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Definition 2024


isostasy

isostasy

English

Noun

isostasy (usually uncountable, plural isostasies)

  1. (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.
    • 2003, Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything, BCA, p. 155:
      The process of vertical movement, known as isostasy, was a foundation of geological belief for generations, though no-one had any really good theories as to how or why it happened.
    • 2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society 2011, p. 173:
      A great thickness of comparatively light sedimentary rocks accumulating in a geosyncline would ultimately ‘rebound’ because of isostasy – like a depressed rubber duck bouncing back upwards in a bath.

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