kingwinner Posted September 29, 2005 Report Share Posted September 29, 2005 1) Isostatic adjustment suggests that added weight to the crust make it sinks to reach a new balance. If so, it seems to me that mountains can never build up because they can never get higher...? (as curst gets thicker, it sinks, so keeping at the same level?) 2) Depositions on ocean floor coming from a river make the crust to sink (isostatic adjustment), creating gulfs. How? And how, for example, this adjustment created the Gulf of Mexico? The crust simply sinks but keeping at the same level...I don't understand! 3) "An anticline is an upcurved fold in which the oldest layer is in the center of the fold."This is a defintion from my text book but I am puzzled by the bolded part...what center? why oldest? :doh: Can someone please explain? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UncleAl Posted September 29, 2005 Report Share Posted September 29, 2005 Isostatic adjustment suggests that added weight to the crust make it sinks to reach a new balance. If so, it seems to me that mountains can never build up because they can never get higher...?Thermodynamics proposes, kinetics disposes. Even given real time kinetics and a cubic mountain, you simply build height at half the rate of surface thickness deposition. Strive for understandng not rote memorization. You don't merely want the nut torqued, you want the wrench that does the torquing - and not a pair of pliers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingwinner Posted October 2, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2005 I am working hard to understand 1) I am guessing that the sinking rate is slowing than mountain building rate, so overall the mountain is still rising...and the same thing with erosion, right? When erosion occurs, the mass and weight of the mountain decrease, so it rises, but erosion is occuring much faster, so the mountain is still getting lower and lower! But there is one more thing I am curious (more physics), the force of gravity of the mountain (force of crust on mantle) and buoyant force (force of mantle on crust). Are these two forces action-reaction force pair or NOT? (I am guessing NOT) 2) Maybe depositions from rivers on the ocean floor make the ocean floor sink faster than the level/thickness of deposition piles up, and thus overall the ocean floor is sinking...and this lowers the area which creates gulfs like the Gulf of Mexico! That's what I am thinking... 3) I still don't get what the definition means by "center"...by center, does it mean horizontally like imagining a horizontal line crossing the fold? Or vertically? Or simply the real center of the fold? (see figure for an anticline) The blue point or the red point? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tormod Posted October 2, 2005 Report Share Posted October 2, 2005 It doesn't matter. It means the innermost layer will be the oldest in this case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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