isostasy

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English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Etymology

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From iso- +‎ Ancient Greek στάσις (stásis, a standing).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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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, page 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, published 2011, page 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.
    • 2022, Thomas Halliday, Otherlands, Penguin, published 2023, page 247:
      When a continent carries an ice sheet, the weight of that sheet distorts the equilibrium, the isostasy that causes the crust to float as it does.

Derived terms

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Translations

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