A generalized theory of the figure of the Earth: formulae: Fid-Bau Portal

A generalized theory of the figure of the Earth: formulae

Huang, Chengli / Liu, Yu / Liu, Chengjun / Zhang, Mian

Abstract Traditionally a laterally homogeneous and spherical base Earth model (e.g., the PREM model) is considered as input when computing the Earth’s equipotential surfaces, which are then resulted to be in symmetric shape. However, the Earth, known with a complex distribution of interior material and density, especially in the upper mantle and the crust, cannot be treated as a symmetric sphere. Recently, a CRUST1.0 model of crust layer is published and well accepted. But the effect caused by the asymmetric crust (and mantle) on equilibrium figures of the Earth cannot be analyzed by the traditional theories. A generalized theory of the figure of the Earth to third-order precision is firstly proposed in this paper, as well as the iterative calculation strategy to solve the complex equation system. In order to validate this generalized theory, the degeneration of this generalized theory with the PREM model is made and is compared with traditional theories, and it is shown that the result of this generalized theory, after degeneration, is consistent very well with traditional theory. Meanwhile, the effect (including both the direct and indirect effects) of the crust layer, from the CRUST1.0 model, on the figures of equipotential surfaces of the Earth’s interior, as well as their effects on the global dynamics flattening, will be presented as an application of this theory in accompanying paper.