Strength of continental lithosphere governed by the time since the last orogeny

• DOI: 10.5194/egusphere-egu25-1455
• Publication Date: 2025-03-14T16:48:36Z
• Authors: Zhezhe Lu; Jiabiao Li; Pascal Audet; Chun-Feng Li

Earth’s tectonic history is punctuated by several cycles of supercontinent assembly and breakup that profoundly influenced the lithospheric structure; however, the roles of the various factors controlling continental strength and deformation during the cycles remain debated. The effective elastic thickness (Te) reflects the lithosphere’s long-term, depth-integrated strength and is useful for deciphering the complex evolution of continents. In this study, we estimate a new global map of continental Te projected onto a  grid by inverting the cross-spectral properties (admittance and coherence) between Bouguer gravity and topography data obtained from a continuous wavelet transform. Continental Te ranges from