Stress in the earth's lithosphere
The occurrence of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are dramatic, often catastrophic, demonstrations of stresses within the lithosphere at work. Over geologic time these stresses give rise to plate motions and cause the uplift of mountains and subsidence of ocean basins. Understanding the distribution of forces in the lithosphere, and the evolution of those forces with time, is clearly fundamental to many problems in the varied disciplines of the Earth sciences.
Through refinement of plate tectonics theory over the past two decades, there has been a greatly improved understanding of the geometric and temporal movements between the major plates. To make the next quantum leap in understanding geologic phenomena, a greatly improved knowledge of howplate tectonics works will be required. This will require better knowledge of the forces that act in the crust and the strength and deformational properties of crustal materials. This knowledge is required to better understand the relative...
Bibliography
- Anderson, E. M., 1951, The Dynamics of Faulting and Dyke Formation with Applications to Britain, 2nd ed. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd.Google Scholar
- Brace, W. F., and D. L. Kohlstedt, 1980, Limits on lithospheric stress imposed by laboratory experiments, Jour. Geophys. Research 85, 6248–6252.Google Scholar
- Forsythe, D., and S. Uyeda, 1975, On the relative importance of the driving forces of plate motion, Royal Astron. Soc. Geophys. Jour. 43, 163–199.Google Scholar
- Jaeger, J. C., and N. G. W. Cook, 1969, Fundamentals of Rock Mechanics, 2nd ed. London: Methuen and Co.Google Scholar
- Hanks, T. C., and C. B. Raleigh, 1980, The conference on magnitude of deviatoric stresses in the Earth's crust and uppermost mantle, Jour. Geophys. Research 85, 6083–6085.Google Scholar
- Kanamori, H., 1980. The state of stress in the Earth's lithosphere, Physics of the Earth's Interior, vol. 78. Bologna: Soc. Italiana di Fisica, 531–554.Google Scholar
- Kirby, S. H., 1980. Tectonic stresses in the lithosphere: Constraints provided by the experimental deformation of rocks, Jour. Geophys. Research 85, 6353–6363.Google Scholar
- Meissner, R., 1986, The Continental Crust. Orlando, Fla.: Academic Press.Google Scholar
- Richardson, R. M., S. C. Solomon, and N. H. Sleep, 1979, Tectonic stress in the plates, Rev. Geophysics Space Physics 17, 981–1019.Google Scholar
- Sibson, R. H., 1983, Continental fault structure and the shallow earthquake source, Geol. Soc. London Jour. 140, 741–767.Google Scholar
- Zoback, M. D., and J. H. Healy, 1984, Friction, faulting, and in-situ stress, Annales Geophysicae 2, 689–698.Google Scholar
- Zoback, M. L., and M. D. Zoback, 1987, Tectonic stress field of the continental U.S., in L. Pakiser and W. Mooney, eds., Geophysical Framework of the Continental United States, Geol. Soc. America Mem., in press.Google Scholar
Cross-references
- Continental Collision Zones: Seismotectonics and Crustal Structural; Continental Drilling: Ultradeep; Continental Lithosphere; Continental Rifting; Crustal Movements and Tectonic Deformation; Deformation of Rocks and Minerals; Earthquake Mechanisms; Earthquake Mechanisms and Plate Tectonics; Earthquakes and Crustal Deformation; Lithosphere: Mechanical Properties; Mantle Viscosity; Seismicity: Intraplate; Seismicity and Plate Tectonics; Subduction Zones; Thin-Skin Tectonics.