy, iatrochemistry, iatrogenic, iatrology, iatromathematics, iatrophobia, ibidem and 510 more...
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Words of Standing
steed, stool, estancia, stage, stance, staunch, stanch, stanchion, stanza, stative, stator, stay and 180 more...
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Geology
baraboo, monadnock, peneplain, endrumpf, peneplanation, cairngorm, paleooology, stream capture, allochthon, slickensides, graywacke, tectonics and 56 more...
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Glacial Effects
albedo, ablation, crevasse, firn, glacial flour, glacial polish, icefall, jokulhlaup, ice sheet, ice shelf, ice cap, ice stream and 82 more...
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words for Word
nanoparticle, nanoscale, hadron, ultracold, kiffian, intramolecular, triazine, fermion, superfluid, metamaterial, subduction, perovskite and 53 more...
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4Q2009
ya es hora. hagas..., muckender, runagate, sleeping policeman, slot walking, silver mining, escarpment, gabion, isostasy, permeable groin, riprap, tombolo and 6 more...
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