LESSON 1.

Layers Of
Earth

Main Idea:

EARTH HAS 4 LAYERS

 The Four Major Layers

– Earth has four major layers with their distinct properties

1. CRUST
2. MANTLE
3. OUTER CORE
4. INNER CORE

– Some layers has even MORE layers

CRUST
Crust is the thin outermost
layer of the Earth. It is where
we all live. The crust is 3 to 5
miles thick from the ocean
floor to around 25 miles
thick on land. Earth’s crust is
found on the outer surface
and it is made of solid rock
and minerals it is also made
up of great variety of
igneous, metamorphic and
sedimentary rocks.
MANTLE
Mantle is the second layer of the earth it
is just below the first layer which is the
crust. It is thicker than the crust it is
1,900 miles deep, 2,900 km thick and it
makes up 80% of the earth’s weight. It is
solid rock but not completely hard, it is
semisolid, rocky and very hot layer. Its
top layer has a temperature of about
900’C when you go deeper into the
mantle the temperature increases from
1,000’C to 3,700’C. The mantle is
composed of ferro-magnesium silicate
rocks more on iron and magnesium.
LITHOSPHERE
The crust and the uppermost mantle is
made up of lithosphere. It is a rigid layer
or a not flexible layer that breaks under
stress. The lithosphere is composed of
minor and major blocks, referred to as
tectonic plates. This plates moves
slowly, about a few inches per year. The
place where the plates touch each other
is known as the Fault. When the plates
move and the boundaries bump up each
other it may cause an earthquake.
ASTHENOSPHERE
Below lithosphere is Asthenosphere,
which is about 180 km thick, and
contains hot molten rocks of magma.
Asthenosphere can reshape and
deform driven by heat energy which
circulates as convection currents.
Traveling upward from the hot lower
mantle to the cooler upper mantle. This
heat transfer mechanism helps drive
the movement of tectonic plates, which
is manifested as earthquakes. This
movements helps form volcanoes,
mountains, islands, trenches, and mid-
ocean ridges.
OUTER CORE
The outer core, the third layer of the
earth and the only layer of earth that is
liquid . It is made up of molten nickel
and iron it is about 2270 km thick and
has a temperature that ranges from
3,700’C to 4,300’C. The outer core is
the responsible of the earth’s magnetic
field which helps the earth maintain
the solar wind or the streams of
electrically charged particles that flow
from the sun that can strip away the
planet’s atmosphere and oceans.
INNER CORE
The inner core or the center of the
earth is extremely hot. Its
temperature has been recently
found to be 6,000’C. It is believed
to be as hot as the sun’s surface. It
is made up of solid iron and nickel.
It is like a solid ball with a radius of
1,220 km according to
seismological studies which is 20%
of the Earth’s radius and 70% of
the moon’s.
Boundaries Between the
layers of the Earth
Mohorovicic
discontinuity ,also known
as moho, is the interface
between the crust and
the mantle. In Geology
the word “discontinuity”
is used for a surface
which seismic waves
change velocity.
The Gutenberg
discontinuity marks the
boundary between the
mantle and the outer
core. Above the
Gutenberg line is solid,
but the outer core
below the line is liquid
molten.
The Lehmann
discontinuity is located
between the liquid outer
core and the solid inner
core
Reporter:

DE ANDRES,
MARIELLA
KATRINA #13