Earth’s Interior

Let’s get to the heart of the Earth

By the Lunar and Planetary

Institute
For use in teacher workshops
Image credit: NASA
Compositional
Crust
Mantle
Core

Physical / Mechanical
Lithosphere
Asthenosphere
Image credit: USGS
Mesosphere
 What We Know - Crust
 Two types of crust:
 Continental
 30% of crust
 40 Km thick
 Oldest is 3.8 billion years (90%
solar system age; missing ~700
m.y.)

 Oceanic crust
 5-10 Km thick
 200 Ma oldest; 100 Ma average

Image credit: USGS

 What We Know - Mantle
 Density – between
crust and core
 3.3 - 5.5 g/cm3
 Samples from volcanic
eruptions, basalt
composition; lab
experiments

Image credit: John Lahr, USGS Open-File Report 99-132

 What We Infer – Core
 No direct samples
 Probably heavy stuff
 Liquid outer
(molten iron), solid
inner (iron, nickel)

Image credit: John Lahr, USGS Open-File Report 99-132

 What We Infer – Core
 Total density of Earth is ~5,500 km/g3
 Avg. surface density is ~3,000 km/g3
 Core must be very dense!
 Why iron? Meteorites!
 Earth’s Interior
 How do we infer the properties of the core?
 Seismic Waves

Earthquakes generate
three types of waves –
P, S, & surface waves

We will just concern

ourselves with P & S
waves

Image credit: USGS

 Wave Types

 Transverse (S) Waves –

particles move
perpendicular to direction
of disturbance; rock is
moved (sheared)

Image credit: USGS

 Wave Types
 Longitudinal (P) Waves
– push-pull waves;
particles move parallel to
direction of disturbance;
rock changes volume
(compressed & dilated)

Image credit: USGS

 Earthquake Waves
 P-waves (longitudinal) travel through liquids & solids

 S-waves (transverse) do NOT travel through liquids;

solids only
 Earthquake Waves Hint at Internal Layering

 P-waves (longitudinal) are

able to travel through liquids
(outer core)
 S-waves (transverse) are
NOT able to travel through
liquids (outer core)

Image credit: LPI

 Websites
 Earthquake data
 http://www.iris.edu/hq/

 TERC’s Exploring Earth

FANTASTIC interactive lessons for students about Earth, visualizations, and
more. In particular, explore how we have modeled Earth’s internal structure
using seismic waves
http://www.classzone.com/books/earth_science/terc/content/investigation
s/es0402/es0402page04.cfm?chapter_no=investigation