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Layers of The Earth

The Earth is composed of four main layers: 1) The crust, which makes up 1% of the Earth's mass and contains the continents and ocean basins. Crust thickness varies from 35-70 km below continents and 5-10 km below oceans. 2) The mantle, which is 2,900 km thick and composed mainly of ferro-magnesium silicates. It contains most of the Earth's internal heat. 3) The core, which makes up nearly 1/3 of the Earth's mass. It has a liquid outer core and solid inner core, both composed mainly of iron.

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292 views3 pages

Layers of The Earth

The Earth is composed of four main layers: 1) The crust, which makes up 1% of the Earth's mass and contains the continents and ocean basins. Crust thickness varies from 35-70 km below continents and 5-10 km below oceans. 2) The mantle, which is 2,900 km thick and composed mainly of ferro-magnesium silicates. It contains most of the Earth's internal heat. 3) The core, which makes up nearly 1/3 of the Earth's mass. It has a liquid outer core and solid inner core, both composed mainly of iron.

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KrisGeneDelaCruz
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LAYERS OF THE EARTH

CRUST --The thin, outermost layer of the earth is called the crust. It makes up only
one percent of the earth's mass. This consists of the continents and ocean basins. The
crust has varying thickness, ranging between 35-70 km thick in the continents and 510 km thick in the ocean basins. Within the crust, intricate patterns are created when
rocks are redistributed and deposited in layers through the geologic processes. The
crust is composed mainly of alumino-silicates.

MANTLE -- The mantle is a dense, hot layer of semi-solid rock approximately 2,900
km thick and is composed mainly of ferro-magnesium silicates. This is where most of
the internal heat of the Earth is located. Large convective cells in the mantle circulate
heat and may drive plate tectonic processes.

CORE - Below the mantle is the core. It makes up nearly one third the mass of the
earth. The Earth's core is actually made up of two distinct parts: a 2,200 km-thick
liquid outer core and a 1,250 km-thick solid inner core. The outer core is made of iron

and is very dense. As the Earth rotates, the liquid outer core spins, creating the
Earth's magnetic field. The inner core is made of solid iron and nickel. Many scientists
believe it is kept in the solid state because of the extreme pressure from the other
layers.

Outer and Inner Core


There are two very distinct parts of the core: the outer and the inner core. The outer
core is 2300 km thick and the inner core is 1200 km thick. The outer core is composed
mainly of a nickel-iron alloy, while the inner core is almost entirely composed of iron.
The outer core contains as much as 10% lighter elements than iron alloy. The inner core
is thought to rotate at a different speed than the rest of the Earth and this is thought to
contribute to the presence of the Earths magnetic field.

ATMOSPHERE, HYDROSPHERE, AND LITHOSPHERE

An atmosphere is a layer of gases surrounding a planet or other material body of


sufficient mass that is held in place by the gravity of the body. An atmosphere is more likely to be
retained if the gravity is high and the atmosphere's temperature is low.

Earth's atmosphere, which is mostly nitrogen, also contains oxygen used by


most organisms for respiration and carbon dioxide used
byplants, algae and cyanobacteria for photosynthesis, also protects living organisms from genetic
damage by solar ultraviolet radiation.

Hydrosphere - discontinuous layer of water at or near the Earths surface. It includes all liquid and
frozen surface waters, groundwater held in soil and rock, and atmospheric water vapour.

Water is the most abundant substance at the surface of the Earth. About 1.4 billion cubic kilometres
(326 million cubic miles) of water in liquid and frozen form make up the oceans, lakes, streams,
glaciers, and groundwaters found there. It is this enormous volume of water, in its various
manifestations, that forms the discontinuous layer, enclosing much of the terrestrial surface, known
as the hydrosphere.

A lithosphere is the rigid, outermost shell of a rocky planet, and can be identified on the basis of its
mechanical properties. On Earth, it comprises the crust and the portion of the upper mantle that
behaves elastically on time scales of thousands of years or greater. The outermost shell of a rocky
planet, the crust, is defined on the basis of its chemistry and mineralogy.
Earth's lithosphere includes the crust and the uppermost mantle, which constitute the hard and rigid
outer layer of the Earth. The lithosphere is broken into tectonic plates. The uppermost part of the
lithosphere that chemically reacts to the atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere through the soil
forming process is called the pedosphere. The lithosphere is underlain by the asthenosphere, the
weaker, hotter, and deeper part of the upper mantle.
WHAT IS A FAULT?
A fault is a fracture or zone of fractures between two blocks of rock. Faults allow the blocks to move
relative to each other. This movement may occur rapidly, in the form of an earthquake - or may
occur slowly, in the form of creep. Faults may range in length from a few millimeters to thousands of
kilometers. Most faults produce repeated displacements over geologic time. During an earthquake,
the rock on one side of the fault suddenly slips with respect to the other. The fault surface can be
horizontal or vertical or some arbitrary angle in between.
HOW A FAULT FORMS?
A new fault forms when the stress on the rock is great enough to cause a fracture, and one wall in
the fracture moves relative to the other. Faults can also appear far from the boundaries between
tectonic plates when stress caused by rising magma from the mantle overcomes the strength of
rocks in the overlying crust.

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