Ревизия данных по гипсометрии континентов

Аннотация

The continents hypsometry is discussed in the light of the new results obtained on the basis of two automated banks of topographic data recently formed in the USA - Rand Corporation (Santa Monica, California) and Aerospace Center of Cartographic Survey, the USA Department of Defense (Saint Louis, Missouri). Essential discrepancies are found between the results obtained from the two sources, and the conclusion is drawn that the data from the Aerospace Center are more reliable and should be used instead of obsolete data by E. Kossina (1933).

Hypsographic curves based on the Aerospace Center data (average heights of 1^o by 1o latitude-longitude quadrangles) can be subdivided into 3 groups, the first one includes curves of northern continents, and the 2nd and 3rd groups include curves of southern continents, Arabia, lndostan and Madagascar. The subdivision corresponds to relative areas of high mountains, arid lands and largest drainage basins. An analytical exprefision is introduced to approximate total hypsographic curve of continents and the «normal» component of the curve of those continents where the topography is mostly controlled by large drainage basins.