Scribd
Upload
155 views1 page

Layers of The Earth

The Earth can be thought of as consisting of layered shells similar to a layer cake, with the crust forming the very thin outer shell and the mantle and core making up the thicker inner layers. The mantle, the largest layer, is divided into the upper and lower mantle and slowly flows over time due to heat and pressure. At the center is the core, with an outer liquid layer generating the Earth's magnetic field and a solid inner core made mostly of iron.

Uploaded by

Clara Mae Antiquisa
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
155 views1 page

Layers of The Earth

The Earth can be thought of as consisting of layered shells similar to a layer cake, with the crust forming the very thin outer shell and the mantle and core making up the thicker inner layers. The mantle, the largest layer, is divided into the upper and lower mantle and slowly flows over time due to heat and pressure. At the center is the core, with an outer liquid layer generating the Earth's magnetic field and a solid inner core made mostly of iron.

Uploaded by

Clara Mae Antiquisa
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 1

The Earth as a Layer Cake contained liquid magma, but we now know that is

Imagine the Earth as a gigantic layer cake, with not the case; magma is formed only in certain
colorful angel cake layers, cream fillings, and locations, due to the high pressures and
fondant icing on the top. Feeling hungry yet? temperatures. The mantle is huge, going down to
Unfortunately, the earth isn't actually filled with a depth of 2,500 km and is like the main part of
gooey sweets, but it does have various layers laid the cake.
out just like a cake.

Chemical Layers
In 1692, Edmund Halley proposed a hollow model
for the Earth. Based on Newton's laws, it seemed
like the Earth couldn't possibly be solid. Instead,
he thought it must contain a series of hollow
shells. It turned out Newton's laws were right but
at the time, ideas about the density of the Earth
and Moon were very wrong.
Today, there are a number of different ways of The mantle is sometimes split into the upper
defining the layers of the Earth, but the most mantle and lower mantle because the upper part
common one is based on chemical composition or of the mantle moves and flows in convection
the elements and molecules present in each part currents much more easily than the lower part.
of the Earth's interior. Even solid rock can move and flow at these high
pressures and temperatures, though it moves
The Earth's Crust very slowly.
At the very surface of the Earth is the crust, the
topmost layer, made mostly out of solid silicate The Core
rocks like basalt and granite. The crust is like the Below the mantle is the core, which is the very
icing on a cake, though not nearly so tasty. We center of the Earth, made mostly of metals like
humans live on top of the crust; you can think of iron. The outer core is a liquid that flows in
us as the strawberries or gummy bears on the circles. This is like the delicious cream filling of
top of the cake. But to keep the analogy more to the cake! In fact, the liquid flow of the outer core
scale, we would be a lot closer to a sprinkle of is responsible for creating the Earth's magnetic
confectioner's sugar. We're actually super tiny, field. The inner core, on the other hand, is the
compared to the size of the crust. solid part that is believed to contain at least 90%
iron, which is like a central layer of dense pound
cake.

The crust is a ridiculously thin layer when the


Earth's interior is drawn to scale. So small that it
wouldn't show up on most diagrams. But despite
being tiny compared to the rest of the layers, the
crust can be a whopping 70 kilometers thick! The outer core goes from a depth of 2,550 km
down to 4,750 km, and the inner core continues
Continental crust, the crust under which the to the center of the Earth at a total depth of
continents are built, is 10-70 km thick, 6,470 km.
while oceanic crust, or the crust under the
oceans, is only 5-7 km thick. The deepest mine Temperatures
shaft ever built, Western Deep in South Africa, Let's imagine we could build a craft and dig all
currently reaches 3.9 km, which barely scratches the way to the center of the Earth. How hot
the surface of the continental crust. would it get along the way? As we went deeper
under the Earth, the temperatures would get
The Mantle hotter and hotter. The oven where we baked the
Underneath the crust is the mantle, the largest cake doesn't even register when compared to the
layer, composed of rocky oxides and silicates temperatures under the Earth.
under high pressure. We once thought the mantle

You might also like