Fig. 1

Strength profile of the lithosphere under dry and wet conditions, calculated using a constant thermal gradient of 8 K/km and strain-rate of 10⁻¹⁹ s⁻¹. At shallow depths, deformation is mainly accommodated by frictional sliding, and at greater depths, deformation is accommodated by plastic deformation. Peierls creep becomes dominant at depth close to the brittle-ductile transition, resulting in a thinner elastic thickness than that calculated using power-law creep