Technical Report 2006-051

A Comparison Between Two Solution Techniques to Solve the Equations of Linear Isostasy

Erik Bängtsson and Björn Lund

December 2006

In this paper we compare two models to compute the isostatic response of the Earths lithosphere to an external load. The lithosphere is modeled as a linear elastic solid. The two models differ in the mathematical formulation of the problem, their applicability in the incompressible limit, the choice of the finite elements used for discretization, and the solution strategy for the arising algebraic problem. The efficiency and accuracy of both models are compared via extensive numerical experiments in 2D and 3D.

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