Thursday, March 13, 2008

A Journey To The Center Of The Earth

The Earth is composed of four different layers. There are crust, mantle, outer core and inner core. Here are the information of the four layers.

The crust. The crust is the thin and solid outer most layer of Earth above the mantle. The crust consists of two parts: the oceanic and the continental crust. The crust is typically about 25 miles thick beneath continents and about 6.5 miles thick beneath the ocean. The rocks of the oceanic crust are very young compared with the continental crust. The rocks of the oceanic crust are not older than 200 million years. The oceanic crust consists is for the greater part tholeiitic basalt. The continental crust is older than oceanic crust; some rocks are 3.8 billion years old. The continental crust mainly consists of igneous rocks and is divided into two layers. The upper part mainly consists of granite rocks, while the lower part consists of basalt and diorite.

The mantle. The mantle is the layer above the core. The inner mantle can be found between 190 miles and 1,800 miles below the surface of the Earth's surface. The average temperature is 5,400 degrees F. The outer mantle is a lot thinner than the inner mantle. It can be found between 7 miles and 190 miles below the Earth's surface. You can divide the outer mantle into two different layers. The bottom layer is tough liquid rock and probably consists of silicates of iron and magnesium. The temperature in this part is between 2,520 degrees F. and 5,400 degrees F.

The outer core and inner core, the outer of Earth is like a ball of very hot metals (4,000 degrees F. to 9,000 degrees F. The outer core is so hot that the metals in it are all in the liquid state. The outer core is located about 1,800 miles beneath the crust and is about 1,400 miles thick. The core is composed of the molted metals nickel and iron. The inner core of the Earth has temperatures and pressures so great that the metals are squeezed together and are not able to move about like a liquid but are forced to vibrate in place as a solid. The inner core begins about 4,000 miles beneath the crust and is about 800 miles thick. The temperatures may reach 900 and the pressures are 45,000,000 pounds per square inch. This is 3,000,000 times the air pressure on you at sea level.

In conclusion, the earth has four layers. There are crust, mantle, inner core, and outer core. The crust is the layer that we live on. The inner core is the farthest layers from the surface.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know more of the Earth, then I did before. I think you just got about everything, of the layers of the Earth. You did better then I did.

TMa1

Anonymous said...

what a snazzy report thingy.
good job!
XDD
-aj1

Anonymous said...

Great facts. Very precise and accurate. Nice job.
MM2

Anonymous said...

I had the same question and i like yours way better then mine. Good job.

EB4

Anonymous said...

great job on your report. I never knew that the earth had that many layers and that you would have to travel that far to the center of the earth. AH5

Anonymous said...

I liked the paper, it was good. The one bad thing I saw was that you said the Mantle was ABOVE the core, and I'm pretty sure I am not in magma.
NSD5

Anonymous said...

I thought it was well written and had awesome facts but i think you could have added more opinion to it. you know what i mean? but it was still really good.
SH5