Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Equilibrium in the earth's crust such that the forces tending to elevate landmasses balance the forces tending to depress landmasses.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In physical, balance or equilibrium; the property of attaining a condition of stable equilibrium when under the action of permanent stress.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Geol.) The state or quality of being isostatic.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun geology The state of balance or
pressure equilibrium thought to exist within theEarth 'scrust , whereby the upperlithosphere floats on densermagma beneath.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun (geology) a general equilibrium of the forces tending to elevate or depress the earth's crust
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word isostasy.
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
-
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.
-
[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.
-
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 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
qms commented on the word isostasy
With nukes that fly across the sea
We strive to balance bellicosity.
The nations assume
Their mutual doom,
So peace is preserved by isostasy.
February 15, 2017