STRUCTURE OF THE EARTH

Scientific understanding of the internal structure of the Earth is based on;

 observations of topography and bathymetry
 observations of rock in outcrop
 samples brought to the surface from greater depths by volcanoes or volcanic activity
 analysis of the seismic waves that pass through the Earth
 measurements of the gravitational and magnetic fields of the Earth
 Experiments with crystalline solids at pressures and temperatures characteristic of the Earth's
deep interior.

4 distinct layers of Earth:

 Inner core
 Outer core
 Mantle
 Crust

Layering of Earth – inferred indirectly using the time of travel of refracted and reflected seismic waves
created by earthquakes.

Earth’s Crust
 70 kilometers (43.5 mi) deep and is the outermost layer.

Oceanic crust
o thin parts which underlie the ocean basins (5–10 km)
o Composed of dense (mafic) iron magnesium silicate igneous rocks, like basalt.

Continental crust,
o thicker crust which is less dense
o Composed of (felsic) sodium potassium aluminum silicate rocks, like granite.

* Crust-mantle boundary occurs as 2 physically different events.

1. There is a discontinuity in the seismic velocity, which is most commonly known as the
Mohorovičić discontinuity or Moho.
- The cause is thought to be a change in rock composition from rocks containing
plagioclase feldspar (above) to rocks that contain no feldspars (below).
2. In oceanic crust, there is chemical discontinuity between ultramafic cumulates and tectonized
harzburgites, which has been observed from deep parts of the oceanic crust that have been
obducted onto the continental crust and preserved as ophiolite sequences.

Crust’s Formation and Evolution

 Earth formed approximately 4.6 billion years ago from a disk of dust and gas orbiting the newly
formed Sun.
 It formed via accretion, where planetesimals and other smaller rocky bodies collided and stuck,
gradually growing into a planet.
 This process generated an enormous amount of heat, which caused early Earth to melt
completely.
 Earth began to cool, forming its first crust, called a primary or primordial crust.
 This crust was likely repeatedly destroyed by large impacts, and then reformed from the magma
ocean left by the impact.
 Since then, Earth has been forming secondary and tertiary crust.
 "ridge push" is one of the driving forces of plate tectonics, and it is constantly creating new
ocean crust.
 That means that old crust must be destroyed somewhere
 There is usually a subduction zone: a trench where an ocean plate is being shoved back into
the mantle.
 This constant process of creating new ocean crust and destroying old ocean crust means that
the oldest ocean crust on Earth today is only about 200 million years old.
 the bulk of the continental crust is much older
 The oldest continental crustal rocks on Earth have ages in the range from about 3.7 to 4.28
billion years.
 The average age of the current Earth's continental crust has been estimated to be about 2.0
billion years.
Plate Tectonics
 The Earth's crust and upper mantle is broken into many plates called tectonic plates that are
like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
 There are seven major plates that make up 94% of the Earth's surface and many smaller plates
making up the other 6%.
 7 major plates are:
o Pacific plate
o Eurasian plate
o North American plate
o South American plate
o African plate
o Australian plate
o Antarctic plate.
 The minor plates are:
o Indian plate
o Arabian plate
o Filipino plate
o Scotia plate
o Nazca plate
o Caribbean plate
o Cocos plate
o Juan de Fuca plate
 Tectonic plates are in motion and it is thought that they have been in motion since early in
earth's history.
 The areas where these plates meet are known as plate boundaries.

3 types of plate boundary:

1. Divergent or constructive plate boundaries
- The plates diverge, and this causes the construction of new rock.
- When two tectonic plates pull apart and rock from the mantle rises through the opening to form
new surface rock when it cools.
- It happens at the start of a new ocean and continues at the mid-ocean ridge while the ocean is
opening.
- It is associated with rifting (large-scale faulting) and volcanoes.

2. Convergent or destructive plate boundaries

- When two tectonic plates move toward each other and collide.
- It is possible to have the collision of two oceanic plates, an oceanic plate and a continental plate
or two continental plates.
- Subduction occurs when there is a difference in the density of the plates.
- Oceanic crust is typically denser than continental crust and is forced downwards into the hot
mantle when it collides with continental crust.
- Himalayas are an example of the collision of two continental plates where the Indian plate is
crashing into the Eurasian plate and is being forced upwards.
- They are continually growing at an average rate of 1cm per year, this will be 10km in 1 million
years.

3. Passive plate boundaries

- Also known as strike-slip or transform boundaries.
- When two plates slide past each other.
- When the plates move, the jagged edges of the plate boundaries snag and catch each other
and can get jammed.
- The pressure is released in the form of an earthquake.
- The movement of the two plates can be in opposite directions or in the same direction but at
different speeds for example the San Andreas Fault in California.

Earth System Science

- It considers interactions of the earth’s “spheres”- atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere,
geosphere (lithosphere), pedosphere, biosphere, and even the magnetosphere.

Atmosphere
- Layer or a set of layers of gases surrounding a planet or other material body, that is held in
place by the gravity of that body.
 - Be retained if the gravity it is subject to is high and the temperature of the atmosphere is low.

Hydrosphere
- Combined mass of water found on, under, and above the surface of a planet, minor planet or
natural satellite.

Cryosphere
- portions of Earth's surface where water is in solid form, including sea ice, lake ice, river ice,
snow cover, glaciers, ice caps, ice sheets, and frozen ground (which includes permafrost).

lithosphere
- rigid, outermost shell of a terrestrial-type planet, or natural satellite, that is defined by its rigid
mechanical properties.

pedosphere
- skin of the Earth and only develops when there is a dynamic interaction between the
atmosphere (air in and above the soil), biosphere (living organisms), lithosphere
(unconsolidated regolith and consolidated bedrock) and the hydrosphere (water in, on and
below the soil).
- foundation of terrestrial life on Earth.

biosphere
- worldwide sum of all ecosystems.
- zone of life on Earth
- a closed system (apart from solar and cosmic radiation and heat from the interior of the Earth),
and largely self-regulating.

magnetosphere
- region of space surrounding an astronomical object in which charged particles are manipulated
or affected by that object's magnetic field.

Mantle
 2 most important things about the mantle are:
o (1) it is made of solid rock
o (2) it is hot
 mantle is made of rock based on evidence from seismic waves, heat flow, and meteorites.
 Peridotite is rarely found at Earth’s surface.
 mantle is extremely hot because of the heat flowing outward from it and because of its physical
properties.
 Heat flows in 2 different ways within the Earth: conduction and convection.
 Conduction - the heat transfer that occurs through rapid collisions of atoms, which can only
happen if the material is solid.
o Heat flows from warmer to cooler places until all are the same temperature.
 mantle is hot mostly because of heat conducted from the core.
 Convection - process of a material that can move and flow may develop convection currents.

Lower Mantle
Temperature: 3,000°C
State: solid
- Found between 670km and 2,890km below the surface, and is made from solid rock. The rock
is hot enough to melt, but is solid because of the pressure pushing down on it.

Upper Mantle
Temperature: 1,400°C – 3,000°C
State: liquid / solid
- 670km below the Earth’s surface.
- The lower part of the upper mantle is made from both solid and melted rock (liquid), while the
rock in the upper region is stiffer, because it’s cooler.

Seismic and the Earth's Structure

 Geologists use seismic (earthquake) waves to determine the depths of layers of molten and
semi-molten material within Earth.
 2 principal types of seismic waves are:
o P-waves (pressure; goes through liquid and solid)
 o S-waves (shear or secondary; goes only through solid - not through liquid).
 P-waves are faster than S-waves
 all waves change direction when they pass through layers of different density - refraction
 Refraction of seismic waves causes them to curve away from a direct path.

Earth’s Core
- part of Earth in the middle of our planet.
- It has a solid inner core and a liquid outer core.

Outer Core
 liquid layer about 2,260 kilometers thick.
 It is made of iron and nickel.
 Its outer boundary is 2,890 km (1,800 mi) beneath the Earth's surface.
 The transition between the inner core and outer core is approximately 5,000 km (3,100 mi)
beneath the Earth's surface.
 Temperature of the outer core ranges from 4400 °C in the outer regions to 6100 °C near the
inner core.
 Average magnetic field strength in the Earth's outer core was measured to be 25 Gauss, 50
times stronger than the magnetic field at the surface.
 Without this field, the solar wind would directly strike the Earth's atmosphere. This might have
removed the Earth's atmosphere, making the planet nearly lifeless. It may have happened
to Mars.

Properties
 Seismic inversions of body waves and normal modes constrain the radius of the outer core to
be 3483 km with an uncertainty of 5 km, while that of the inner core is 1220±10 km.
 Estimates for the temperature of the outer core are about 3,000–4,500 K (2,730–4,230 °C;
4,940–7,640 °F) in its outer regions and 4,000–8,000 K (3,730–7,730 °C; 6,740–13,940 °F) near
the inner core.
 The average magnetic field strength in the Earth's outer core was measured to be 2.5 millitesla,
50 times stronger than the magnetic field at the surface.
 The outer core is not under enough pressure to be solid, so it is liquid even though it has a
composition similar to the inner core.

Inner Core
 solid sphere about 1,216 km (760 mi) in radius, or about 70% that of the Moon.
 an iron–nickel alloy
 temperature similar to the Sun's surface, approximately 5778 K (5505 °C).

Discovery
 The Earth was discovered to have a solid inner core distinct from its molten outer core in 1936,
by the Danish seismologist Inge Lehmann
 He deduced its presence by studying seismograms from earthquakes in New Zealand.
 She observed that the seismic waves reflect off the boundary of the inner core and can be
detected by sensitive seismographs on the Earth's surface.
 This boundary is known as the Bullen discontinuity or sometimes as the Lehmann
discontinuity.
 A few years later, in 1940, it was hypothesized that this inner core was made of solid iron; its
rigidity was confirmed in 1971.
 Dziewonski and Gilbert established that measurements of normal modes of vibration of Earth
caused by large earthquakes were consistent with a liquid outer core.

Pressure
 The pressure in the Earth's inner core is slightly higher than it is at the boundary between the
outer and inner cores: it ranges from about 330 to 360 gigapascals (3,300,000 to
3,600,000 atm).

History
 Based on rates of cooling of the core, it is estimated that the current solid inner core started
solidifying approximately 0.5 to 2 billion years ago out of a fully molten core (which formed just
after planetary formation).