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EARTH
SOME FACTS ABOUT THE EARTH
Before 500 BC, people thought that earth was flat. But
thanks to scientists like Aristotle and Pythagoras, people
know that the shape of the earth is spherical. However Sir
Isaac Newton showed that the earth was not a perfect
sphere, but a compressed spheroid.
CRUST
The outermost layer of the Earth is the crust. It is also the surface of the
earth.
This comprises the continents and ocean basins and therefore it has been
classified into continental crust and oceanic crust.
MANTLE
The next layer is the mantle, which is composed mainly of iron and
magnesium silicates. It is been referred as FeMa layer.
Mantle is also where most of the internal heat of the Earth is located. It is
about 2900 km thick.
MANTLE
The lithosphere is the outermost part of the mantle immediately below the
Mohorovičić discontinuity. It has a part of the tectonic plates that cover
surface of Earth.
OUTER CORE
The third layer is outer core. The outer core is a hot and liquid layer
comprising mainly of Nickel and (liquid) Iron. Therefore it is referred as NiFe
Layer.
The outer core may also contain lighter elements such as Si, S, C, or O.
The outer core ranges from 2900 kms to 5150 kms and is 2300 km thick.
The transition space between outer core and mantle is called Gutenberg
discontinuity
STRUCTURE OF EARTH
INNER CORE
The fourth layer is inner core.
The inner core is mostly made of solid iron and has little amounts of
nickel.
It is unattached to the mantle and is suspended in the molten outer core.
The inner core is believed to have the extreme temperature and pressure
conditions.
The transition region between outer core and inner core is called Lehmann
discontinuity
STRUCTURE OF EARTH
STRUCTURE OF EARTH
COMPOSITION OF EARTH
As discussed earlier, the mass of the Earth is approximately 5.98×1024 kg.
When taken as a whole, the Earth's chemical composition (by mass) has been approximated
as given in the table below. The students should remember the top three with their percentages