MORISCO/WILLGING 2007 Layers of the Earth Characteristics of each of the Earth’s layers

MORISCO/WILLGING 2007 solid inner core Made of iron and nickel Temperature of 4300° C

MORISCO/WILLGING 2007 liquid outer core inner core Made of iron and nickel Temperature of 3700° C

MORISCO/WILLGING 2007 mantle Solid mantle Made of rock-like material, Temperature about 1500° C

MORISCO/WILLGING 2007 asthenosphere The asthenosphere is also called the “plastic-like” mantle because it flows like partially melted plastic.

MORISCO/WILLGING 2007 rigid mantle Temperature is about 870° C

MORISCO/WILLGING 2007 crust Lithosphere name for both the crust and rigid mantle rigid mantle Deepest mine is only about 3 miles into the crust!

MORISCO/WILLGING 2007 Mohorovicic Discontinuity  Called the Moho  Named after a Russian geologist  Mohorovicic discovered that Earthquake waves sped up as they moved from the crust into the rigid mantle  Seismic waves slow down in softer/more liquid materials, such as the asthenosphere or outer core

MORISCO/WILLGING 2007 Density and Pressure  Pressure increases as you move from the crust to the core due to the additional material pushing down  Density also increases from the crust (about 3 g/cm 3 ) to the core (about 10.7 g/cm 3 ) - lighter materials floated to the top as the Earth was forming