Name :_____________________ Date:________

CLC:_______________________ Facilitator:__________

Learning Competencies: Describe the layers of the earth and its composition, e.g.,
crust, mantle and core LS2SC-PS-PSF-AE/JHS-56

How the Earth is made up?

The Earth’s Crust
The crust making up the continents is constituted of granite and basalt rock makes up
beneath the oceans. This is the outermost layer of Earth. The crust differs in varied
thickness from 30 to 70 km under the continents and 5 to 15 km in the ocean levels.
Beneath the mountains like the Rockies, Alps the crust is as thick as 100 km.
Granite

Basalt
Download Worksheet - Structure of the Earth
What are all the layers of the earth?
Mantle
It is the second layer made of two parts, upper and lower, the thick layer is made of
extremely hot, semisolid rock is beneath the crust and is about 2,900 km thick made up
of iron and magnesium.
Core
The core is two times thicker when compared to the mantle. The outer core is the only
liquid layer, an ocean of mostly iron and nickel alloy. It is about 2,300 km thick. The
liquid outer core controls most of the earth’s magnetic field, making the spinning action
possible as the Earth rotates. The core is extremely hot and pressure here is very high,
that is why the iron and nickel is in liquid form. The inner core is mainly iron in molten
form.
Lithosphere
Made up of the crust and a very little of the upper mantle, this layer is divided into
several very slowly moving plates of solid rock that hold the continents and oceans.
Asthenosphere
The upper mantle makes the plates of the lithosphere move on this hot, liquid magma
right below the lithosphere.
Tectonic plates
The plate tectonics theory, says that the earth’s outer layer, or lithosphere, is broken
into several large pieces called plates.
These are tectonic plates, which hold the continents and oceans and are slowly but
constantly moving on the Earth’s surface. The movement of the plates proves that the
continents are not fixed and had moved over time, and also describes how and why
earthquakes, volcanoes, and other events occur in Nature.
Plate Boundaries
A plate boundary is where these tectonic plates meet. These are of different kinds
depending on the movement they make.

 Convergent plate boundary – Crashing towards each other

Credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convergent_boundary
  Divergent plate boundary – moving away from each other.

Credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_tectonics
 Transform plate boundary – slides against each other.
Directions Complete the table below.

Layers of the State ( solid or Composition Depth /

Earth liquid) thickness

Crust

Mantle
Outer core

Inner core