The global stress field in the lithosphere obtained from the satellite gravitational harmonics |
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| Authors: | Rong-shan Fu Pei-hua Huang |
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| Institution: | Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui People''s Republic of China |
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| Abstract: | In this paper, the lithosphere is considered to be a homogeneous elastic spherical shell for the sake of simplicity and the stress equations for the base of the lithosphere are taken as boundary conditions. Then the stress equations are obtained for use in the computation of the stress field in the lithosphere with the satellite gravitational harmonic coefficients. The 5 × 5° global stress field in the lithosphere is computed from harmonics of 2–30°. The directions of principal stresses of this stress field agree favourably with the directions of principal stresses indicated by mid-plate earthquake mechanisms, in situ stress measurements and sensitive geological features. This result indicates that the drag forces exerted on the base of the lithosphere, due to gravitational mantle convection, may be among the driving forces of plate motion and a major source for the stress field in the lithosphere. |
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