ANALYSIS OF ISOSTATICALLY-BALANCED CORTICAL MODELS USING MODERN GLOBAL GEOPOTENTIAL MODELS

Abstract: The knowledge of the Earth's gravity field and its temporal variations is the main goal of the dedicated gravity field missions CHAMP, GRACE and GOCE. Since then, several global geopotential models (GGMs) have been released. This paper uses geoid heights derived from global geopotential models to analyze the cortical features of the Tandilia structure which is assumed to be in isostatic equilibrium. The geoid heights are suitably filtered so that the structure becomes apparent as a residual geoid height. Assuming that the geological structure is in isostatic equilibrium, the residual geoid height can be assimilated and compared to the isostatic geoid height generated from an isostatically compensated crust. The residual geoid height was obtained from the EGM2008 and the EIGEN-6C4 global geopotential models, respectively. The isostatic geoid was computed using the cortical parameters from the global crustal models GEMMA and CRUST 1.0 and from local parameters determined in the area under study. The obtained results make it clear that the isostatic geoid height might become appropriate to validate crustal models if the structures analyzed show evidence of being in isostatic equilibrium.