Fig. 5

Effective radial (a) and hoop (b) stresses in the Earth’s crust. Theoretical computations for an ideal and homogeneous crust with both constant thickness d = 20 km and density ρ _C = 2800 kg m⁻³ show that radial stress is almost negligible with respect to the hoop stress, being the maximum values reached of 2.40 Pa and 600 kPa, in the middle and at the base of the crust, respectively. Quantities are computed at the equatorial plane and reported per unit of milliseconds