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-came from the greek words geo meaning Earth and sphaira meaning globe or ball.
-is the mostly solid,rocky part of the Earth.It extends from the center to the surface of the Earth.
*Regolith
-came from the greek words rhegos which means blanket and lithos which means
rocky.
-is the very loose top portion of the Earths surface. It consists of all materials above
bedrock, such as soils, sediments, and weathered rock. Regolith is more often used in
reference to other members of our solar system, including the Moon, asteroids, and
certain planets and satellites. On our Moon, the regolith is the overall soil horizon, a
collection of particles fragmented by the impacts of large and micrometeorites over time.
In the case of the Moon, there is no true weathering of the lunar regolith like there is on
Earth.
*Lithosphere
-came from the greek words lithos which means rocky and sphaira which means globe or
ball.
-outermost shell of a rocky planet.
-it includes the crust and the upper mantle.
-it is 50-100 km thick.
*Crust
-outermost solid shell of a rocky planet.
-composed of igneous,metamorphic and sedimentary rocks.
-occupies less than 1% of Earth's volume.
Two types of Crust:
1.Oceanic crust
-made up primarily of basalt
-4-5 kilometers deep
2.Continental crust
-made up of granite
-low density: allows it to "float" on the much higher density mantle below
-20-30 miles deep
3 types of rocks found in the crust:
A. Igneous rocks
-formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava.
-it may be intrusive,extrusive or hypabyssal
Classifications of Igneous rocks by place of occurrence or formation:
1.Intrusive Igneous rocks
-formed from magma that cools and solidifies within the crust of a planet.
Ex: Granite
2.Extrusive Igneous rocks
-formed at the crust's surface as a result of the partial melting of rocks within
the mantle and crust.
Ex: Basalt
*Outer Core
-is a liquid layer about 2,266 km (1,408 mi) thick composed of iron and nickel which lies above
the Earth's solid inner core and below its mantle. Its outer boundary lies 2,890 km (1,800 mi)
beneath the Earth's surface. The transition between the inner core and outer core is located
approximately 5,150 km (3,200 mi) beneath the Earth's surface.
-temperature of the outer core ranges from 4400 C (8000 F) in the outer regions to 6100 C
(11000 F) near the inner core.
-discovered by a German man named Patrick Actubar in 1935.
*Inner Core
-innermost part, is a primarily solid ball with a radius of about 1,220 km (760 mi).
-consist primarily of an ironnickel alloy, and to be about the same temperature as the surface
of the Sun: approximately 5700 K(5430 C).
-consist primarily of a nickel-iron alloy known as Nife: 'Ni' for nickel, and 'Fe' for ferrum or iron.
-discovered by Inge Lehmann in 1936.