Composition of Earth

The earth is made up of three different layers: the crust, the mantle and the core.

The crust

This is the outside layer of the earth and is made of solid rock, mostly basalt and granite. There are two types of
crust; oceanic and continental. Oceanic crust is denser and thinner and mainly composed of basalt. Continental
crust is less dense, thicker, and mainly composed of granite.

The mantle

The mantle lies below the crust and is up to 2900 km thick. It consists of hot, dense, iron and magnesium-rich
solid rock. The crust and the upper part of the mantle make up the lithosphere, which is broken into plates, both
large and small.

The core

The core is the centre of the earth and is made up of two parts: the liquid outer core and solid inner core. The
outer core is made of nickel, iron and molten rock. Temperatures here can reach up to 50,000 C.

Chemical Composition
is composed mostly
of iron (32.1%), oxygen (30.1%), silicon (15.1%), magnesium (13.9%), sulfur (2.9%), nickel (1.8%), calcium (
1.5%), and aluminum (1.4%), with the remaining 1.2% consisting of trace amounts of other elements. Due
to mass segregation, the core region is estimated to be primarily composed of iron (88.8%), with smaller
amounts of nickel (5.8%), sulfur (4.5%), and less than 1% trace elements.

Movement of Earth
The huge tectonic plates that cover the Earth fit together a bit like pieces in a global puzzle. The Earth’s mantle
under the crust is hot and flexible so the plates (puzzle pieces) are able to move, but they do so very, very
slowly. There are three different ways the plates move: the plates can move past each other, they can move
apart from each other or they can move towards each other.

Scientists have special names for the way the plates move.

Transform boundaries are where the plates meet and try to move past each other. Friction holds the plates in
place, so they cannot simply glide past one another. Stress builds up and is released as an earthquake. New
Zealand’s Alpine Fault is an example of a transform boundary.

Divergent boundaries are where the plates slide apart from each other, and the space that this creates is filled
with magma and forms new crust. This often happens below the sea, for example, the Pacific Ocean is growing
wider by about 18 cm per year.

Convergent boundaries are where the plates slide towards each other. Sometimes this creates mountains, for
example, the collision between the Australian plate and the Pacific plate formed the Southern Alps. When two
plates under the ocean collide, they usually create an island as one plate moves beneath the other. The Solomon
Islands were created this way.