If the Earth were a fluid body, it would respond instantaneously to any stress, including stresses caused by the Earth's rotation, until it attains a state of zero stress. The figure that the Earth would assume if it were in such a state is called the hydrostatic equilibrium figure or, simply, hydrostatic figure or equilibrium figure. As we will show, the real Earth, however, is not in complete hydrostatic equilibrium but has small deviations from it. Since hydrostatic shape indicates a state of zero stress, any departures from this state are particularly interesting because they show the extent of available stresses in the interior of the Earth that can be invoked to explain any geophysical mechanisms that may be found or assumed to exist in the Earth's interior. For this reason, apart from its traditional appeal, the problem is particularly interesting to geophysicists.
The mathematical theory of hydrostatic equilibrium for the Earth, to the first order of small quantities, was...
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© 1989 Van Nostrand Reinhold
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Khan, M.A. (1989). Equilibrium figure of the earth . In: Geophysics. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-30752-4_19
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-30752-4_19
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