| Abstract: | To study the bending deformation of the lithosphere, the simplification of replacing a spherical shell by a plate model is usually made. Based on the differential equations for the bending of plates and shallow spherical shells, an expression for the error caused by such a simplification is derived in this paper. The effect of model sizes on the error is discussed. It is proved that if we replace the shallow spherical shell by a plate model to solve the bending deformation of lithospheric plate, a large error will be caused. In contrast, if we use a plate on an elastic foundation instead, an approximate solution closer to that of spherical shell can be obtained. In such a way, the error can be reduced effectively and the actual geological condition can be modeled more closely. |
