Unveiling Earths Hidden Layers

Unveiling Earth's
Hidden Layers: A
Journey Through
Time and Space
Surprise !!!!
General Objectives
•Identify the mechanical and
compositional layers of the earth.
•Create a labeled diagram or physical
representation of the layers of the
Earth using different materials or
colors to represent the different
layers and their properties.
Earth’s Layers
Compositional Mechanical
Layers Layers
• Crust • Lithosphere
• Mantle • Asthenosphere
• Core • Mesosphere
• Inner core
• Outer core
The Earth’s Crust
• The Earth's crust is an extremely thin layer of rock
that makes up the outermost solid shell of our planet.
In relative terms, it's thickness is like that of the skin
of an apple. It amounts to less than half of 1 percent
of the planet's total mass but plays a vital role in most
of Earth's natural cycles.
• The crust is composed of many different types of
rocks that fall into three main
categories: igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary.
However, most of those rocks originated as either
granite or basalt.
Continental Crust vs Oceanic Crust
• Continental crust is thick and old -- on average
about 50 km thick and about 2 billion years old --
and it covers about 40 percent of the planet.
Whereas almost all of the oceanic crust is
underwater, most of the continental crust is
exposed to the air.
• Oceanic crust covers about 60 percent of the
Earth's surface. Oceanic crust is thin and young --
no more than about 20 km thick and no older than
about 180 million years. Everything older has been
pulled underneath the continents by subduction.
Why the Earth's
Crust Is So
Important?
The Earth’s Mantle
• The mantle is the mostly solid bulk of Earth’s interior. The
mantle lies between Earth’s dense, superheated core and its
thin outer layer, the crust. The mantle is about 2,900
kilometers (1,802 miles) thick, and makes up a whopping 84
percent of Earth’s total volume.
• The rocks that make up Earth’s mantle are mostly silicates—a
wide variety of compounds that share a silicon and oxygen
structure.
• The temperature of the mantle varies greatly, from 1000°C
(1832°F) near its boundary with the crust, to 3700°C (6692°F)
near its boundary with the core. In the mantle, heat
and pressure generally increase with depth. The geothermal
gradient is a measurement of this increase. In most places, the
geothermal gradient is about 25°C per kilometer of depth
The Earth’s Core
• Earth’s core is the very hot, very dense center of our planet.
The ball-shaped core lies beneath the cool, brittle crust and
the mostly solid mantle. The core is found about 2,900
kilometers (1,802 miles) below Earth’s surface, and has
a radius of about 3,485 kilometers (2,165 miles).
• Earth’s core is the furnace of the geothermal gradient. The
geothermal gradient measures the increase of heat and
pressure in Earth’s interior.
• The primary contributors to heat in the core are the decay of
radioactive elements, leftover heat from planetary formation,
and heat released as the liquid outer core solidifies near
its boundary with the inner core.
The Earth’s
Mechanical
Layers
The Earth’s Lithosphere
• The lithosphere is the solid, outer part of Earth. The
lithosphere includes the brittle upper portion of
the mantle and the crust, the outermost layers of Earth’s
structure.
• Although the rocks of the lithosphere are still
considered elastic, they are not viscous.
• It is solid, rigid, and brittle, extending to about 100 km. in
depth. It has the tendency to break under pressure, and
mechanical interaction, which is responsible for earthquakes.
The Earth’s Asthenosphere
• The asthenosphere is the upper zone of our Earth's
mantle. Located below the lithosphere, approximately
between 30 and 130 kilometers deep. It is formed or
composed of solid and semi-fused materials that allow
continental drift.
• On it, tectonic plates move. This is the region that has
the highest viscosity rate and mechanically is very weak
with respect to the top layer of the Earth.
• The asthenosphere is responsible for collecting heat
from the mesosphere and projecting it into the
lithosphere through a convection system, which can be
compared to the boiling water process.
The Outer Core
• The outer core, about 2,200 kilometers (1,367
miles) thick, is mostly composed of liquid iron
and nickel. The NiFe alloy of the outer core is very
hot, between 4,500° and 5,500° Celsius (8,132°
and 9,932° Fahrenheit).
• The liquid metal of the outer core has very
low viscosity, meaning it is
easily deformed and malleable. It is the site of
violent convection. The churning metal of the
outer core creates and sustains Earth’s magnetic
The Inner Core
• The inner core is a hot, dense ball of (mostly)
iron. It has a radius of about 1,220 kilometers
(758 miles). Temperature in the inner core is
about 5,200° Celsius (9,392° Fahrenheit). The
pressure is nearly 3.6 million atmosphere (atm).
• The temperature of the inner core is far above
the melting point of iron. However, unlike the
outer core, the inner core is not liquid or even
molten. The inner core’s intense pressure—the
entire rest of the planet and its atmosphere—
prevents the iron from melting.
Why the Earth’s
Outer Core Is
So Important?
Earth’s Seismic
Discontinuities
Mohorovocic Discontinuity
• The Mohorovicic Discontinuity, or "Moho," is the
boundary between the crust and the mantle.
• The Mohorovicic Discontinuity was discovered in 1909
by Andrija Mohorovicic, a Croatian seismologist.
Mohorovicic realized that the velocity of a seismic wave
is related to the density of the material that it is moving
through.
• He interpreted the acceleration of seismic waves
observed within Earth's outer shell as a compositional
change within the Earth. The acceleration must be
caused by a higher density material being present at
depth.
Gutenberg Discontinuity
• The Gutenberg Discontinuity is situated inside the earth at a
depth of about 2900 kilometers below the surface. The
Gutenberg discontinuity separates the core and the mantle of
the earth. Abundant, powerful forces reside below the earth's
surface.
• These forces are responsible for triggering earthquakes,
erupting lava through volcanoes, creating precious stones, and
changing the landforms on the earth's surface from time to
time, over the years. The structure of the earth has been a
subject of study since ancient times.
• The Gutenberg discontinuity was named after Beno Gutenberg,
who contributed several important facts and understanding of
the earth's interior in 1913, which led to groundbreaking
discoveries related to the inner layers of the earth.
Lehmann Discontinuity
• Boundary between the inner core and the outer core.
• Named after a Danish seismologist and geophysicist Inge Lehmann.

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