Science

Quarter 1 – Module 6

Earth’s Internal
Heat

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Science– Grade 11
Quarter 1 – Earth’s Internal Heat

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Regional Director: Gilbert T. Sadsad

Assistant Regional Director: Jessie L. Amin

Development Team of the Module

Writer: Jessa Ariño-

Morales Editor: Emily B.

Esmabe

Reviewer: Benjie L. Cadag; Chozara P. Duroy

Illustrator: Frances C. Morales

Layout Artist: Christy R. Dawal

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Describe where the Earth’s internal heat comes from
(S11/12ES-Ib-14)
Dear learners, I hope you are now ready to start a new lesson.

Since ancient times, human beings have sought to understand the formation and
composition of the Earth. Several theories emerged about the origin of the Earth and its
proper makeup. As scientist say, there is more to the Earth than what we can see on the
surface. In fact, if we were able to hold the Earth in our hand and slice it in half, we
would see that it has multiple layers.

Aside from the heat of sun on a hot summer's day, we can also feel considerable
amount of heat coming from below emanating from deep within the Earth. This heat is
equivalent to more than three times the total power consumption of the entire world. This
heat also drives important geological processes, such as the movement of tectonic
plates and the flow of magma near the surface of the Earth. This heat is associated
with two things; one is that the very high temperatures of the inner parts of the Earth
are very high, and the other is the result of heat generated due to radioactive decay of
material in the deep Earth.

In this module, you will learn where the Earth’s internal heat comes from.

After studying this module, you are expected to describe where the Earth’s internal
heat comes from. (S11/12ES-Ib-14)

Specifically, you should be able to:

a. describe the chemical composition and temperature of the layers of the earth;
b. explain the mantle convection as a way of heat transfer; and
c. recognize the importance of earth’s internal heat.
 Before you start the lesson, familiarize yourself with the
following terms:

Crust – the outer portion of the earth

Continental Crust- - the thick parts of the Earth’s crust, not located under the ocean

Oceanic Crust- - the thin parts of the Earth’s crust located under the oceans.

Mantle – the solid portion of the Earth’s interior

Lower Mantle (semi-rigid) – the deepest parts of the mantle, just above the core

Upper Mantle (rigid) – the uppermost part of the mantle, part of the Lithosphere

Upper Mantle (flowing) Asthenosphere – the lower part of the upper mantle that

exhibits plastic (flowing) properties. Located below the lithosphere (the crust and

upper mantle)

Mohorovicic discontinuity – separates the crust and the upper mantle

Lithosphere – the crust plus the rigid, upper mantle

Let’s see what you know about the lesson that we

are going to study today.

Multiple Choice. Choose the correct answer. Write the letter of your choice in your
notebook.

1. Starting with the outermost layer, what is the order of the Earth’s layers?
a. Core, mantle, crust
b. Crust, upper mantle, lower mantle, outer core, inner core
c. Mantle, inner crust, core
d. Crust, inner core, mantle
2. Which of the earth’s layers is liquid?
a. Lower crust
b. Outer core
c. Inner core

3. Which of the following is NOT a major process that has contributed to Earth’s internal
heat?
a. heat released by colliding particles during the formation of the Earth
b. heat from radioactivity of radioactive isotopes of U, Th and K
c. heat from the sun since the beginning of Earth history
d. heat released as iron crystallized to form the inner core
d. mantle

4. What drives the Earth’s internal heat engine?

a. radioactivity
b. solar energy
c. volcanoes
d. ocean tide

5. In what types of matter convection occur?

a. liquid
b. gases
c. liquid and gases
d. solid, liquid, gase

To check whether you have understood the previous lesson, answer the activity
below.

Multiple Choice. Choose the best answer. Write your answer on your answer sheet.

1. The process of breaking up rocks on Earth’s surface is called

a. sediment c. weathering
b. erosion d. deposition

2. The process by which small pieces of rocks and soil are moved by natural forces
is called
a. deposition c. weathering
b. erosion d. faults
 3. How does freezing water cause the weathering of rocks? The freezing water—
a. keeps the rocks in place c. expands cracks and breaks
b. makes the rocks last longer rocks
d. causes rocks to fall in landslides

4. Acid rain causes the following type of weathering:

a. physical c. chemical
b. mechanical d. human

5. Which of the following is an example of mechanical/physical weathering?

a. Tree roots growing in cracks of rocks
b. Chemicals in the air
c. Acid rain
d. Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide

This time, let us explore the earth’s internal heat as you

perform the different activities presented here. Each activity
requires answers that should be written in your notebook to be
submitted after you completed the module.

Activity 1
Composition and Temperature of Earth’s Layers
Directions:
1. Fill in the temperature or temperature range for each layers of the earth.
2. Write in the most abundant elements that exist in that layer.

Layers of the Most abundant elements and Distance

Earth temperature range
A. Crust Elements : 0 km
Temperature Range:
B. Mantle Elements : 32 km
Temperature Range:
C. Outer Core Elements : 2900 km
Temperature Range:
D. Outer Core Elements : 5150 km
Temperature Range:
3. Complete the bar graph below with the temperatures of each of Earth’s layers.

Illustrated by: Frances C. Morales

4. Answer the question that follows.

Why does the temperature of the layers of the earth change as it goes deeper?
 Activity 2
Convection in the Mantle
The figure below shows a convection cell in Earth’s mantle. A convection cell is
one complete loop of convection current. Use the figure to answer the questions that
follow.

Lithosphere

Illustrated by: Frances C. Morales

1. Define convection.
2. Define density.
3. What happens to the density of a fluid as it temperature increases/decreases?
4. Where does the heat come from that drives the convection current in the mantle?
5. Where is the temperature of the mantle material greater, at point A or point B?
Explain why?
6. Where is the density of the material greater, at point B or point C? Explain why?
7. What happens to the temperature and density of the material between points B and
C?
8. What happens to the temperature and density of the material between points D and
A?
9. What specific layer of the Earth do convection currents take place?
 Activity 3
Importance of Earth’s Internal Heat
Make a short essay on the importance and benefits of Earth’s internal heat.

Your essay will be graded based on this rubric. Consequently, use this rubric as
a guide when writing your essay and check it again before you submit your essay.

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 Now, read and understand the lesson on Earth’s internal heat.

Earth Gets Hotter the Deeper We Go

Earth can be divided into three main layers: the core, the mantle and the crust.
Each of these layers can be further divided into two parts: the inner and outer core, the
upper and lower mantle and the continental and oceanic crust. Table 1 shows the
characteristics and chemical composition of each layer.

Table 1. Layers of the Earth’s Interior and their Characteristics

Source: Project Ease Module, DepEd

Earth’s temperature increases with depth, but not at a uniform rate (Figure 1).
Earth’s geothermal gradient is 15° to 30°C/km within the crust. It then drops off
dramatically through the mantle, increases more quickly at the base of the mantle, and
then increases slowly through the core. The temperature is approximately 1000°C at the
base of the crust, around 3500°C at the base of the mantle, and approximately 6,000°C
at Earth’s center.

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Figure 1 Geothermal gradient (change in temperature with depth). Left- Geothermal gradient in the crust
and upper mantle. The geothermal gradient remains below the melting temperature of rock, except in the
asthenosphere. There, temperatures are high enough to melt some of the minerals. Right- Geothermal
gradient throughout Earth. Rapid changes occur in the uppermost mantle, and at the core-mantle
boundary. Source: Karla Panchuk (2018) CC BY 4.0, modified after Steven Earle (2016) CC BY 4.0

The temperature gradient within the lithosphere varies depending on the tectonic
setting. Gradients are lowest in the central parts of continents, higher where plates
collide, and higher still at boundaries where plates are moving away from each other.

In spite of high temperatures within Earth, mantle rocks are almost entirely solid.
High pressures keep them from melting. The red dashed line in Figure 1 (right) shows
the minimum temperature at which dry mantle rocks will melt. Rocks at temperatures to
the left of the line will remain solid. In rocks at temperatures to the right of
the line, some minerals will begin to melt. Notice that the red dashed line goes further to
the right for greater depths, and therefore greater pressures. Now compare the
geothermal gradient with the red dashed line. The geothermal gradient is to the left of
the red line, except in the asthenosphere, where small amounts of melt are present.

Convection Helps to Move Heat Within Earth

The fact that the temperature gradient is much lower in the main part of the
mantle than in the lithosphere has been interpreted as evidence of convection in the
mantle. When the mantle convects, heat is transferred through the mantle by physically
moving hot rocks. Mantle convection is the result of heat transfer from the core to the
base of the lower mantle. As with a pot of soup on a hot stove (Figure 2), the material
near the heat source (the soup at the bottom of the pot) becomes hot and expands,
making it less dense than the material above. Buoyancy causes it to rise, and cooler
material flows in from the sides. Of course, convection in the soup pot is much faster
than convection in the mantle. Mantle convection occurs at rates of centimetres per
year.
Figure 2 Convection in a pot of soup on a hot stove (left). As long as heat is being transferred from below, the
liquid will convect. If the heat is turned off (right), the liquid remains hot for a while, but convection will
cease. Source: Steven Earle (2015) CC-BY 4.0

Convection carries heat to the surface of the mantle much faster than heating
by conduction. Conduction is heat transfer by collisions between molecules, and is how
heat is transferred from the stove to the soup pot. A convecting mantle is an essential
feature of plate tectonics, because the higher rate of heat transfer is necessary to keep
the asthenosphere weak. Earth’s mantle will stop convecting once the core has cooled
to the point where there is not enough heat transfer to overcome the strength of the
rock. This has already happened on smaller planets like Mercury and Mars, as well
as on Earth’s moon. When mantle convection stops, the end of plate tectonics will
follow.

Models of Mantle Convection

In the soup pot example, convection moves hot soup from the bottom of the pot to
the top. Some geologists think that Earth’s convection works the same way— hot rock
from the base of the mantle moves all the way to the top of the mantle before cooling
and sinking back down again. This view is referred to as whole-mantle convection
(Figure 2, left). Other geologists think that the upper and lower mantle are too different
to convect as one. They point to slabs of lithosphere that are sinking back into the
mantle, some of which seem to perch on the boundary between the upper and lower
mantle, rather than sinking straight through. They also note chemical differences in
magma originating in different parts of the mantle— differences that are not consistent
with the entire mantle being well stirred. They argue that double-layered convection
is a better fit with the observations (Figure 3, right). Still others argue that there may
be some locations where convection goes from the bottom of the mantle to the top,
and some where it doesn’t (Figure 3, middle).
Figure 3 Models of mantle convection. Left- whole mantle convection. Rocks rise from the core-mantle
boundary to the top of the mantle, then sink to the bottom again. Right- Two-layer convection, in which
upper and lower mantle convect at different rates. Middle- Convection paths vary depending on the
circumstances. Source: Karla Panchuk (2018) CC BY 4.0

Why Is Earth Hot Inside?

The heat of Earth’s interior comes from a variety of sources. These include the
heat contained in the objects that accreted to form Earth, and the heat produced when
they collided. As Earth grew larger, the increased pressure on Earth’s interior caused it
to compress and heat up. Heat also came from friction when melted material was
redistributed within Earth, forming the core and mantle.

There are two major sources of heat flow from Earth’s interior. Heat produced
through the radioactive decay of long-half-life radioisotopes in Earth’s interior (radiogenic
heat) accounts for about 58 percent of the present total heat flow. Primordial heat—that
is, heat lost as Earth continues to cool from the heat generated by the accretion
processes that formed it—accounts for the remaining internal heat flow.

A major source of Earth’s heat is radioactivity, the energy released when the
unstable atoms decay. The radioactive isotopes uranium-235 (235U), uranium-238 (238U),
potassium-40 (40K), and thorium-232 (232Th) in Earth’s mantle are the primary source.
Radioactive decay produced more heat early in Earth’s history than it does today,
because fewer atoms of those isotopes are left today (Figure 4). Heat contributed by
radioactivity is now roughly a quarter what it was when Earth formed.
Figure 4 Production of heat within the Earth over time by radioactive decay of uranium, thorium, and
potassium. Heat production has decreased over time as the abundance of radioactive atoms has
decreased. Source: Steven Earle (2015) CC BY 4.0 modified after Arevalo et al. (2009)

Earth has a remarkably high level of primordial heat because of its unique
formation process. Like all rocky planets, it formed through the accretion of dust and
gas. The gravitational collapse that occurred through this accretion generated a lot of
internal heat. However, Earth’s accretion history did not end there.

Importance of Earth’s Interior Heat Flow

The present temperature of the mantle just under Earth’s oceanic crust is
1,410°C. The current high temperature of the upper mantle means that the upper
mantle material has a low viscosity (flows more easily). A familiar analogy would
be the difference between a cold stick of butter and a stick of butter that has been
melted in a saucepan.

The mantle’s low viscosity that tectonic plates in Earth’s crust are able to move
relative to another—a feature of Earth for the past 3.8 billion years transformed Earth
from a water world, where only water existed on its surface, to a planet possessing both
surface oceans and surface continents. The combination of surface oceans and
continents and enduring, strong tectonic activity established the biogeochemical cycles
that allowed Earth’s surface temperature to be sustained at an optimal level for life in
spite of the ongoing brightening of the Sun. The same combination has been recycling
many of Earth’s life-essential nutrients. Without Earth’s enduring, strong interior heat
flow, at best, only microbial life could have existed on Earth and for only several million
years. In that event, microbial life never would have been able to physically and
chemically transform Earth’s surface environment so that plants, animals, and humans
could exist.

The current cooling rate of Earth’s mantle is 70–130°C per billion years. This
cooling is slow enough to pose no short-term threat to any current life-forms. The
cooling does imply, however, that Earth’s mantle will become more viscous. Eventually,
it will be
so viscous that plate tectonic activity will shut down. When that happens, advanced life
and, eventually, all life will go extinct.

The Earth’s unique strong, enduring interior heat flow enables it to have both a
solid inner core and a liquid outer core. Earth’s liquid core is almost entirely comprised
of the ferrous elements iron, cobalt, and nickel. These easily magnetized elements
driven by convection currents in the outer core explain why Earth has sustained a
powerful magnetic field throughout at least the past 3.7 billion years.

This powerful, enduring magnetic field has shielded Earth’s surface life from
deadly high-energy particles flowing in from the Sun and equally deadly high-energy
cosmic rays. Without the shield, solar radiation would have sputtered both Earth’s
atmosphere and Earth’s surface water into interplanetary space.

Fill in the blanks with the correct terms to complete the paragraph. Choose your
answer from the words inside the box.

Heat Radiogenic Heat

Mantle Convection Core
Primordial Heat Radioactivity

When the mantle convects, is transferred through the mantle by

physically moving hot rocks. is the result of heat transfer from the core
to the base of the lower mantle. Earth’s mantle will stop convecting once the
has cooled to the point where there is not enough heat transfer to overcome the strength
of the rock.

There are two major sources of heat flow from Earth’s interior. A major source of
Earth’s heat is , the energy released when the unstable atoms decay.
The heat that came from radioactivity sources is also known as .
that is, heat lost as Earth continues to cool from the heat generated
by the accretion processes that formed it—accounts for the remaining internal heat flow.
Think about this!

1. How does mantle convect?

2. How do you think this mantle convection might affect the crust above it?

Read each statement below. If it is true, write a “T” in the blank; if it is false, write an
“F”.

1. The center of the Earth is made of molten rock.

2. Most of the Earth’s heat is stored in the mantle.
3. The mantle’s high viscosity that tectonic plates in Earth’s crust are able to move
relative to another
4. Earthquakes occur when heat travels through the mantle and causes tectonic
plates to shift.
5. Earth’s liquid core is almost entirely comprised of the ferrous elements iron,
cobalt, and nickel.
6. Magnetic field has shielded Earth’s surface life from deadly high-energy
particles flowing in from the Sun
 7. Geothermal gradient is the change in temperature with depth
8. The Earth’s mantle is flexible and shifts under heavy loads.
9. A major source of Earth’s heat is radioactivity, the energy released when the
unstable atoms decay.
10. The crust is broken down into two parts: the upper and lower crust.

Good job! Congratulations!

Now, let’s summarize the lesson.

Earth is divided into three general layers. The core is the superheated center, the
mantle is the thick, middle layer, and the crust is the top layer on which we live. Magma
originates in the lower part of the Earth’s crust and in the upper portion of the mantle.
Most of the mantle and crust are solid, so the presence of magma is crucial to
understanding the geology and morphology of the mantle.

During mantle convection, heat is transferred through the mantle by physically

moving hot rocks. Mantle convection is the result of heat transfer from the core to the
base of the lower mantle. The mantle’s convective motions break the lithosphere into
plates and move them around the surface of the planet. These plates may move away
from, move by, or collide with each other. This process forms ocean basins, shifts
continents, and pushes up mountains.

The heat of Earth’s interior comes from a variety of sources. There are two major
sources of heat flow from Earth’s interior. Heat produced through the radioactive decay
of long-half-life radioisotopes in Earth’s interior (radiogenic heat) accounts for about 58
percent of the present total heat flow. Primordial heat—that is, heat lost as Earth
continues to cool from the heat generated by the accretion processes that formed it—
accounts for the remaining internal heat flow. A major source of Earth’s heat is
radioactivity, the energy released when the unstable atoms decay.
The Earth's internal heating causes plate tectonics and the earth’s magnetic field.
The former gives volcanoes and new mountain ranges which bring to the surface many
chemical elements necessary for life to continue on land. The latter protects us from
cosmic rays - random atomic nuclei coming from deep space at almost the speed of light
- and also from the solar wind which otherwise would have stripped Earth of most of its
atmosphere.
 Since you already understand what the lesson is all about,
answer the tests that follows.

Multiple Choice. Write the letter of the correct answer in your notebook.

1. How does heat move?

a. from a warmer to a cooler object c. toward a hot object
b. from a cooler to a warmer object d. away from a cold object

2. Heat from which of these layers causes convection currents inside Earth?
a. crust c. crust and core
b. crust and d. mantle and core
mantle

3. Which of these combines with changes in a fluid’s density and the force of gravity to
set convection currents in motion?
a. evaporation of a fluid c. freezing and melting of a solid
b. condensation of a fluid d. heating and cooling of a fluid

4. Heat produced through the radioactive decay of long-half-life radioisotopes in Earth’s

interior is known as
a. Radiogenic Heat c. Convection current
b. Primordial Heat d. mantle convection

5. The temperature inside Earth increases as depth . .

a. increases c. stay the same
b. decreases d. varies

6. What keeps the mantle rocks are almost entirely solid despite of high temperature
within earth?
a. low pressure c. high density
b. high pressure d. low density

7. What drives the Earth's internal heat engine?

a. radioactivity c. volcanoes
b. solar energy d. ocean tides
8. In what types of matter does convection occur?
a. liquid c. liquid and gases
b. gases d. solid, liquid, gases

9. What causes the plates to move?

a. Ocean currents b. Movement in the core
a. Large machines c. Convection in the mantle

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10. Heat flow from Earth’s interior to its surface
is negligible
is associated with plate tectonics
is roughly the same everywhere on Earth
varies randomly from place to place on Earth’s surface

How is mantle convection related to plate tectonics?

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