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Isostatic Topography Calculation

This material was originally created for On the Cutting Edge: Professional Development for Geoscience Faculty
and is replicated here as part of the SERC Pedagogic Service.

Colin Shaw, University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire
Course: Structural Geology
12-18 students
Students remember what they have seen and done much better than they remember what you have told them.

The Activity

I do an in-class demonstration and activity on calculating isostasic topography across a hypothetical mountain range. It provides:

  1. a review of fundamental concept that students need to understand in the course
  2. easy practice to get students' 'math muscles' in shape, and
  3. an introduction to the concepts of force (gravity), stress (pressure), and strain (thickened lithosphere) that I use to segue into the topics of the first week.