THE EARTH’S

INTERIOR
Introduction
Studying the Earth’s Interior

 Scientists tried to explore

and study the interior of the
Earth. Yet, until today, there
are no mechanical probes
or actual explorations done
to totally discover the
deepest region of the
How did they know?
 The Earth is made up of three layers:
the crust, the mantle, and the core.
 The study of these layers is mostly

done in the Earth’s crust since

mechanical probes are impossible
due to the tremendous heat and very
high pressure underneath the
Earth’s surface.
Seismic Waves

 Seismic waves from

earthquakes are used to
analyze the composition and
internal structure of the
Earth.
 What are seismic
waves?
Seismic waves

 Earthquake is a vibration of the

Earth produced by the rapid
release of energy.
 This energy radiates in all

directions from the focus in the

form of waves called seismic
waves.
Earthquake: Seismic Wave

Wave
Direction

Epicenter

Fault

Focus
Types of Seismic Wave

 Surface waves
Love Wave
Rayleigh Wave
 Body Waves

 P – wave

 S – wave
Surface Waves

 can only travel through the

surface of the Earth
 arrive after the main P and S

waves
2 Types of Surface Waves
 Love Waves

 Rayleigh Waves
Love
Wave
 named after A.E.H. (Augustus Edward Hough)
Love, a British mathematician who
worked out the mathematical model
for this kind of wave in 1911.
 faster than Rayleigh wave

 it moves the ground in a side-to-

side horizontal motion, like that of
a snake’s causing the ground to
twist
 cause the most damage to structures
during an earthquake.
Love
Wave
Rayleigh Wave
 named after John William Strutt, Lord
Rayleigh, who mathematically
predicted the existence of this kind of
wave in 1885
 wave rolls along the ground just like a

wave rolls across a lake or an ocean

 up and down or side-to-side similar

to the direction of the wave’s

movement
 shaking felt from an earthquake
Rayleigh Wave
Body waves

 can travel through the Earth’s

inner layers
 they are used by scientists to

study the Earth’s interior

 higher frequency than the

surface waves
Body waves

2 types
P-Waves (Primary waves)

S-waves (Secondary waves)

P-waves (Primary)

is a pulse energy that

travels quickly through the
Earth and through liquids
travels faster than the S-

wave
it reaches a detector first
P-waves (Primary)
 compressional waves, travel by
particles vibrating parallel to
the direction the wave travel
 move backward and forward as they

are compressed and expanded

 they travel through solids, liquids

and gases
S-waves (Secondary/Shear)

 pulse energy that travels slower than

a P-wave through Earth and solids
 Move as shear or transverse waves,

and force the ground to sway from

side to side, in rolling motion that
shakes the ground back and forth
perpendicular to the direction of the
waves
S-waves (Secondary/Shear)

 cannot travel through any

liquid medium led
seismologists to conclude
that the outer core is liquid
Seismic Waves movement
Cross section of the Earth as seismic waves travel
through it
Propagation of Seismic Waves
Through Earth’s Interior

Longitudinal waves travel through

both solids and liquids.

Transverse waves travel through

solids only.
 Remember
:
 P-waves are detected on the other side
of the Earth opposite the focus.
 A shadow zone from 103° to 142°

exists from P-waves

 Since P-waves are detected until 103°,

disappear from 103° to 142°, then

reappear again, something inside the
Earth must be bending the P-waves
Remember
:
 existence of a shadow zone, according
to German seismologist Beno
Gutenberg (ɡuː t ən bɛʁk), could only be
explained if the Earth contained a core
composed of a material different from
that of the mantle causing the bending of
the P-waves
 To honor him, mantle–core boundary is

called Gutenberg discontinuity

Remember
:
 From the epicenter, S-waves are detected
until 103°, from that point, S- waves are
no longer detected
 S-waves do not travel all throughout
the Earth’s body
 knowing the properties and characteristics of
S-waves (that it cannot travel through
liquids), and with the idea that P-waves are
bent to some degree, this portion must be
made of liquid, thus the outer core
Remember
:
 1936, the innermost layer of
the Earth was predicted by
Inge Lehmann, a Danish
seismologist
 discovered a new region of

seismic reflection within the

core
 Earth has a core within a core
 Remember
:
 the outer part of the core is liquid based from
the production of an S wave shadow and the
inner part must be solid with a different density
than the rest of the surrounding material
 size of the inner core was accurately calculated
through nuclear underground tests conducted
in Nevada.
 echoes from seismic waves provided
accurate data in determining its size
OUR HOME PLANET, EARTH
 Our Earth is about average among the
planets in the Solar System, in many
respects:
 largest and most massive of the four
terrestrial planets, but smaller and less
massive than the four giant, or Jovian,
planets
 third in distance from the Sun among the four
terrestrial planets
 has a moderately dense atmosphere; 90 times
less dense than that of Venus but 100 times
denser than that of Mars
OUR HOME PLANET, EARTH
 Earth is also unique in many respects:
 the only planet with liquid water on
its surface.
 the only one having a significant
(21%) proportion of molecular
oxygen
 to our best current knowledge, the
only planet in the solar system
having living organisms
 the only terrestrial planet having
a moderately strong magnetic
field
 the only terrestrial planet having a
large satellite
 The Solid Earth
 geology -the study of the structure, history,
and activity of the solid Earth, including its
interactions with the atmosphere,
hydrosphere, cryosphere, and biosphere
 solid Earth contains four major zones: the

core (which is divided into inner and outer

zones), the (upper and lower) mantle, the
asthenosphere, and the lithosphere
 The Solid Earth
 the outer zones is not uniform and fixed
over the surface of the Earth, but shows
much variability with position and time.
 The field of plate tectonics deals with this

spatial and temporal variability.

 Geological phenomena such as

earthquakes, volcanoes, and continental

drift are accounted for by plate tectonics.
The Composition of the Earth’s Interior
Seismic Waves: Interior Part
Did you know?
 The deepest mine in the world, the
gold mine in South Africa, reaches
a depth of 3.8km.
But...
You would have to travel more than
1,600 times that distance-over
6000km-to reach the earth’s center.
The Composition of the Earth’s Interior
DENSITY AND TEMPERATURE VARIATION IN
DEPTH
The Crust
The Crust

 thinnest and the outermost

layer of the Earth that extends
from the surface to about 32
kilometers below
 Continental
 Oceanic
 Continental

Continental Lithosphere

Oceanic
Moho
Root
Asthenosphere

Stanley, 1989, p. 14
Stanley, 1989, p. 14
 Continental
 mainly made up of silicon, oxygen,
aluminum, calcium, sodium, and
potassium
 mostly 35-40 kilometers

 found under land masses

 made of less dense rocks such as

granite
 Oceanic
 oceanic crust is around 7-10
kilometers thick which its average
thickness is 8 kilometers.
 found under the ocean floor

 made of dense rocks such as

basalt
 heavier than the continental

crust.
The Crust: Continental

• GRANITE -crystalline
igneous rock
composed primarily of
quartz and feldspar.
• forms from slowly
cooling magma that
is subjected to
extreme pressures
deep beneath the
earth's.
The Crust: Oceanic
• BASALT -volcanic rock
• forms from lava flows along
mid-ocean ridges and also
in igneous intrusions such
as dikes and sills.
• Columnar jointing, pictured
here at Devil's Tower,
Wyoming, occurs when
molten basalt cracks as it
cools, producing separate,
polygonal fractures on the
surface of the rock.
Elements in the Crust
 Moho Discontinuity

 While studying the speed of

earthquake waves, Croatian
geophysicist Andrija Mohorovičić
discovers a boundary between
Earth's crust and mantle, which
becomes known as the Mohorovičić,
or Moho Discontinuity.
 The Mantle
 Beneath the crust is the mantle
 extends to about 2900 kilometers

from the Earth’s surface

 about 80% of the Earth’s total volume

 about 68% of its total mass

 mainly made up of silicate rocks

 and contrary to common belief, is solid,

since both S-waves and P-waves pass

through it
 The Mantle
 mostly made of the elements silicon,
oxygen, iron and magnesium
 lower part of the mantle consists of more
iron
than the upper part
 lower mantle is denser than the upper
portion
 temperature and the pressure increase with
depth
 high temperature and pressure in the mantle
allows the solid rock to flow slowly
 Remember
:
 The ability of the asthenosphere to
flow slowly is termed as
plasticity.
 crust and the uppermost part of

the mantle form a relatively cool,

outermost rigid shell called
lithosphere (Gk.lithos means
“stone”) and is about 50 to 100
 Remember
:
 Beneath the lithosphere lies the soft, weak layer
known as the asthenosphere (Gk. asthenes
means “weak”) made of hot molten material,
about 300 – 800o C
 upper 150 kilometers has a temperature enough
to facilitate a small amount of melting, and make it
capable to flow
 facilitates the movement of the lithospheric plates
 lithosphere, with the continents on top of it,
is being carried by the flowing
asthenosphere.
Layers
 The Core

 2000-5000o C
 core is subdivided into

two layers:
the inner
the outer core.
 Outer Core
 2900 kilometers below the Earth’s
surface
 2250 kilometers thick

 made up of iron and nickel

 temperature reaches up to 2000oC at

this very high temperature, iron and

nickel melt
 Outer Core

 Aside from seismic data analysis,

the Earth’s magnetic field
strengthens the idea that the
Earth’s outer core is molten/liquid
 mainly made up of iron and nickel

moving around the solid inner

core, creating Earth’s magnetism
 The Inner Core
 made up of solid iron and nickel and has
a radius of 1300 kilometers
 about 5000oC
 extreme temperature could have molten
the iron and nickel but it is believed to
have solidified as a result of pressure
freezing, which is common to liquids
subjected under tremendous pressure
 The Inner Core
 Aside from the fact that the Earth has a
magnetic field and that it must be iron or
other materials which are magnetic in
nature, the inner core must have a density
that is about 14 times that of water.
 Average crustal rocks with densities
2.8 times that of water could not have
the density calculated for the core.
 So iron, which is three times denser
than crustal rocks, meets the required
density.
Clues that the inner core and the outer core
are made up of iron

 Iron and nickel are both dense and

magnetic.
 overall density of the earth is much

higher than the density of the

rocks in the crust
 suggests that the inside must be

made up of something denser than

rocks
 Clues that the inner core and the outer
core are made up of iron

 Meteorite analysis have revealed that the

most common type is chondrite.
 Chondrite contains iron, silicon,

magnesium and oxygen; some contains

nickel.
 The whole earth and the meteorite roughly

have the same density, thus the Earth’s

mantle rock and a meteorite minus its iron,
have the same density.
THANK YOU!