UNIT II:

EARTH AS A
PLANET
 Overview
During is billion years of evolution, the hot
Earth cooled down and its surface solidified to a
crust. Iron and nickel sank inside the earth while
lighter materials such as silicates and water
floated near the Earth’s surface. Running water
formed channels and oceans as the crust split and
reformed giant continents of solid crust floating on
the shifting mantle over the molten core.#
The Earth has gone through a series of major
biological and geological changes such as
volcanic eruptions, collisions of plate boundaries,
creation, and destruction of mountain ranges and
sea beds.
 Lesson 1:

THE INTERNAL STRUCTURE

OF THE EARTH
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXiVGEEPQ6c
What really is inside the
Earth?
• Through the study of seismic
waves, scientists inferred that our
planet is made up of different
layers.
• As seismic waves travel through
the Earth, they are refracted and
their speed gave vital information
on the composition of the Earth’s
layer.
The structure of the Earth can be
defined mechanically or
chemically.
– Rheology is the study of the flow of
matter in the liquid state under
conditions at which they respond with
plastic flow rather than deforming
elastically in response to an applied
force.
Mechanically, the Earth can
be divided into five layers:
oLithosphere
oAsthenosphere
oMesospheric mantle
oOuter core
oInner core
 Chemically, the layers of the
Earth are as follows:
oCrust
oUpper mantle
oLower mantle
oOuter core
oInner core

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RKoLleyDJ4
Lithosphere
• The lithosphere is the outer solid part of
the planet including the Earth’s crust as
well as the underlying cool, dense, and
rigid upper part of the upper mantle.
• It extends from the surface of the 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 the outermost layer of the
earth.
• Thinnest layer (1% of the Earth)
• The thickness of this layer is dependent
on its age- the thicker the layer, the
older is the crust.
• Under the oceans, the crust is only 5-10
km thick
• Under the continents, the crust thickens
up to 35 km and reaches up to 60 km
under some mountain ranges.
Crust
Crust
• The average composition of
the crust has been
identified from scientific
analyses of rocks and
minerals taken from the
surface or underground.
Crust
• The most common elements in the
crust by weight are
 Oxygen (46.6%)
 Silicon (27.7%)
 Aluminum (8.1%)
 Iron (5%)
 Calcium (3.6%)
 Sodium (2.8%)
 Potassium (2.6%)
 Magnesium (2.1%)
These elements account for about 98.85% of
the total weight of the crust.
Crust
• Most earthquakes occur in the crust.
• The Mohorovicic discontinuity (Moho),
which separates the crust from the
mantle, was discovered by a Croatian
seismologist Andrija Mohoviricic in
1909 who inferred that the velocity of
seismic wave is related to the density of
the material that is moving through. The
Moho occurs at an average depth of 8
km beneath the ocean basins and 32
km beneath continental crusts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAQSucmHrAk
Mantle
• The largest layer of the Earth
• Composed of
– Iron
– Aluminum
– Calcium
– Magnesium
– Silicon
– Oxygen
• About 80% of the planet’s mass is
concentrated on mantle.
Mantle
• Most of the internal heat of the earth is located
un this layer including the magma chamber
that drives volcanic processes.
• Average temperature is about 3,700 °C,
although it has different temperatures at
different depths.
• 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 which is believed to be
the one responsible for different rock
behaviors within the mantle.
Mantle
As rocks behave
differently within this layer
of the Earth, the mantle is
divided into two different
zones: upper and lower
mantle.
Upper Mantle
• is seen as a highly viscous layer
which lies between the crust and
the lower mantle.
• It extends up 660 km and consists
of peridotite and dunnite which are
solid, ultramafic rocks made up of
olivine and pyroxene.
• Rocks in the upper mantle are
cooler and brittle enough to break
under stress.
Lower Mantle
• Extends from just the upper mantle to
2,200 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.
• The limit of brittle behavior is the boundary
between the upper and lower mantle.
• Heat from the lower upper mantle is
carried to the upper mantle through
convection currents.
Core
• is the last innermost layer which is
separated into the liquid outer
core and the solid inner core.
• It is the planet’s source of internal
heat because it contains
radioactive materials which release
heat as they breakdown into more
stable substance.
• It is composed mainly of an iron-
nickel alloy.
Outer Core
• represents about 4% of the mantle-
crust mass.
• can be regarded as a ball of very hot
metals
• It is made up of
– Iron
– Nickel
– And about 10% sulfur and oxygen
• The temperature in this zone is about
5,000°C so it remains in its liquid state.
Inner Core
• found at the deepest region of the
planet.
• characterized by an extremely high
temperature of about 5,000°C -6,000°C
or even higher than the temperature of
the Sun’s surface.
• The inner core is a very important
region as the intense heat reflected
from it mobilizes the materials of the
outer core and the mantle.
Inner Core
• Inner core is solid and the thickness is
believed to be about 1,1250 km.
• As Earth rotates, the outer core spins
over the inner core and generates Earth’s
magnetic field.
• The inner core is 70% as wide as the
moon.
• It spins at its own rate which is as much
as 0.20° longitude per year faster than
Earth above it.
Inner Core
• It is a solid hot ball that is
submerged in the liquid outer
core.
• The solid states is cause by
the immense pressure that
crystallized the superhot iron
into a solid ball.
Core
• Due to convection by heat radiating from
the core together with the rotation of the
Earth in its axis, the liquid iron moves in
rotational pattern which is believed to be
the source of magnetic field of the Earth.
This circulating current is called the
dynamo effect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gea4cEA5Ris