2 Rapid eustatic changes-

never globally uniform

Wil(y Fjeldskaar
R ogaland Research Institute, PO Box 2503, N 4004 Stavanger, Norway

The classical definilion of custasy is vertical movemcrns of sea leve), which were originally believed lO be worldwidc
simultaneous uniform changes. However, changcs in distribution of the Earth's mass bring about geoid changcs, and
rcsulting changcs of sea lcvcl may vary significan ti y ovcr thc globc. Accordingly, it is difficult to imagine any significant
sea-level changcs which are globally uniform.
The geoid is defined as thc cquipotcntial surfacc of thc Eanh's gravitational ficld that corrcsponds lO thc sea Je,·el. Any
process causing sca-levcl movemcms changcs the gravity field. This chapter focuses on thc supposcdly most important cause
of ra pid sea-leve) variations, namely glaciarionfdeglaciat ion.
Calculations of gravity changes due to glaciationfdcglaciation show that thc resulting sca-lcvel movcments diffcr
significamly over t.hc globc. During a dcglaciation therc is no uniform worldwidc rise in sea levcl duc 10 an incrcascd vol u me
of ocean water; in the rcgion near thc former glacicr there is actually a fall in sea levcl. During thc dcglaciation in
Scandinavia, the sea level pcrhaps fell severa) tens ofmctcrs. Thc arca whcrc thc sea levcl falls has a lateral cx tcnt ofscvcral
hundred kilometers. Outsidc this arca thc sea level riscs.
Funhermorc, it is demonstrated that rapid sea-leve! changcs, regardless of cause, give rise to processes which alter the
geoid. Rapid custatic changcs are thus ncvcr uniform ovcr the globe. Processes of more long-tcrrn eustatic change, such as
changes in thc occan ridgc systerns and small-scalc sedimcntation, probably cannot take place ci ther without altering thc
gcoid.
Geoidal custasy is an importam cffcct, and must be takcn into account in corrclations of sea lcvcl changcs. This implics
that any custatic curve claiming to be global may be questioncd.

INTRODUCTION (d ) other eustatic processes, such as thermal expansionf

contraction of the ocean water and production of
The word 'eustasy' (Greek, ev=good, stasis= position) was water by volcanocs.
first proposed by Eduard Sucss ( 1888). His studies of
Great effort has been spent on constructing global e us tatic
T eniary stratigraphy indicated thar transgressions took
curves for thc Quaternary (e.g. Fairbridge, 1961 ) as well as
place simultaneously all over Europe. Marine sediments
for the emire Phanerozoic. The most well known curves for
above the present sea level were explained by movement~
long-term changes are the 'Exxon curves' (Vail el al., 1977;
ofthe occan level. However, while the sea-level record was
Haq el al., 1987) . The methodology u pon whicb these
influenced , to a certain extent, by local tectonics, Suess
curves are based (stratigraphic models and ch ronostrati-
found no sign oflargc-scale vertical movements ofthe sol id
graphic interprctations}, has been criticized and the global
Earth. He assumed that changes in sea level were caused
universality ofthe curves has been questioned (e.g. Miall,
by climatic variations, tectonic movements, volcanism
1986) . Tbe intcntion oftbis chapter is 10 show, theoretically
a nd , most importantly, sedimentation.
ancl numerical ly, that tbe processes causing rapid custatic
Eustasy is commonly defined as globally uruform sca-
changes do not operate without significamly influencing
level changes. The theory of classical eustasy ( Fairbridge,
the gra,;ty ficld, resulúng in non-unjform sea-level changes
1961 ) distinguished between different types of eustaric
over the globe. We will focus on the most important causes
changes of sea level:
of e us tatic cha nge, glaciations, sedimenlation ancl varia-
(a} tectono-eustasy caused by volcanism, development tions ofthe ocean ridge system. The non-uniformity ofthe
of fold belts and oceanic trenches and isostatic rapid eustatjc change is illustrated by a series of calculations
movements; of the geoid changes associatcd with the last glaciation in
(b) sedimento-custasy caused by sedimcn tation; Europe.
(e) glacio-eus tasy caused by glaciations; It is also shown that rapicl changcs in sea level, such as

CAml~ttio• m Hpfrl)(nrbon Expl•rntion © Norwcgian Pcrrolcum Socicry (Craham & Troaman. 1989) pp. 13- 19.
14 Corrtlation in H;·drorarbon Explora/ion

those reponed by Vail el al. ( 1977), whatever rheir cause, mentation, etc. ) and interna! (mantle flow , corc/mantle
lead lO subsidence of the ocean noor and to significan! changcs etc.) processes.
uplift of the continents. The crustal movements affect the An up-to-date definition of eustasy is vertical changes of
geoid, giving non-uniform custatir changes. sea leve!, regard less ofcausation (Morner, 1976), and these
are ccrt ainly not globally uniform (except for sea-leve)
effects due to possible changes in the volume of the
THE GEOID hydrosphere or expansion/contraction of the Eanh) .
Eustasy is of three types:
lt was already well known in thc 19th century that the
( 1) G lacial-eustasy ís controlled by variation of the
mass of mountains causes considerable deAeclions of the
occan water volume. Thr most cffective mcchanism for
plumb linc. Pratt ( 1855) claimcd that this would cause
such varía tions is, ofcoursc, glacia tionfdeglaciatio n. Thcse
a rise in sea leve! in the vicinity of the mountains, and
variations are ofshon timescale, rcsulting in rapid sca-level
presented numerical ca lcula tions of this e ffect. The irre-
Auctuations, and would account for the oscillations of sea
gular ocea n leve) was later named ' the geoid' (Listing,
level inferred for the Oligoccne-Miocene and onwards
1873) . (Tanner, 1968; Rona, 1973), for the Permian and for the
The geoid is a n equipotential surface of the Earth's
Ordovician p .1orner, 1987) . In addition, oxygen-isotope
g ravitationa l field, corresponding to sea level. Sea level can
clara indicate ice build-up cvcn in the ea rl y T ertiary
be measured only over oceans, but the geoid is a complete,
(Matthews, 1983) . Glacial-eustatic changes thus provide
closed surface. Under the con tinents the geoid can be
an cxplanat'ion for most of the third-order cydcs of the
thought of as the surface defincd by the water level in
' Exxon curves'.
narrow ca nals cu t to sea leve! through the land masses.
(2) Tcctono-eustasy is ro ntrolled by variation of thc
Wherc there are local variations in g, due to interna!
ocean basin volume. The most importan! factors in such
density anomalies, the geoid is distoned. A mathcmatiral
changcs are scdimentatio n (Hays and Pitman, 1973) and
figure representing the sea-Ievel surface with all irregul-
varia tions in the vol u me of ocean ridge systems (Pitman,
arities removrd ís named the sphcroíd. Thís would be thc
1978) . lntraplate stresses (C iocting h el al. , 1985) may
sea-leve! surface ofan Earth with no lateral varialions in
p rovidc a tcctonic mechanism for short-term sctl-lcvel
density. Thc differcnce in clevation bctween rhe mcasurcd
changrs.
geoid and the sphcroid is callcd rhc geoid anomaly. A map
(3) C coidal eustasy is caused by variations in the
of rhe gcoid a nomaly is shown in Fig. l.
Earth's gravitational fi eld.
The geoid configuration is not stablc, but changcs over
time duc to changes in the Earth's gravitational field.
Sorne of thc major anomalies illustrated in Fig. 1, such as
the geoid high over New Guinea or the geoid low over DEGLACIATION AND THE GEOID
I ndia, are probably relatcd to rnantle convcction or
plate-tectonic phenomena (cf. Chase, 1979; Ricard el al., Geoidal custasy is change in thc ocean wate1· distribution.
1988) . lt affccts thc occan level g lobally, but the sign and
magnitude ofchanges differ over the globe. The importancc
of the gcoidal eustatic proccss will now be illustratcd by
EUSTATIC CHANGE a theorctical simulation ofgcoid dcformation connectcd to
deglaciation.
Bearing in mind the geoid changcs caused by changcs in Changc in the shape of the gcoid is an often ovcrlooked
the Earth's mass distribution, the concept of eustasy is not effect of dcglaciation, although severa! papers havc de-
straightforward. Sea level is, in general, nol parallel with scribed this efi'ect. The first author tO do so was Penck
the Earth's spheroid, and is not stablc. Gcoid changcs are ( 1882) . He was followed by Woodward ( 1888), who m a de
brought about both by externa! (climate changes, sedi- numerical calculations of thc effecLand concluded that it

c:J BOm
mm ~o Conlour tnl en•ol 10 "'

mm 20
Shodtng trHervol 30 m

~-10

--40
- -70
Fig. l. Thc prcscm shapc of thc gcoid (from Carey, 1981 ).
 Rapid 1!-'ustatir Clwnges .Neuer Global/y Unijorm 15

was certainly significant. The cflect then seems to have

been forgotten fo r many years, u ntil j r nsen ( 1972) revived
the subjcct. In recent years severa! authors writing about
postglacial uplift and sea-leve! changes have taken this
effect into accou nt (c.g. Cathles, 1975, 1980; C lark,
Farrell and Clark, 1976; Clark, Far rell and Peltier, 1978;
Fjeldskaar, 1978, 1981 ; Fjeldskaar and Kanestmm, 1980;
Peltier, 1980; Wolf, 1985; Nakada and Lambeck, 1987).
As most of these studies are concerned with global post-
glacial sea-leve! changes, the importance ofgeoidal custasy
near previous ice shee1s is nol easily extracted.
1n thc following calcuJa1ions, thc isolated effect of
geoidal eustasy is ill ust rated in connection with glacia l ion/
deglaciation ancl relatcd crustal uplift in Fcnnoscandia
and the Barcnts Sea. The glaciation data used in the
calcu la1ions an: based on lhc last glaciation, bul the
rcsulting geoidal effec1 can be applied lo o1hcr glaciation
pcriods as well. In fact, 1he extenl ofthe last great ice sheet
in Euro pe seems to be small than previous ice sheets, and is
ccrtainl y smaller than the Canadian ice sheet.
T he maxjmum extenl (at 20 000 years BP) ofth e las t ice
sheet in Europc is shown in Fig. 2 (Dcnton and H ughes,
1981 ) . Let us first assumc tha1 1hc ice sheet m elts rapidly.
This is not what happcned in this particu lar case (rapid Fig. 3. T hcorctical deflec tion of the geoid causcd by an
dcglaciation migh1, however, have occurrcd in other instantancous clcg laciation of thc ice sheet o f Fig. 2. T hc con tour
periods), but it gi\'es usa fceling for thc geoidal effect. The intrrval is lOm.
calcula1 ions are carried out using a Fourier transform
1cchnique, using equation (3) of the Appendix. The
calculatcd geoidal euwuic effcct in central arcas ofthc ice
sheet is rlose 10 100 m ( Fig. 3). T his is the fall of the geoid
caused by a rapicl (instantaneous) deglaciation, or the rise
of the geoid caused by a rapici glaciation. Notice also the
large diffcrencc in geoiclal effect in the North Sea ancl the
Barents Sea, up to 30-40 m.
However, a realistir simulation of the geoidal eustatic
eAccts connected to the deglaciation requires consicleration
of the deglaciation history. From the marginal moraines of
different ages wc know that dcglaciation took place over
a time span ofabout 1O 000 years. The deglaciation history
used (Figs 2 and 4-6) was compiled by B. G. Andcrsen
(Den ton and Hughes, 198 1). Duri ng deglaciation the

Fig. 4. The ice sheet at 15 000 BP. T hc con tOur in terval is

400 m (ice sheet margins are rcdrawn after Den ton and Hughcs,
1981 ) .

crust is uplifted to approach a new state of equilibrium

consisten1 with the rernoval of ice: this is the isostatic
process. When there is a very slow d eglaciation, the related
geoidal euslatic deflec1ions tend tO be smeared out,
because lost ice mass is compensated for by increased
crustal masses.
Cathles ( 1975) la id the theoretical foundations necessary
to model the isostatic adjustments of a (Maxwell) visco-
elastic Earth, in which viscosity varics with depth. A Aat-
Earth approximation is uscd herc. A study of postglacial
Fig. 2. Thc cx tcnt and thickncss of thc ice sheet in Europe at uplift in Scandinavia has revealed the necessary information
thc last glacial maximum (20 000 BP) . Thc con tour intcrval is about the lithosphere and mande to permita simulation of
4·00m (rcdrawn aftcr Dcnton and Hugh cs, 1981 ) . the geoidal eustasy in the arca (Fjeldskaa r and Cathles,
16 C11Trtlation in Hydrowrbon l::xploralion

Fig. 5. The ice sheet at 10000 BP. Thc contour intcrva1 is Fig. 7. Theoretica1 geoid deformar ion at 15 000 BP eaused by
400 m (ice sheet margins are redrawn aftcr Den ton and Hughcs, thc observcd deglaciation. The conto ur intcrval is 5 m
1981 ).

Fig. 8. Thcorctical geoid defonnation at 9000 BP causcd by

Fig. 6. The ice sheet at 9300 BP. The con tour interva1is 400 m thc obscrved deglaciation. Thc contour intcrval is 5 m.
(ice sheet margins are redrawn after Den ton and Hughcs, 1981 ) .

change bascd on this Eanh rheology and the above glacial

1987). In that study it was shown that the best fit with the history is prcsented in Figs 7 a nd 8.
observed present rate ofuplift in Norway is achieved with Thc modcllcd ice melting startcd at 20 000 BP, mainly
a lithosphere of mechanical thickness 80 km and a mantle in thc Barcnts Sea, and at 19 000 BP there is a growing
viscosity of 1.0 x 1022 poise, except for a 75 km astheno- gcoid deformation in this arca. The deformation in the
sphere of viscosity 1.3 x 1020 poise. Ba rents Sea increases to about 3 1 m a t 15 000 BP (Fig. 7) .
T he ice sheet is assumed to have been in isostatic After 15 000 BP the deformation begins to decrease, while
equilibrium prior to 20 000 BP. Thus there is no geoid deformation in Scandinavia is devdoping. At 9000 BP thc
deflection in the area. Melting of the ice started at geoid is almost back to normal in the Barents Sea, and at
20 000 BP and continued until the arca became ice-free at the same time the geoid deformation in Scandinavia is at
8500 BP. The melting from one ice sheet configuration to a maximum of about 25m (Fig. 8) . From 9000 BP to the
the next (shown in Figs 2 and 4-6) is modelled wirh present thc geoid slowly returns to the undcformed state.
uniform speed. The theoretical history of gcoidal eustatic At prcsem thc geoid is approximatcly 2m from equilibríum.
 Rapid Eustatic Challgts- Ntvtr Global/y Uniform 17

EFFECT OF SEA LEVEL RISE

g ----------~--------~r---------,----------,
/".... ORDER NO . t O
,-· •• ORDER NO . 2
-'~~ -- ---:-:_:-:_:
-.:;--:.:-:.:-~-=.;--
:..:-:.:-.::.--::..:-::..::-:.=¡- • EQU t Lt BR t UM

5l
1

ª1
~--------~----------~----------L---------~
o 5 10 15 20
llme l 1000 ~earsl

Fig. 9. Effccts ofsca-levcl risc, rcgardlcss of causat.ion. Thc sca-levcl risc i~ assu"?cd to takc pla~c a t. uniform spcc? ovcr 10 000 yca~.
The horizontal axis shows time aftcr thc start ofsca-lcvcl changc, and the vcrucal ax1s shows deOccnons 111 the pcrccntage oftotal sea-le\ el
rise.

GLACIAL EUSTASY IN GENERAL Sedhnentation

Sed ime11tation is a much slower process than g laciation/
Let us now look a t glacial eustasy from a more genera l deglaciation, giving the crust a. ~hance to main~ai~
global point ofvicw. Any sea-leve! change causes deflection isostatic equilibrium during deposn10n. However, th1s 1s
of the ocean Aoor, hydro-isostasy, to attain isosratic the case only when the deposits are of long wavelength.
cquilibrium. The hydro-isostasy is approximarely one- A load ofshort wavelength will be balanced entirely by the
third of the sea-leve! change. The continents are simul- lithosphere. The wavclength ofthe surface load is so smaU
tancously deAectecl , with a mean magnitude over rhc that rhe lithosphere is effectively infinite, and no buoyant
continents that is twice the deAection of the ocean Aoor. forces are active. For a lithosphere of flexura! rigidiry
This is due to the fact that the oceanic arca is double the 5 x 1023 Nmanda load wavelength ofless than 200 km , the
land arca. These points are illusrrated in Fig. 9. load is more than 95° 0 supported by the lithosphere (Fig.
The process of hydro-isostasy and its influence on sea 1O) (Fjeldskaar and Pallesen, 1989). Then eh ere is o~! y
leve! has been examined by severa! authors (e.g. Walcott, negligible isostalÍc movem~nt, and ~ny mass anom~hes
1972; Chappell, 1974). An interesting implication of cause deflections of the geo•d, accordmg to the equauons
hydro-isostasy is the fact that the sea-leve! history will ( 1)-(3) (see the Appendix) .
differ between occanic islands and continental margins. J\ssuming dcposition within a small circular sedimentary
An island moving with the sea floor will record the full basin, with a radius of 50 km, a thickness of 3 km a nd
sea-leve! change, while points near the continents record a sed iment density of 2 g cm - 3 , a geoid deflection of 13m
quite different sea-leve! changes. Thus hydro-isostasy is an above the centre of the basin, decreasing radially, will
imponant factor in determining relative sea-leve! fluctu- form, according to cquation (2) .
ations.
J\nother inreresring consequence of hydro-isostasy is the
fact that neither the ocean flooP' nor the land masses will
achieve isostatic equilibrium during rapid sea-level changes,
regardless of causation. The degree of compensation ~aries w o
(.)

with the wavelength of the load. The mean deflecuon of z

w
o
the ocean Aoor and the continents, calculated for order no. ¡¡; a>
CD ci
2 (wavelength 16000km ) and order no. 10 (wavelength ;:,
<1)
3800 km), is illustrated in Fig. 9. F'or order no. 2 (relaxation ::<
;:, <D
time 800 years; Fjeldskaar and Cathles, unpublished ci
result) there is close isostatic equilibrium during the
a:
CD
::;
sea-leve! change. For order no. JO (relaxation time 3000 5 ,.
years; Fjeldskaar and Cathles, unpublished result) the ow o
deAection is clearly delayed comparcd to the sea-levcl I.L
o
change, giving rise ro geoidal deAections over the oceans as z
(\)

o
well as over the continents. o
¡:
(.)
~ o
a: cio
I.L 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600
TECTONO-EUSTASY AND THE GEOID WAVELENGTH (Km)

As mentioned above, the most important fac tors inAuenc- Fig. 10. Subsidencc of the base of 1he lithospherc, rclative to
ing changes of the ocean basin vol u me .are sedimentation cquilibrium subsidencc. Thc Acxura l rigidity is 5 x 10,' Nm
and variations in the vol u me of ocean ndge systems. (from fjeldskaar and Pallcscn, 1989).
18 Corrtlalion in Hydrocarbon l:.xploration

Change in spreading rate a tcctonic mechanism for regiona l sea lcvcl variations. J:.'arth
P/auet. Sri. Lttt., 75, 157 166.
Ricard et al. (1988) have presented calculations of the Dcnton, G. H . and Hughcs, T. J . 1981. Tht Last Great fu Sltuts,
effect of lateral variations in the upper mantle viscosity j ohn Wilcy, Chichcstcr.
connected to diverging or converging continental masscs. Fairbridgc, R. W. 1961. Eustatic changcs in sea leve l. Phy.r. Chcm.
They conclude that largc-scaJe gcoid deRections will Earth, 4, 99- 185.
occur, with magnitudes dcpending on the plate velocities. Farrcll, \·V. E. and Clark, J. A. 1976. On postglacial sea lvcl.
Geoplrys.]. R. Astron. Sor., 46, 647- 667.
The large-scale geoid mínimum d eflection located at
Fjcldskaar, W, 1978. Om hevede strand linjcr. Cand. Real.
a diverging plate boundary, assuming a velocity of Thesis. Univ. Bcrgcn, Norway.
1Ocm yr - 1 , could be 60 m. 1t is suggested that the lndian Fjeldskaar, W. 1981. Late-glacial movemems of sea lcvel and
geoid low (or parts of ir) could be explained in this way. crust in Fennoscandia. Dr. Scient. Thcsis. Un iv. Bergcn,
Thus it seems very unlikcly that tectono-eus tasy (with No rway.
tbe cxccption of large-scalc sedimcntation) could opera te Fjcldskaar, W. and Cathlcs, L. M. 1987. Structure ofmantle and
without introducing large gcoidal eustatic effects. lithosphere infcrred from post-glacial uplift. RtfJort 110. PRC
T-5/87, R ogaland R esearch lnstitute.
fjcldskaa r, W. a nd Kan es tr0m, R . 1980. Youngcr Dryas gcoid-
CONCLUSIONS deformation causcd by deglaciation in Fcnnoscandia. 1n:
Morner, N. A. (cd.), Earth Rl1tolog;•. /sostas.:r and EuslOSJ'. J ohn
Wilcy, Chichcster, 569- 574.
Eustatic sca-levcl changes are nevcr globally uniform,
F:icldskaar, W. and Pallcscn, S. 1989. The application ol'
because any cause of sea-level change simult aneously a viscoelastic lithospherc model to isostatic subsidcnce in back-
affects the Earth's gcoid. Reconstruction ofthc ocean level stripping. 1n : Collinson,.J . (ed.), Conrlation in I~J·drocarbon l~xplo­
is thus more complicated than is usually imagined. Eustatic ration, Norwcgian Pctrol. Soc., Graham & Trotman, Lonclon.
changcs have thrce main causes; ( 1) glacial custasy, (2} Hays, J . D. and Piunan !Ir, W. C. 1973. Lithospherir platc
tectono-custasy and (3) geoidal eustasy. motion. sca-lc,•cl changcs and dimatic and ccological con-
This chaptcr has focuscd on the geoidal eustatic changcs scqucnccs. .\'ature, 246, 18 22.
related to the dcglaciation of thc last great ice sheet in Haq. B. U., Hardcnbol,J. ancl Vail, P. R. 1987. Chronology of
Europc, which has been shown to be a significant factor in Auctualing sci\ lcvcls sinee the Triassic. Science, 235, 11 56 11G7.
Hclmcrt. F. R. 1884. Dir malhematisrhen und Jil!yrikalischmtluorim
sea-levcl changes. The results of our calculations indica te
dtr Hohtrtll Ctodiisie, B. C. Teubner, Leipzig.
a fall in sea level in the vicinity ofthe former ice cap, causcd j enscn, H. 1972. Holocene sea-lcvcl ilnd geoid-dcformation. Bu/l.
by a gravitational changc related LO the d eglaciatio n. Gro/. Soc. De11mark, 21 , 374-38 1.
lL has a lso becn shown that any rapid changc in thc Listing, J. B. 1873. Übcr unsere jctzigc Kcnntnissc der Gcstalt
ocean water vol u me will affcct the gcoid. 1t is thus strongly und Grossc dcr Erdc, líolliJ:I. Grs. ll'iss. Gottingtn, .Vachriclttm. 3.
suggestcd that rapid eustatic sea-leve! changes are nevcr 33 100.
globally unifol'rn. Manhews, R. K. 1983. Oxygcn iso topc record of ice-volume
Not even processes of more long-tcrm eustatic changc, history: 100 mi Ilion ycars of glaci-custalic sea-leve! Auctui'ltions.
such as variations of ocean ridge systems or small-scale In: Schlee,J. S. (ed.), lnttrrel:iollal UnconformitirJ a11d H_rdrorarbotl
sedimentation, scem to occur without affecting the geoid. Aaumulalion, AAPG Memoir 36, 97 107.
Thus any e usta tic curve claimed LO be global may be Miall, A. D. 1986. Eustatic sea leve! changes intcrprctcd fi·om
scismic stra tigraphy: a critique of t:he mcthodology with
questioned: rathcr, in the future more effort should be
¡>'articular rcfcrence 10 thc North Sea Jurassic record.. I:IPG
spent on constructing regional eustatic curves. Bu/l. , 70, 131 137.
Morncr, N. -A. 1976. Eustasy ancl gcoid changcs. ]. Ceo/ .. 84,
123 151.
ACKNO~DGEMENTS Morncr, N. -A. 1987. Pre-Quaternary long-tcrm changes in sea
levcl. In: Dcvoy, R.J. N. (ed. ),StaSurfactStuditj, Croom Hclm,
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sion to reproduce copyright material ( Fig. 1) was grantcd rclative sca-lcvcl variations: a ncw appraisal. Geoplrys. J. R.
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Pcltier, W. R . 1980. l ccsheets,occansand thc Earth'sshapc. In:
1 thank the refcrce, Sierci Cloetingh, for his constructivc
Morner, N. A. (cd.), Earth Rheology. lsostas;• and l:.'ustas_¡•. j ohn
comments. Wilcy, Chich<'Ster, 45- 63.
Penck, A. 1882. Schwankungen des 1\leeresspicgcl. Gtogr. Gts.
Miinchen, 7, 1 70.
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APPENDIX
For a sphcrical Ear th, thc geoid deformation s(y) at a distancc T hc above app roximations can be used for rough esúmates of
)' fi·om a point mass m is (H clmert, 1884): geoid dcformation. For a more accurate estima te the load can be
a nalyscd into its ha rmonie compo nents using thc Fouricr trans-
mR form tcchnique, whieh allows an ape riodic func tion (s uch as ice
s(y ) = - (Rfy- 1), ( 1)
¡\/ distribution) to be cxprcsscd asan integral su m O\'er a continuous
range of waq~ 11umbers (the inversc of wavc1cngths) .
whcre R and M are thc Earth's radius and mass, respcctively. For a harmoni c load, th c gcoicl dcfo rm a tion is givc n by thc
For a circul ar mass anomaly ofradius a a nd uniform thi t kn ess ana lyti cal exprcssion (Cathles. 1975):
T. thc geoid d cfo rm ation (s 0 ) of the centre is (Hclmert, 188•~ ) :
4/t(L )rrGp,R
3p nT s(l.) (3)
s = -1 - (2) (2L+ l )go'
o 2po R
wherc Lis the ordcr numbcrofthc load ( L = 2rrRfl. - t J; and !t( /. J
where p1 and Po are thc density of thc mass anomaly and of thc and p 1 are the amplirudc a nd d ensit y ofth c lo:~ d, respcctively, G.
Ea rth. rcspcct ive ly. is thc g ra\·itationa l constant a nd !lo is th c surfacc g ravity.