Chapter 11 Applications to Marine Geophysics

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses classical compensation models usually considered to interpret geoid anomalies over marine features and reviews the various areas that have benefited over the past two decades of high-accuracy and high-resolution altimeter geoid data. The chapter focuses on seamount loading and the mechanical structure of oceanic plates, thermal evolution of the oceanic lithosphere, hotspot swells, geoid lineation patterns, plate kinematics, seamount production, and mid-ocean ridge segmentation. Altimetry-derived geoid anomalies constitute a basic data set for flexure studies. 2-D high-resolution geoidgrids allow precise computation of the flexural rigidity of the lithosphere under topographic loads of arbitrary shapes. Oceanic fracture zones are the most striking features visible in a set of parallel satellite-altimeter profiles or in satellite-derived gravity grids. Fracture zones form long, continuous, and linear bathymetric structures reflecting the past relative motions between plates. The topography of fracture zones is characterized by very long ridges, troughs, or escarpments that delineate corridors of ocean crust of different age. These general characteristics are also observed in the satellite-altimeter data and vary with the spreading rates.