 Understanding the Earth’s structure

 Layers of the Earth

o Core
o Mantle
o Crust

Introduction to the Structure of the Earth

Have you ever wondered why a bottle of soda fizzes – and sometimes
bubbles over – when you open it? The answer is pressure. A bottle of soda
contains high pressure. Leave the cap on and nothing happens. As soon as
you take the cap off, some of the liquid soda escapes and becomes a gas this is
the reason why it fizzes.

The inside of the Earth also contains a lot of pressure. After the Earth was
made, it began to cool down. The outer shell became a hard crust of rocks. The inside of the
Earth is still unbelievably hot because of nuclear reactions that are still going on. The

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 temperature of the rock here is much hotter than molten lava, but it isn’t liquid. It remains as
a solid because of the pressure.

Inside Our Earth

The earth, our homeland is a dynamic planet. It is constantly undergoing changes on the
inside and the outside. Have you ever wondered what lies in the interior of the earth? Let’s
learn about it in this lesson.

What is the earth made of?

The Earth is made up of several different layers, each with its own unique properties. In this
lesson we will identify each layer of the Earth and how it relates to our planet Earth as a
whole.

The Earth is made up of many different and distinct layers. The deeper layers are composed
of heavier materials; they are hotter, denser and under much greater pressure than the outer
layers.

Just like an onion, the earth has several concentric layers with one inside another.

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 What are the layers of the Earth?

The Earth is not just one big ball that’s solid throughout,
although it might look that way but, it is made up of different
layers. Just like an onion if you peel off each layer you will find
that it is made up of different things that have their own unique
properties and functions.

Let’s start from the outside and move our way in. The topmost layer on which we stand is
known as the Crust, next comes the Mantle and finally the Core.

Some of these layers are made up of even more layers and they’re always on the move. The
Earth is mostly made of rocks and metals. Scientists and Geologists can’t exactly get in a
rocket and head right to the middle of the Earth, or the core, so it’s difficult to know exactly

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 what’s there. But, they are always coming up with new ideas, and as measuring equipments
become more advanced they learn new things about the structure of the earth.

Fact file

A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the
Earth as well as its processes.

Did you know?

The structure of the Earth is similar to that of an egg. The Earth’s crust is like
the shell of an egg, its mantle is like egg white and the core is like the yolk.

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 Earth's Core

The Earth has a core which is broken into two distinct parts:

1. The inner core

2. The outer core

Both parts of the core are made up of mostly iron and some nickel. The difference is that in
the inner core, those minerals are solid and in the outer core, they are liquid.

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 The Earth was formed 4.5 billion years ago, and when this happened, all the heavy materials
sunk to the middle and this became the inner core. The lighter ones like air and water stayed
on the top on the crust.

The inner core of the earth is incredibly hot. The inner core is so hot that if you tried to dig a
hole to China you will burn up on your way through the earth! What's amazing about the
inner core is that even though it's about as hot as the surface of the sun, there's so much
pressure from the weight of the world pushing down on it that it can't melt, even though it
is so hot, it is solid. This is the same reason that water in a pressure cooker doesn't boil, no
matter how hot it gets! The inner core is the hottest part of the Earth, and, at over 5000
degrees Celsius, is about as hot as the surface of the sun.

The inner core apparently spins at a different speed to the rest of the planet and this causes
the Earth’s magnetic field.

It is because of the flow of metals in the inner core that the Earth is magnetic. The effect of
this magnetic field spreads way beyond the Earth and goes off far into space. It actually forms
a barrier that helps protect the Earth from the Sun’s destructive solar winds. Wow that’s
interesting.

Important features of the inner core:

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  The inner core of the Earth has temperatures and pressures so great that the metals
are squeezed together and are not able to move.

 The inner core is a solid.

The outer core is also made up of iron and nickel,

but it's quite different because it is a liquid. This is
because there is much less pressure on this layer
than the one below it (the outer core adds a lot of
pressure to the inner core). Though the flow of
this liquid layer is very slow-moving (about a few
kilometers a year), it is what produces Earth's
magnetic field. Our North and South Poles exist
because of this liquid outer core, even though it's
almost 2,000 miles below us.

Important features of the outer core:

 The core of the Earth is like a ball of very hot metals.

 The outer core is liquid.

 The outer core is made up of iron and is very dense.

Focus Question:
Why is the outer core of the earth important?

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 Wow Fact
The very center of the Earth is the core, which is mostly iron and nickel. The inner
core is solid and measures 1,516 miles in diameter.

The outer core of the Earth is liquid metal – also mostly nickel and iron. Together,
the inner core and outer core are about as large as Mars. The outer core is 1,408
miles in diameter.

The inner core and the outer core of the Earth are as big as Mars!

The Mantle

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 The next layer that which comes outside the core is known as the Mantle. The Mantle forms
the main mass of the Earth. The mantle is about 2,900 kilometers thick and makes up about
85% of the Earth’s weight.

The Mantle can have temperatures reaching to 4000 degree Celsius. The mantle can also be
divided into two portions, the upper mantle and the lower mantle. The lower mantle is
completely solid because, like the solid inner core of Earth, the pressure is just too great for it
to melt and flow. The upper mantle is also known as the Asthenosphere.

The hot Magma from the Asthenosphere travels to the surface of the Earth and escapes in the
form of Lava.

Fact file

Parts of the Earth’s mantle are made up of hot rock, so they get melted. This molten
rock seeps through cracks in the crust and pours out of volcanoes. This is called lava.
When the lava cools down, it turns into stone.

The Mantle is made of molten (melted) iron, minerals and other semi-solid rocks that can
flow under pressure. Scientists and Geologists think that when they rise from the very
intense heat, and then cool down again, they sink back to the core. This movement makes
the crust break into plates, or different sections.

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 What happens when the crust breaks up into plates?

Well they move and crash into each other and this causes earthquakes and volcanic
eruptions. This movement is how new mountains and sea beds are formed.

Sea floors are made of a thick rock called

basalt which presses into the mantle and
then fill with water.

The various continents are made from lighter blocks that float on the mantle like massive
icebergs.

How do Geologists explore the mantle?

This is usually done from the sea bed where the layer is thinner than it is on land. They first
explored it back in 1996. But, they actually gave up as they just couldn’t get it right.

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 Features of the Mantle

• The mantle is the layer below the crust.

• The mantle is the largest layer of the Earth.
• The mantle is divided into two regions: the upper and lower sections.

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 Crust of the Earth

What is the Crust?

The crust is an outer solid layer and this is where all life exists, including us, animals,
mountains, sea and soil. It is about 8 kilometers thick in the ocean bed, which is called the
oceanic crust. The oceanic crust is mostly made from basalt rock.

Then there’s the continental crust which is covered by land and is made mostly out of
granite. Above that granite is sedimentary rock. Sedimentary rocks form over long periods of
time and are made from debris, chemical sediment and broken rocks. It is between 5km to
70km thick.

The crust is the only layer on Earth that Scientists and Geologists can study, as they can drill
into it. So this is the layer that we know the most about.

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 How do Geologists study about the crust?

Well they watch how waves travel through the Earth, called Seismic waves, which are
caused from earthquakes or eruptions. They use a machine called seismograph to study the
waves.

Features of the crust:

 The Earth’s crust is like the skin of an apple. It is very thin compared to the other
three layers.

 The crust makes up 1% of the Earth.

 The crust of the Earth is broken into many pieces called plates.

Fact file:

Earth’s crust continues to be shaped by the planet’s movement and energy.

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 Test Your Knowledge!

Fill in the Blanks:

1. Scientists and Geologists say the outer core is made mostly of __________ and _________.

2. The mantle is the layer below the _____________.

3. The ____________ is the largest layer of the Earth.
4. The _____________ is the only layer on Earth that Scientists and Geologists can study.

Answer the following Questions

Q1. Can you name each of the three layers of the Earth?

Q2. What is the core of the Earth made up of?

Q3. What causes the Earth’s magnetic field?

Q4. What is the mantle made up of?

Q5. What is a seismograph used for?

Q6. What happens when the crust breaks up into plates?

Q7. How thick is the second layer of the core?

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 In the below given table understand and write the features of the three layers
of the Earth

Crust Mantle Core

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 Activity

The Earth Bowl

Materials:

A bag which contains thin cracker biscuits and sugar.

Some Red cherries

Some Green grapes

One Black Grape

A spoon

A bowl

The Steps to Making the Layers!

1) First you will need the crackers and sugar. Break the crackers up with the sugar in the
bag.

2) After the crackers are broken up into crumbs, mix butter in the bag.

3) Now, take the crackers out and press the mixture on the sides of the bowl to form the
crust.

4) Place a small bowl inside the big bowl and surround this small bowl with some red
cherries.

5) Take the green grapes and put it in the small bowl and leave some space in the middle to
place one black grape.

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 The Crust: crackers
The Mantle: red
cherries
The outer core: green
grapes
Inner core: The black
grape

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