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Simple thermo-elastic models successfully explain flexure observations from oceanic lithosphere and are consistent with predictions based on empirical yield stress envelopes for the
deformation of olivine. The response of the continental lithosphere, in contrast, has frequently been modelled as a Maxwell viscoelastic solid. By plotting estimates of flexural rigidity
against the age of the continental lithosphere at the time of loading, an estimate of which is defined by the radiometric age of the underlying basement, we report here that flexural
rigidities for the continental lithosphere are compatible with oceanic flexure results. Analogous to the increase of rigidity with age away from a mid-oceanic ridge, continental rigidities
appear to increase with age following a major thermal event. The high rigidities (∼1032 dyn cm) associated with Archaean/Proterozoic terrains and modelling of plate deformation with
yield-stress envelopes appropriate for the continents suggest that the long-term thermal behaviour of continental lithosphere is governed by a coolong plate model with a 200–250-km plate
thickness.
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