Âé¶¹´«Ã½

The word isostatic rebound

11 January 2003

If you’re reading this in Scandinavia or in the Hudson Bay area of Canada, you’re going up in the world. And if you’re anywhere in the northern US, you’re going down – quite literally. The Earth’s surface in these places is rising or sinking by several millimetres a year, even though they are quite some way from major tectonic plate boundaries. Compared with the Himalayas, which are pushing up by more than a centimetre a year, this may not seem like much, but we’re talking here about entire countries or regions. And it may surprise their inhabitants that these movements are thought to be a major cause of earthquakes.…

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