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These lecture notes discuss the role of buoyancy, flexure, and erosion in the earth's topography and the lifetime of mountain ranges. It recalls Pascal's law that pressure of a material overlying a fluid is equal everywhere at a given depth and Archimedes' principle that a body in a fluid is buoyed up with a force equal to the weight (mass x volume) of the displaced fluid. Continents are buoyant crust floating on denser mantle, so a 4 km high mountain range must have a 20 km deep root. According to Archimedes' principle, when mountain ranges erode, pressure is released from the surface and the mountain root is bouyed up to equalize the pressure. Continental crust is about 40 km thick, so it is strong enough to support smaller topographic loads, like small volcanoes, without the aid of a buoyant root.
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Part of the Cutting Edge collection. The NAGT/DLESE On the Cutting Edge project helps geoscience faculty stay up-to-date with both geoscience research and teaching methods.
