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Why is the Indonesia area so red on that map? I get that other red spots have tall mountains... but why Indonesia?
by marknadal 9y ago
Why is the Indonesia area so red on that map?
I get that other red spots have tall mountains... but why Indonesia?
- wahern 9y agoContinental crust is less dense than marine crust. So just because the Himalayas are tall, they also displace denser mantle below, so they don’t contribute much more to gravitational pull. The Andes and Indonesia are strong subduction zones. Besides the crust on the surface, there’s another layer of (dense oceanic) crust below adding to the pull. -- Darren #44 comment at http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/03/31/the-earths-lumpy-gravity/ See, also, the following paper, which catalogs how the angle of subduction effects the gravimetric profile. Harabaglia, Paolo & Doglioni, Carlo. (1998). Topography and gravity across subduction zones. Geophysical Research Letters - GEOPHYS RES LETT. 25. 703-706. 10.1029/98GL00137.