Isostasy

Isostasy describes the state of equilibrium of a LITHOSPHERIC plate

Floating on the ASTHENOSPHERE
Isostasy
Definitions(Wikipedia):
The lithosphere (from the Greek for "rocky" sphere) is the solid outermost shell of a rocky
planet.
On the Earth, the lithosphere includes the crust and the uppermost layer of the mantle (the upper
mantle or lower lithosphere) which is joined to the crust
Under the influence of the low-intensity, long-term stresses that drive plate tectonic motions, the
lithosphere responds essentially as a rigid shell.
The thickness of the lithosphere varies from around1.6 km at the mid-ocean ridges to
approximately130 km beneath older continental crust.
The thickness of the continental lithospheric plates is probably around150 kilometers.
The asthenosphere (from an invented Greek a+ ''sthenos"without strength") is the region of the
Earth between100-200 km below the surfacebut perhaps extending as deep as 400 kmthat is
the weak or "soft" zone in the upper mantle.
It lies just below the lithosphere, which is involved in plate movements and isostatic
adjustments.
In spite of its heat, pressures keep it plastic, or semi-molten, and it has a relatively low density.
Seismic waves, the speed of which decrease with the softness of a medium, pass relatively
slowly through the asthenosphere, the cue that originally alerted seismologistst o its presence;
thus it has been given the name low-velocity zone.

Isostasy
History
Between 1735 and 1745 a French expedition under Pierre Bouguer made
measurements of a degree of latitude in Peru and near Paris in order to determine
the shape of the Earth.
Result: Mass of the Andes deflects the plumb line but less than expected!

AirysHypothesis
Rigid upper layer and substarte are assumed to have a constant density u and s, respectively.
Isostatic compensation is achieved by deep roots (iceberg)