isostasy

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ʌɪˈsɒstəsi/

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, 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

• glacioisostasy

Related terms

• isostatic
• isostatics

Translations

the state of balance of the Earth's lithosphere floating on the magma

• Finnish: isostasia (fi)
• French: isostasie (fr)
• Greek: ισοστασία (el) f (isostasía)
• Hungarian: izosztázia
• Icelandic: flotjafnvægi n
• Irish: iseastacht f
• Tagalog: katigalan, katiglan