Discussion on flexural deformation of crust at passive margins

Recently in class, I led a discussion on the flexural deformation of the crust due to unloading of sediment from mountains, and the concomitant deposition of sediment in passive margin basins. We discussed 3 papers, with a little bit of additional information.

The main point I wanted to make to the group was that flexural deformation is a big player in the long-term decay of an orogen.

I’m putting my powerpoint slides up here as a pdf, and the citations for the discussion are below.

1. Kusznir et al., 1991. A flexural cantilever model of continental lithosphere extension.
2. Pazzaglia and Gardner, 1994. Late Cenozoic flexural deformation of the middle US Atlantic passive margin.
3. Figure, modified from Pazzaglia and Gardner, 2000.
4. Driscoll and Karner, 1994. Flexural deformation due to Amazon Fan loading.
5. Rouby et al., 2013. Long term stratigraphic evolution of Atlantic-type passive margins: a numerical approach of interactions between surface processes, flexural isostasy, and 3D thermal subsidence.