Elastic deformation of the Earth due to surface loading: finite element modelling and implications for inverse gravimetry

Gravitational data from satellites in Earth’s orbit can be used to reconstruct secular and
periodic mass movements at the Earth’s surface. These include tidal effects caused by the
Moon, seasonal variations in rainfall, and the melting of glacial ice at the poles.
Such mass transports not only lead to variations in the observed gravitational signal, but
also act as surface loads that induce elastic deformation of the Earth on short timescales.
In this talk, we present a method for calculating these deformations using the finite element
method (FEM), along with some numerical examples. Finally, we outline directions for future
research, in particular the inverse problem of reconstructing surface mass distributions from
GRACE data while explicitly accounting for deformational effects.