Deep continental roots: the effects of lateral variations of viscosity on post-glacial rebound

The existence of lateral viscosity variations in the earth mantle could be inferred by recent tomographic results. This can potentially cause substantial changes in the interpretation of the results from usual postglacial uplift modelling which assumes a uniform mantle. In this work we study the impact of a high viscosity craton located below the lithosphere in Fennoscandia. The solution is obtained using a finite element code which treats the surface rebound of an axisymmetrical viscoelastic half-space. Our findings are potentially very important in the interpretation of GPS data. -from Authors