In the interior of continents the earth's crust is typically about 40 km thick and the elevation is near sea level. In the Himalayas the crust is more than 60km thick

Isostasy says crust thicker than this average should produce elevated terrain (mountains), so why isn't the elevation of the Himalayas 20km?


In isostasy the mass of the entire column is balanced, not the just the part that is uplifted, with mountain "roots" compensating the uplift. The analogy of different thickness of blocks of wood floating water is an excellent analogy to use here, so the actual elevation may be several km compensated by a root beneath the mountains.

Environmental & Atmospheric Sciences

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