THE INTERNAL

STRUCTURE OF EARTH
What Really Is Inside The Earth?
The structure of Earth can be defined Mechanically, the Earth can be divided into 5
mechanically or chemically. layers:
Rheology is the study of the flow of matter ● Lithosphere
● Asthenosphere
primarily in the liquid state under conditions at
which they respond with plastic flow rather ● Mesospheric Mantle
● Outer Core
than deforming elastically in response to an
applied force. ● Inner Core

It speaks to the liquid state of rocks under Chemically, the layers of Earth are as follow:
tremendous pressure and temperature. For ● Crust
instance, rock will respond very differently to ● Upper Mantle
strain under normal atmospheric temperatures ● Lower Mantle
and pressures as compared to fewer than ● Outer Core
thousands of kilometers of rock. ● Inner Core
LITHOSPHERE
The lithosphere is the rocky outer part of the Earth.
It is made up of the brittle crust and the top part of
the upper mantle. The lithosphere is the coolest and
most rigid part of the Earth. It extends from the
surface of Earth to a depth of about 70-100 km.
The lithosphere is underlain by the asthenosphere,
a highly viscous, hotter and ductile region of the
upper mantle

that is involved in plate tectonic

movement and isostatic adjustments.
 CRUST
The crust is the outermost layer of Earth. It is
the thinnest layer as it makes up only about
1% of Earth.
The thickness of this layer is dependent on its
age. Under oceans, the crust is only about 5-10
km thick, while continents, the crust thickens
up to 35 km and reaches depths up to 60 km
under some mountain ranges.
There are two different types of crust: thin
oceanic crust that underlies the ocean basins,
and thicker continental crust that underlies the
continents.
MANTLE
The mantle is the largest layer of Earth that is
composed of iron, aluminium, calcium, magnesium,
silicon, and oxygen. About 80% of the planets mass is
concentrated on mantle and most of the Earth is
located in this layer including the magma chamber that
drives volcanic processes.
The average temperature inside the mantle is about
3700 degree Celsius. The highest temperature is
recorded when the mantle material is in contact with
the heat-producing core. This steady increase of

temperature is called geothermal gradient.

UPPER AND
LOWER MANTLE
The mantle has two main parts: the upper mantle and
the lower mantle.
The upper mantle is seen as a highly viscous layer
which lies between the crust and the lower mantle. It
extends up to 660 km, the rocks here are cooler and
brittle enough to break under stress.
The lower mantle extends from just under the upper
mantle to 2200 km. Rocks at the lower mantle are hot
and soft. When subjected to force, they do not break
instead they just flow along their region.
 CORE
The core is the last and innermost layer of the Earth.
It is separated into the liquid outer core and the
solid inner core. Earth’s core is the planet’s source
of internal heat because it contains radioactive
materials which release heat as they break down into
more stable substance. It is composed mainly of an
iron-nickel alloy.
 INNER AND OUTER
CORE
The center of the Earth is made up of two layers: the
outer and inner core.
The outer core is the only liquid layer, and is
mainly made up of the metals iron and nickel, as
well as small amounts of other substances. The
temperature here is about 5000 degree Celsius.
The inner core can be found at the deepest region
on the planet. It is a solid metallic ball made mainly
of iron. It’s characterized by an extremely high
temperature of about 5000-6000 degree Celsius
The Earth’s Magnetic Field
As the Earth rotates, the outer core spins over the to be the source of magnetic field of the Earth.
inner core and generates the Earth’s magnetic This circulating current is called the dynamo
field. The inner core spins at it’s own rate which effect.
is as much as 0.20 degree longtitude per year
faster than the Earth above it. It is a solid hot ball
submerged in the liquid outer core.
The solid sate is caused by the immense pressure
that crytallized the superhot iron into a solid ball.
Due to convection by heat radiating from the
core together with the rotation of Earth on it’s
axis, the liquid iron moves in a rotational pattern
which is believed
 The Earth’s magnetic field is exactly the same as
the field around a fridge or bar magnet, but much
larger, stretching for tens and thousands of miles
into space.
The magnetic field is created by the following
currents in the hot, liquid metals found in the
Earth’s outer core.
The magnetic field is detected using a compass. The
magnetic field exits the South Geomagnetic Pole
and enters the North Geomagnetic Pole.
The magnetic field is fairly weak on the surface.
This is because the planet is about 12,756 km that
the magnetic field from the core needs to travel
along to affect the compass.
The geomagnetic field acts as a shield, protecting
Earth from harmful particles which are fired out by
the sun.
Scientists have recorded fluctuations in Earth’s
magnetic field strength due to intermittent solar
flares. This increase in cosmic rays can temporary
affect communication systems and hasten the ozone
layer depletion.
These effects are quite small compared to a much
larger magnetic fluctuations known as the
geomagnetic flips or the

geomagnetic reversals.
DURING GEOMAGNETIC
REVERSAL
During a normal polarity, the north pole is located
near Earth’s North Pole.
A geomagnetic reversal occurs when change in the
magnetic field of Earth where the magnetic North
Pole shifts to the South Pole Region and the south
magnetic pole shifts to the North Pole Region.
Once the process is complete, a compass would
point toward Antartica instead of of pointing toward
northern Canada.