Practical 5: The Earth’s Shape, Gravity, and Topography

From space the Earth looks like a perfect sphere. In detail it is not, with the most obvious
deviations being ocean basins, continents, and mountains. The Greeks knew the Earth was spherical, and
estimated its radius over 2000 years ago, while Newton and his followers showed that the Earth was really an
oblate spheroid. In this practical you will work through a series of simple calculations that relate observable
quantities to properties of the Earth. In doing this you should always state quantitative results in terms
of their appropriate units. It is also good practice to manipulate equations symbolically, refraining from
“putting in numbers” until the very end. Much of this practical covers historical material, with space-based
methods now providing the best means for measuring the Earth’s shape and gravitational field. The final
problem, however, is on isostasy, a physical principle that remains essential for understanding the Earth’s
topography and associated dynamics.

Aims of this practical session:

1. Observations and methods used to determine the Earth’s shape
2. The relationship between mean gravitational acceleration and the Earth’s mean density
3. Variations of gravity with latitude and its relation to the Earth’s moments of inertia
4. The principle of isostasy and simple applications

Click here for a video introduction to this prac-

tical.

Figure 5.1: An image the Earth from

space. At this distance our planet
looks perfectly spherical, but in detail
this is not the case. The largest devia-
tion from spherical symmetry is due to
the Earth’s rotation, and results in an
ellipsoidal shape with around a 20 km
difference between polar and equato-
rial radii. Superimposed on top is then
surface topography which has ampli-
tude generally below 5 km.

Earth’s size (10 mins)

Sometime around 240 BC Eratosthenes of Cyrene obtained the

first estimate of the Earth’s radius. His full method has been
lost, but a simplified form of the argument was recorded in a
work by Cleomedes a few centuries later. The observations were
as follows:
2
• At noon on the summer solstice the sun was directly overhead
in the ancient city of Syene.
• Alexandria lay directly to the north, with the distance be-
tween the two cities being 5000 stadia1 .
• At the same time and day, the angle between the the rays
of the sun and the vertical direction in Alexandria was one
fiftieth of that within a full circle.
Exercise 5.1:
With the aid of Fig.5.2 estimate the circumference of the Earth in
stadia.
Exercise 5.2:
The length of a stade in modern units is uncertain, but a rea-
sonable estimate equates it to 185 meters2 . Use this value to
determine the Earth’s radius in kilometers.
Exercise 5.3:
Modern measurements show that the Earth’s mean radius is
equal to 6371 km. Determine the the percentage error in the
radius obtained using Eratosthenes’ method.
1
A stade (plural stadia) was a common unit of
length in Ancient Greece, being based on the cir-
cumference of their typical sports grounds.
Figure 5.2: The geometry for Eratos-
thenes method. Shown in black are
radial lines passing through Alexan-
dria and Syene, with an angle θ sub-
tended between them. The rays of the
sun are shown in yellow at either lo-
cation, and because of the Sun’s great
distance from the Earth these rays are
parallel to a very good approximation.
In the figure b denotes the Earth’s ra-
dius, and you should recall the for-
mula s = bθ for arc length (θ in ra-
dians).
2
Taken from “The Length of Eratosthenes’
Stade” by Donald Engels published in 1985
within the American Journal of Philology.
Click here for a video explanation of this ques-
tion.
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Earth’s shape (10 mins)

Over geological time the interior of the Earth is fluid. Due to a

balance of gravitational and centrifugal forces its shape is that
of an oblate spheroid. This was predicted by Newton within
his “Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica” published
in 1687, and here he obtained an estimate of 1/290 for the flat-
tening which is defined to be
3
It did, however, account for an observation
equatorial radius − polar radius made in 1672 by Jean Richer in French Guiana
e= . (latitude 4◦ N) which indicated that the mag-
mean radius nitude of the gravitational acceleration varied
At the time there were essentially no observations that could with latitude. The next exercise discusses such
observations further.
be used to determined if Newton’s theory was correct3 , while
Cassini soon argued using Descartes’ mechanics that the Earth
should actually be flattened in the opposite sense!

Figure 5.3: A schematic diagram

showing the predictions of Newton
and Cassini for the figure of the Earth.
The quote is taken from a letter from
Voltaire to Maupertius, the latter hav-
ing led an expedition to Lapland as
part of an effort to determine the
Earth’s flattening. It translates roughly
as “In a place full of boredom you have
confirmed what Newton knew with-
out leaving home”. Figure taken from
Chandrasekhar (1967).

Assuming that e  1, it can be shown that variations of sur-

face radius with latitude, λ, take the form
 e 
r (λ) = b 1 + cos 2λ ,
2
with b the mean radius. It follows that the length, s, of a line of
constant longitude between the latitudes λ1 < λ2 is4 4
This result can be obtained by integrating the
differential equation ds/dλ = r which is valid
eb to first-order in e.
s = b ( λ2 − λ1 ) + (sin 2λ2 − sin 2λ1 ),
4
where all angles are measured in radians.

Exercise 5.4:
In the 1730s the French Academy of Sciences funded expeditions 5
An interesting and enjoyable account of this
work can be found in “The measure of the
to measure the length of a degree of latitude at two different
Earth” by Larrie D. Ferreiro.
locations5 . One expedition went to Lapland, and measured a
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length 111.06 km between 68◦ N and 69◦ N. The second traveled

to Peru, and found a length of 111.38 km between 4◦ N and 5◦ N. 6
This problem only requires you to use data
from either one of the two locations. As a chal-
Using the modern value of b = 6371 km for the Earth’s mean
lenge for those interested, you might try to de-
radius, estimate the flattening, e, using this information6 . termine both b and e simultaneously from the
given data.
Exercise 5.5:
The peak of Mt. Everest is at 8848 m above sea level, and has lat-
itude 28◦ N. Chimborazo in Ecuador is a currently inactive vol-
Click here for a video explanation of this ques-
cano whose peak lies at 6268 m above sea level and has latitude tion.
1.5◦ S. Both locations claim to be the “highest point on Earth”,
but which is correct?

Earth’s gravity (10 mins)

The acceleration due to gravity, g, varies spatially across the Figure 5.4: A diagram of the torsion
Earth’s surface, with deviations from the mean being below about balance used by Henry Cavendish in
0.5%. It can be shown that the mean gravitational acceleration 1798 to measure the gravitational force
at the surface, ḡ, is given by the formula between two metal spheres. This ex-
perimental determination of the gravi-
GM tational constant G allowed the mass
ḡ = ,
b2 of the Earth to be calculated for the
where G is the gravitational constant, M is the Earth’s mass and first time. In fact, during Cavendish’s
b its mean radius. time the notation G was not used, and
he expressed his answer as a mean
Exercise 5.6: density for the Earth.
Use the following values:

ḡ = 9.820 m s−2 ,
G = 6.674 × 10−11 m3 kg−1 s−2 ,
b = 6371 km,

to determine the Earth’s mean density7 . How does this value 7

The mean density is, by definition, that of a
compare to those of rocks at the Earth’s surface? uniform ball with radius b and mass M.

Exercise 5.7:
The largest spatial variations in surface gravitational accelera-
tion are associated with the Earth’s rotational flattening. This
can be described by the following formula8 8
This result follows from what is known as a
multi-pole expansion of the Earth’s gravitational
field. The derivation is a little involved, but can
 
3 2
g(λ) = ḡ 1 − J2 (3 sin λ − 1) , be found in Chapter 6 of ? for anyone curious.
2
 5

where the dimensionless constant J2 = 0.0010862 can be deter-

mined from the Earth’s mass and moments of inertia. At which
latitude is the gravitational acceleration (i) largest and (ii) small-
est? What is the percentage difference between these extreme
values (defined relative to ḡ)?

Figure 5.5: Variations in gravita-

tional acceleration over the Earth’s
surface obtained using satellite mea-
surements. The value plotted is the so-
called free-air gravity anomaly, this
being the difference between observed
accelerations and those for a reference
model that accounts for rotational flat-
tening along with certain other correc-
tions. These variations in g are asso-
ciated with crustal structure, mantle
convection, and the effects of deglacia-
tion. Accelerations here are measured
in mGal, with a Gal (named in hon-
our of Galileo) being equal to 1 cm s−2 .
This means that 1 mGal is equal to
10−5 m s−2 .

Click here for a video explanation of this ques-

tion.

Isostasy (20 mins)

Apart from a cold exterior layer, the Earth is fluid over geological
timescales. When a fluid is at rest there can exist no lateral
pressure9 gradients, this reflecting the fact that a fluid will flow 9
A pressure is a force per unit area, and hence
downhill until it reaches equilibrium. To a good approximation its SI units the Pascal (Pa) is equivalent to a
N m−2 , or kg m−1 s−2 in base units.
variations of pressure, p, in the Earth can be described by the
hydrostatic equilibrium equation
dp
= ρg,
dz
where z is depth from the surface, ρ is the density, and g the
acceleration due to gravity. This relationship implies that the
pressure at each depth is due to the cumulative weight of the
material above, but neglects the role of shear stresses in the dy-
namics. Assuming that g is constant10 , it follows that 10
We have just seen that this is not true at the
Z z Earth’s surface, while g also varies with depth
in the Earth. For isostatic calculations, however,
p ( z ) = p0 + g ρ(z0 ) dz0 , the effect of these variations is small relative to
0
other approximations involved.
6

where p0 is the atmospheric pressure at the surface. Atmo-

spheric pressures are, however, very small compared to those
within even shallow parts of the Earth’s interior, and so we can
safely set p0 = 0 in what follows.

Figure 5.6: A schematic representa-

t region denotes the mantle that is as-
h 3300 kg m−3 . On top of this to the left
r
Compensation depth
In Fig.5.6 a schematic representation of a mountain range is
shown. At a compensation depth lying entirely within the man-
tle the pressures must be equal at all points in order for equilib-
rium to hold: this is the principle of isostasy. In this instance it
requires that the topographic high associated with the mountain
range is offset by a root at the base of the continental crust.
tion of a mountain range. The shaded
sumed to have a constant density ρm =
and right is normal continental crust
of thickness h = 35 km, while the mid-
dle is a mountain range with topog-
raphy t = 5 km and a root of thick-
ness r. The density of the continen-
tal crust is assumed to be constant and
equal to 2800 kg m−3 . The dashed line
within the mantle denotes the com-
pensation depth at which all pressures
must be equal. Note that this depth is
not unique, and could be taken to be
at any depth that lies entirely within
the mantle.

Exercise 5.8:
By equating the pressure at a compensation depth under (i) the
normal continental crust and (ii) the mountain range, obtain an
algebraic relation between the topographic height t and the root
thickness r. Find the numerical value of r using the information
within the caption for Fig.5.6.

Exercise 5.9:
The average thickness of the Antarctic ice sheet is 2.2 km, while
the density of ice is 920 kg m−3 . Estimate the height by which
the solid-Earth has subsided under this load.
Click here for a video explanation of this ques-
tion