Globally, more is being built (and here and there something is also broken down) but is there such a thing as a maximum weight that the earth can bear? The tons of concrete, steel and other building materials that are used every day are incalculable.
And then there is the big geographical difference where they are used.
Are there any institutes or bodies that check this?
The reason for this question was the column in Man bijt hond “In Memoriam”.
In this section, ex-employees visit their former workplace. These abandoned and neglected factories represent a mass of weight and no longer serve any purpose.
Answer
The answer to your question lies in the scale of things.
The buildings you are talking about are a few meters to a few tens of meters high. Although they seem impressive to us, on the Earth scale they mean nothing.
We geologists call the hard outer surface of the Earth the lithosphere. ‘Lithos’ therefore means ‘hard’ in Greek. This lithosphere is about 100 to 200 km thick. Then you see that we are speaking on a completely different scale.
Below the lithosphere is the asthenosphere. ‘A Stheonos’ means ‘without strength’ in Greek. In the asthenosphere, the rock behaves like a thick syrup. The lithosphere ‘floats’ on the asthenosphere. So if you apply a very heavy weight to the lithosphere, the lithosphere will bend under that weight. But then we are talking about gigantic constructions, such as a volcanic island (for example Hawaii) or ice caps (for example Greenland).
But any human constructions will have no effect on the Earth’s crust. Certainly not on that scale.
It can happen that that lithosphere becomes too heavy. Then something extraordinary happens. That very heavy lithosphere sinks into the asthenosphere. At that point, a process that geologists call subduction begins. This process is an important driver behind the movement of the Earth’s plates.
Take a look at the wikipedia page about plate tectonics.
Answered by
Prof. Manuel Sintubin
Tectonics Geodynamics Earthquake Geology Earthquake Archaeology
Old Market 13 3000 Leuven
https://www.kuleuven.be/
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