Flexure of the lithosphere

Summary

Flexure of the lithosphere is the bending of the Earth's rigid outer layer under a load. Typical loads are volcanic islands, mountain belts and ice sheets. The lithosphere is modelled as a thin elastic plate floating on a fluid mantle, as in Kirchhoff–Love plate theory. The model predicts a moat around the load and a low bulge further out, both seen in seafloor topography and gravity. Fitting it to data gives the effective elastic thickness of the lithosphere, a measure of its strength.