A recent paper in this journal (J.-P. Brim. The cluster-ridge pattern of mantled gneiss domes in eastern Finland: evidence for large-scale gravitational instability of the Proterozoic crust. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 47 (1980) 441-449) resurrects Eskola's [I] concept of the mantled gneiss dome in the early Proterozoic Svecokarelian fold bell of Finland. The author cites amongst others, the Kuopio, Juojarvi, Maarianvaara. Kontiolahti, Liperi, Oravisalo and Sotkuma domes (see Fig. 1) as examples of the diapiric upwelling of lower-density, granitic Archaean basement rocks, into more dense, overlying Karelian metasedimentary formations. The distribution of these basement structures is interpreted as reflecting a periodicity. which by analogy with the centrifuge experiments of Ramberg [2], is a function of the interlayer density contrast and the layer thicknesses.