Viscosity of the mantle from relaxation time spectra of isostatic adjustment

After allowing for the effects of sea level fluctuations, harmonic analysis of the present level of former shoreline features in southeast Fennoscandia indicates that shorter wavelength departures from equilibrium relax more rapidly than longer ones. These observations together with indicated recent secular decreases in the length of the day would seem to confirm that flow in the upper-mantle low-viscosity channel as a result of the Pleistocene glacial loading is the most likely source of the earth's nonhydrostatic bulge.

[1]  F. Bergsten.  Changes of Level on the Coasts of Sweden , 1930 .

[2]  G. MacDonald.  The Deep Structure of Continents. , 1963, Science.

[3]  T. J. Kukkamäki.  On the recent uplift of the earth's crust in Finland , 1954 .

[4]  J. Fotheringham.  Note on the Secular Accelerations of the Sun and Moon as determined from the Ancient Lunar and Solar Eclipses, Occultations, and Equinox Observations , 1920 .

[5]  R. McConnell,et al.  Isostatic adjustment in a layered Earth , 1965 .

[6]  W. M. Kaula.  Tesseral harmonics of the Earth's gravitational field from camera tracking of satellites , 1966 .

[7]  E. Orowan.  Convection in a non-Newtonian mantle, continental drift, and mountain building , 1965, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences.

[8]  Chi‐yuen Wang.  Earth's zonal deformations. , 1966 .

[9]  N. A. Haskell.  The Viscosity of the Asthenosphere , 1937 .

[10]  M. Crittenden.  Effective viscosity of the Earth derived from isostatic loading of Pleistocene Lake Bonneville , 1963 .

[11]  D. McKenzie.  The viscosity of the lower mantle , 1966 .

[12]  G. Woollard.  The Land of the Antarctic , 1962 .

[13]  R. Gordon.  Diffusion creep in the Earth's mantle , 1965 .

[14]  H. Takeuchi,et al.  Viscosity Distribution within the Earth , 1965 .

[15]  H. Gams.  Die Geschichte der Ostsee , 1929 .

[16]  B. Gutenberg.  Changes in sea level, postglacial uplift, and mobility of the earth's interior , 1941 .