LAYERS OF THE EARTH
EARTH’S PLANETARY STRUCTURE MANTLE (Thickness of approximately 2885 km.)
- Sir Isaac Newton determined that the degree to which
particles are drawn to each other by gravity depends on
the mass of each particle, which is commonly expressed
in units of grams or kilograms.
- The gravitational force of attraction is greater for objects
that have a larger mass than for those with a smaller
mass.
- Earth’s interior is primarily composed of solids – the
densest of the three states of matter. Liquids – are not as
dense as solids; thus, most of Earth’s liquid water lies at
the planet’s surface thousands of kilometers above the
densest solids located deep inside Earth.
- Gases, with an even lower density than liquids, have the
weakest gravitational attractive force and are held
relatively loosely around Earth as the atmospheric
envelope.
- Planet Earth has a radius of about 6400 kilometers.
- Geothermal gradient – that temperature increases with
increasing depth inside Earth.
- Seismic Waves – various shock waves
- Earthquake produce two major types of seismic waves:
P(primary) waves – travel faster and are the first to
arrive at a recording seismograph.
S (secondary) waves – travel slowly than P waves, thus
they arrive at the seismograph.
CORE (composed of iron and nickel)
- Contains one third of Earth’s mass and has a radius of
about 3360 km., which is larger than the planet Mars.
- Composed primarily of iron and nickel and consist of
two distinct sections, the inner core and the outer
core.
- Inner Core : has a radius of about 960 kilometers. The
speed of P waves traveling through the inner core
shows that it is a solid with a very high material density.
- Outer Core: (2400 – Km) thick band around the inner
core. Because the outer core blocks the passage of
seismic S waves, Earth scientists know that the outer
core is molten, that is , it consists of liquid (melted)
rock matter.
Why then, is Earth’s inner core solid but its cooler outer
core molten?
Answer:
The answer involves the facts that the melting
temperature of rock matter increases with pressure,
and pressure increases with depth beneath Earth’s
surface. Rock existing under greater pressure needs to
achieve a higher temperature to melt than rock at a
lower pressure does. The actual temperature of rock
material in the outer core exceeds that material’s
pressure – altered melting temperature; thus rock in
the outer core is molten. The extreme high pressure of
the inner core , however, has elevated the melting
temperature there to value that lies above the rocks’s
actual temperature, leaving the material of the inner
core solid.
- Nearly two thirds of Earth’s mass
- The largest of Earth’s interior zones. Earthquake waves
that pass through the mantle indicate that it is
composed of solid rock matter.
- Composed of silicate rocks (high in silicon and
oxygen)
- The interface between the mantle and the overlying
crust is marked by a significant change of density,
called a discontinuity, which is indicated by an
abrupt decrease in the velocity of seismic waves as
they travel up through this internal boundary –
Mohorovičić discontinuity or Moho ( crust – mantle
boundary) after the Croatian geophysicist who first
detected it in 1909.
CRUST
- Earth’s solid exterior, which is composed of a
great variety of rock types that respond in diverse
ways and at a varying rates to a surface processes.
- The only portion of the lithosphere of which Earth
scientist have direct knowledge and it represents
about 1% of Earth’s planetary mass.
- The crust comprises the ocean floor and the
continents.
Two kinds of Earth Crust:
1. Oceanic Crust - is composed of basalt, a heavy,
dark-colored, iron rich rock that is also high in
silicon and magnesium.
- forming the vast, deep ocean floors and lava flows
on all the continents, basaltic rocks are the most
common rocks on Earth.
2. Continental Crust – comprises the major
landmasses on Earth that are exposed to the
atmosphere.
- thicker than oceanic crust
- continental crust contains more light – colored
rocks than oceanic crust does and can be regarded
as granitic in composition.
LITHOSPHERE
- The extreme upper most part of the mantle, with
a thickness of about 100 km, has a chemical
composition like the rest of the mantle.
- The term lithosphere has traditionally been used
to describe the entire solid Earth. In recent
decades, however the term lithosphere has also
been used in a separate structural sense to refer
to the brittle outer shell of Earth, including the
crust and the rigid, uppermost mantle layer
ASTHENOSPHERE (Greek : asthenias - without
strength)
- Beneath the lithosphere
- 180 km. thick layer of upper mantle that responds
to stress by deforming and flowing slowly rather
than by fracturing. In other words, the
asthenosphere has the characteristics of a plastic
solid.