SUB-SURFACE LAYERS

1) CRUST:
It's the top most layer of earth. The crust of the Earth is composed of a great variety of igneous, metamorphic, and
sedimentary rocks. Earth's crust occupies less than 1% of Earth's volume .The temperature of the crust is around200-400
degrees Celsius. Two different types of earth crust

i) Continental Crust:
Thickness averages about 40km and can go from 20km up to 70km.

Density is 2.7g/cm^3.

P wave’s velocity is 6km/s. Seismic waves are quite variable here.

Mostly made of granitic and sedimentary rocks.

ii) Oceanic Crust:

Thickness is 7km.

Density is 3.0g/cm^3.

P wave’s velocity is 5-7km/s.

Mostly made of basalts and gabbro rocks.

All ocean crust forms at mid-oceanic ridges, which separate two diverging tectonic plates.

BOUNDRY; MOHO:
It is the boundary between crust and mantle. The P waves velocity increases abruptly from 6km/s to 8 km/s.
 Direct waves are slower here than the refracted waves.

2) MANTLE:
More than 82% of earth's volume is contained in mantle.

Its thickness is about 2,900km. Its solid rocky layer is composed of silicate minerals that are enriched in

Iron and magnesium. Despite of solid nature it's quite hot and capable of flow at very low velocities.

Two sub-layers of mantle

i) The Upper Mantle:

Thickness from Moho to depth is about 660km.

Density is 3.4-4.4g/cm^3.

Types of rocks found here are Peridotite, eclogite, olivine, spinel, garnet, pyroxene.

The mantles temperature 4500 degrees Celsius and made of 100% magma. A very interesting fact is that the
mantle grows about a meter every year.

It has further three sub-layers

a) Lithosphere:
It is the stiffest layer. The temperature of the lithosphere is around 300 to 500 degrees Celsius.

b) Asthenosphere:
It is weaker layer beneath lithosphere. The asthenosphere is around 4500 degrees Celsius.

Convection Currents: which make the mantle move. The lower mantle heats up and rises and cools down then gets
pushed down because it is heavier. The currents keeps on going round and round. Convection currents occur because of
density of a fluid is related to its temperature. Hot rocks lower in the mantle are less dense than their cooler
counterparts below. The hot rock rises and the cooler rock sinks due to gravity.
 c) Transition Zone:
It’s from 410km to 660km. it has a sudden change in density 3.5 to 3.7g/cm^3.It has the property of Mineral phase
change e.g. Perovskite, oxides.

ii) The Lower Mantle:

Thickness is 2,171km

Density is 4.4 to 5.6g/cm^3

Types of rocks found here are Magnesium and silicon oxides. Olivine & pyroxene takes form of perovskite.

It is the largest layer occupying 56% of volume.

BOUNDRY; the D" Layer:

Pronounced as (dee double prime) it is boundary between mantle and core. It has large variations in composition and
temperature. Temperature increases by 1000 degrees, it is directly in contact with liquid hot outer core and has upside-
down structures of mountains because of this sudden change p wave velocity decreases by 10% and s wave velocity
decreases by 30%.

Most important aspect of this boundary is "shadow zone" where most of the waves are absent (s waves don’t travel in
liquids) and p waves are refracted how light refracts from air to water.
3) CORE:
i)Outer Core:
Thickness is about 1/6 of total earth's volume.

Density is 5.6 to 9.9g/cm^3.

P waves drop from 13.7 to 8.1km/s

S waves drop from 7.3 to 0km/s

The core accounts for 1/3 of earths mass.

It has abundant iron but not pure iron also contains oxygen, sulfur, and nickel alloy as impurities. Because of which it is
molten. The temperature of the outer core is around 4400 degrees Celsius.

ii)Inner Core:
Thickness is about 1/142 of total earth's volume(less than 1 percent)

Density is 12.8 to 13.1g/cm^3

It is of solid state and is composed of pure iron. The inner core is 5505 degrees Celsius
 ATMOSPHERIC LAYERS
Classified into 5 layers:

1) Troposphere:
Closest to Earth surface contains most of atmosphere, weather occurs in troposphere.

Temperature decreases as altitude increases.

Altitude at which temperature stops decreasing is tropopause.

Height of tropopause varies about 16km above Earth surface in tropical areas and 9km at poles.

Temperature at tropopause can be as low as -60 degree Celsius.

2) Stratosphere:
Above tropopause.

Air temperature mainly increase with altitude and contains ozone layer.

At lower stratosphere below ozone layer temperature stays constant.

Starting at bottom of ozone layer, temperature (-15 Celsius) in stratosphere increases as altitude increases.

This heat is caused by ozone molecules which absorbs UV radiation from sun.

At stratopause, our temperature stops increasing, it is 48km above earth surface.

99% of mass is Earth atmosphere is below stratopause.

 3) Mesosphere:
Above stratopause.

Thickness about 50 to 100 km.

Air temperature (-90 Celsius) decreases with altitude (very little solar radiations are absorbed in this layer).

Top is mesosphere where temperature stop decreasing.

4) Thermosphere:
Above mesopause.

Thickness about 100 to 500km.

Extremely low density of air causes the temperature (1500 Celsius) to rise.

Temperature can be more than 1000 degree Celsius.

The ionosphere which is made up of electrically charged particles is its part.

5) Exosphere:
Outermost layer.

Temperature ranges from 0 to 1700 Celsius.

Thickness 500 to more than 1000km.

No exact top boundary.

Transitional zone between Earth atmosphere and outer space atoms and molecules are so far apart that they rarely
collide with each other.