Premium Essay

Earth Structure

In:

Submitted By cflood2
Words 829
Pages 4
Connor Flood

February 21, 2011

827-939-015

NR 130-001

The Earth’s structure is one that is both complex and ever changing. The layers of the multifaceted planet Earth have many different metals and rocks that make up the layers that surround the liquid core. On top, the many different plates of the crust move in different ways and form boundaries. The boundaries cause many different, violent reactions such as volcanoes that produce powerful eruptions. As I will cover in this paper, the plates move in three different ways, which give way to three different types of effects on the surface. The first type of boundary is the divergent boundary. These boundaries form when two plates or more separate from each other and create an area of new crust that is magma as it flows up from the mantle (Watson 1999). Divergent boundaries are distinct in that new crust is always formed because of the plates flowing in opposite directions. A good example of a divergent boundary is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The vast amount of plates and faults had created an underwater mountain range that extends from the Northern Artic all the way down to the tip of Africa (Watson 1999). Although this mountain range has taken millions of years to for, it originally created the oceans that surround the continents today. Another type of boundary is the convergent boundary. This type of boundary acts completely different from a divergent boundary in that convergent boundaries either move towards each other or under each other. Mountains or highlands may form if the plates collide head on, but sometimes when they move under each other subduction zones are formed (Watson 1999). The types of convergence are oceanic-continental convergence, oceanic-oceanic convergence, and continental-continental convergence. These types of convergences create volcanic arcs, trenches, island arcs, mountain ranges,

Similar Documents

Free Essay

The Structure of the Earth

...The structure of the earth The earth has three major parts-the land part or lithosphere, the water part or hydrosphere and the air part or atmostpere. The lithosphere is the surface on which you live . It is also the earth solid sphere consisting mainly of massive rocks. The massive rocks form large land masses called continent and small island groups . Different land form such as mountains,hills,valleys,plateaus and plains make up the lithosphere. The hydrosphere include all water forms such as oceans,seas,rivers,lakes,and groundwater found beneath the earth. Geologists or scientists who specialize on the history and composition of earth study carefully these two major parts of the earth. They study the different layers of the earth and what each layer is made of. You see only the surface of the earth – the oceans, seas, rivers, rocks, and soil. They cover the earth just like the thick peeling of the pomelo or orange fruit. When you cut open the pomelo, you see layers of pulp inside it. If the earth were cut open, you will see that it is made of three layers. They are the crust, matle and the core. The topmost layer of the earth is the crust which is made of solid rock. It is thicker under the continents; approximately between 11 to 35 kilometres. But under the oceans, it can be 5 to 12 kilometres thick only. At the lower boundary...

Words: 720 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Earth's Structure

...THE STUCTURE OF THE EARTH The interior structure of the Earth is layered in spherical shells, like an onion. These layers can be defined by either their chemical or their rheological properties. Earth has an outer silicate solid crust, a highly viscous mantle, a liquid outer core that is much less viscous than the mantle, and a solid inner core. Scientific understanding of Earth's internal structure is based on observations of topography and bathymetry, observations of rock in outcrop, samples brought to the surface from greater depths by volcanic activity, analysis of the seismic waves that pass through Earth, measurements of the gravity field of Earth, and experiments with crystalline solids at pressures and temperatures characteristic of Earth's deep interior. ASSUMPTIONS: The force exerted by Earth's gravity can be used to calculate its mass, and by estimating the volume of the Earth, its average density can be calculated. Astronomers can also calculate Earth's mass from its orbit and effects on nearby planetary bodies. Observations of rocks, bodies of water and atmosphere allow estimation of the mass, volume and density of rocks to a certain depth, so the remaining mass must be in the deeper layers. Earth's radial density distribution according to the preliminary reference earth model (PREM). Earth's gravity according to the preliminary reference earth model (PREM). Comparison to approximations using constant and linear density for Earth's interior. Schematic view of...

Words: 1853 - Pages: 8

Free Essay

Science

...Earth's crust and mantle Earth cutaway from core to exosphere The crust of the Earth is composed of a great variety of igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks. The crust is underlain by the mantle. The upper part of the mantle is composed mostly of peridotite, a rock denser than rocks common in the overlying crust. The boundary between the crust and mantle is conventionally placed at the Mohorovičić discontinuity, a boundary defined by a contrast in seismic velocity. The crust occupies less than 1% of Earth's volume. The oceanic crust of the sheet is different from its continental crust. The oceanic crust is 5 km (3 mi) to 10 km (6 mi) thick[1] and is composed primarily of basalt, diabase, and gabbro. The continental crust is typically from 30 km (20 mi) to 50 km (30 mi) thick and is mostly composed of slightly less dense rocks than those of the oceanic crust. Some of these less dense rocks, such as granite, are common in the continental crust but rare to absent in the oceanic crust. Both the continental and oceanic crust "float" on the mantle. Because the continental crust is thicker, it extends both above and below the oceanic crust. The slightly lighter density of felsic continental rock compared to basaltic ocean rock contributes to the higher relative elevation of the top of the continental crust. Because the top of the continental crust is above that of the oceanic, water runs off the continents and collects above the oceanic crust. The continental crust...

Words: 1549 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Research

...------------------------------------------------- Structure of the Interior of Earth Earth has a diameter of about 12,756 km (7,972 mi). The Earth's interior consists of rock and metal. It is made up of four main layers:  1) the inner core: a solid metal core made up of nickel and iron (2440 km diameter)  2) the outer core: a liquid molten core of nickel and iron  3) the mantle: dense and mostly solid silicate rock  4) the crust: thin silicate rock material The temperature in the core is hotter than the Sun's surface. This intense heat from the inner core causes material in the outer core and mantle to move around. The movement of material deep within the Earth may cause largeplates made of the crust and upper mantle to move slowly over the Earth’s surface. It is also possible that the movements generate the Earth's magnetic field, called the magnetosphere. ------------------------------------------------- Hotspot (geology) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Diagram showing a cross section though the Earth'slithosphere (in yellow) withmagma rising from the mantle(in red) In geology, the places known as hotspots or hot spots are volcanic regions thought to be fed by underlying mantle that is anomalously hot compared with the surrounding mantle. They may be on, near to, or far from tectonic plate boundaries. Currently, there are two hypotheses that attempt to explain their origins. One suggests that they are due to hot mantle plumes that rise as thermal diapirs from the core-mantle...

Words: 1855 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Lithosphere

...approximately 65 to 100 km (40 to 60 mi) thick. Geologists regard the lithosphere as the relatively cool, outermost layer of the planet and view it as a rigid shell. The lithosphere is broken up into different plates. At a depth of about 100 km, the rigid, brittle rock of the lithosphere suddenly gives way to hot, soft, plastic rock of the asthenosphere. In this layer, rock is so hot and plastic that it flows readily even though it is solid. The asthenosphere extends from the base of the lithosphere to a depth of about 350 km. At the base of the asthenosphere, the mantle again becomes more rigid and less plastic, and it remains in this state all the way down the core. The Earth’s lithosphere consists if crust and the upper mantle. THE STRUCTURE Earth has a diameter of about 12,756 km (7,972 mi). The Earth's interior consists of rock and metal. It is made up of four main layers:  1) the inner core: a solid metal core made up of nickel and iron (2440 km diameter)  2) the outer core: a liquid molten core of nickel and iron  3) the mantle: dense and mostly solid silicate rock  4) the crust: thin silicate rock material Earth's Crust:   There are two different types of crust: thin oceanic crust that underlies the ocean basins and thicker continental crust that underlies the continents. These two different types of crust are made up of different types of rock. The thin oceanic crust is composed of primarily of basalt and the thicker continental crust is composed primarily of granite...

Words: 1845 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Extracurricular and Academic Performances of Pupils

...Grade 4 Reading The earth is made up of several layers. Read the passage to learn more about them. Then answer questions 1 through 7. The Layers of the Earth by Doug Taylor If you were able to cut the earth in half you would see that it is not the same all the way through. The inside of the earth is made of several layers. Some of the layers are solid and some are liquid. Most of these layers are very hot. The center of the earth is called the inner core. Scientists think this part of the core is solid. It is probably made of metals like nickel and iron. The inner core is very hot. This deep inside the earth there is a lot of pressure. The pressure keeps the metals solid even though they are very hot. Scientists think the temperature in the core is about 7,200 degrees! Just past the inner core is the outer core. It is probably also made of metals. The metals of the outer core are melted into liquid. This layer is almost as hot as the inner core. The metals are able to melt in this layer because there is not as much pressure. The inner core and outer core together are about 3,400 kilometers thick! The next layer is called the mantle. The mantle is made of melted rocks called magma. The magma is a thick liquid. It flows like putty in most places. When magma erupts to the surface of the earth, it is called lava. The mantle is very thick and very hot. Scientists think the temperature of the mantle is about 5,400 degrees. The mantle is about...

Words: 851 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Case Study

...Layers of the Earth The planet earth was formed about 4.5 billion years ago, after the collapse of the super massive gaseous body. As time moved on, the earth cooled down and is still cooling, as of today. As a result of the cooling process, denser materials like iron and sulfur sank to the inside of the earth; whereas, lighter materials like silicates and water floated near the earth's surface. Coming to the topic of our discussion, our planet earth comprises several layers. Starting from the surface, there are four main layers; namely, the crust, the mantle, the outer core, and the inner core. The pressure and temperature increase tremendously when one goes from the outer layers to the inner layers. Let's take a look at each of them individually. The Crust The crust or the lithosphere is the outermost layer of the earth made up of silicate rock materials. It makes up only about one percent of the earth and is the thinnest layer in comparison to the remaining three layers. Most earthquakes occur in the crust, and the average recorded temperature is 870 °C. The thickness and the composition of the earth's crust vary in the land and the ocean. For example; the continental crust is about 32 kilometers thick and composed of lighter materials like granite, quartz, and feldspar. Whereas, the oceanic crust measures about 10 kilometers and is mostly made up of basalt. The Mantle The mantle, the largest layer of the earth, is made up of iron, aluminum, calcium, magnesium...

Words: 950 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Natural Disasters

...and the materials that it is composed of, we will need to look at the earth’s early stages of formation. Included in this is will be; what materials the earth is comprised of, as well as; how they arrived on the earth, and the resulting heat energy that is inherent within our earth. When the earth was still in its early stages of formation it was slowly accumulating mass from particles within the planetary rings that were attracted by the earth’s gravitational pull. These particles were metallic chunks; similar to iron meteorites, rocky chunks; similar to stony meteorites, and icy-gaseous chunks; similar to comets. As these particles collided with the earth it created stored heat energy through kinetic energy, we call this impact energy. With every impact the earth’s mass increased and the gravitational pull became stronger contracting in on itself which added more heat energy that we refer to as gravitational energy. Radioactive energy, or radioactivity, is when an unstable particle collides with the earth and break down to something stable and gives off heat energy. These three types of heat energy are inherent to the earth’s composition and are key when looking at the various layers that make up our earth. With all the inherent heat energy that the earth has, it causes the various materials that collide with earth to heat up as they are pulled toward the center of earth’s mass. This causes the various materials to separate and enables them to flow further toward or...

Words: 591 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Geography Exam 1 Review

...1. What is Geography? Geography (from geo, “earth”, and grapein, “to write”) is the science that studies the relationships among natural systems, geographic areas, society, and cultural activities and the interdependence of all of these over space. 2. What is physical geography? Physical geography is the spatial analysis of all the physical elements and process systems that make up the environment: energy, air, water, weather, climate, landforms, soils, animals, plants, microorganisms, and Earth itself. 3. What are the inner core, outer core, mantle, asthenosphere, lithosphere, oceanic crust, and continental crust? o Inner core: solid iron well above the melting temperature of iron at the surface, but remains solid b/c tremendous pressure (combination of silicon, oxygen, sulfur) o Outer core: molten, metallic iron (fluid) with lighter densities than the inner core o Mantle: 80% of earth’s total volume, rich in oxides of iron and magnesium and silicates (FeO, MgO, and SiO2), • Lower mantle: denser, contain a mixture of iron, magnesium, and silicates, with some calcium and aluminum. • Upper mantle: a high-velocity zone just below the crust where seismic waves transmit through a rigid, cooler layer, divides into three fairly distinct layers: i. Upper mantle ii. Asthenosphere iii. Uppermost mantle o Asthenosphere: (plastic layer) contains pockets of increased heat from radioactive decay and is susceptible to slow convective currents in these hotter, less dense...

Words: 335 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Equakes

...Geology – Earthquakes I chose to do my assignment on earthquakes, because I have been through many growing up in California, and I have always wondered about them. There are many types of earthquakes. The most common are tectonic, which my paper will be about. There are also volcanic, collapse and explosion earthquakes. All earthquakes create waves that travel through the Earth's interior. An earthquake is the sudden shifting of the earth's natural means of releasing stress. When the shifting occurs, it creates vibrations, called seismic waves. The speed of seismic waves depends on the elasticity of the materials through which they are traveling. Rocks have elastic properties. When forces are applied to rocks, such as pulling, pushing, twisting, or compression, they change their shape. Rocks like other materials with elastic properties have an elastic limit,any additional force will deform the object's shape. The elasticity of a material is controlled by its density and stiffness. There are three types of waves that are created when stress is released as energy in earthquakes. Primary waves or P-waves, is the fastest, and the first detected by seismographs. They are able to move through both liquid and solid rock. P-waves are like sound waves; they are compressed and expand matter as they move through it. Secondary waves or S-waves, are the waves directly following the P-waves, they are transverse waves. As they move, S-waves cut the rock they travel through sideways...

Words: 1250 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

Işletme

...GEOTHERMAL ENERGY Energy is a vital force powering business, manufacturing and trans- portation of goods and services to serve the world ecenomies. There are a lot of energy sources that people can use from the world. In this point, We have a question about energy sources. Are energy sources completely consumed or finished? The answer is that some are yes, but others are no. Some of them are renewable but others are not. Renewable energy is energy generated from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides and geothermal heat which are naturall replenished. As we said before, one of them is geothermal energy source. Geothermal comes from underground. It is the energy that exist in nature as a result of heat from the Earth's core. The Earth's core lies nearly 6000 km below the surface and holds tempratures that near 5000 santigrat degree. These extreme tempratures are enough to heat the rock surroundinf the core ( colled the mantle ) and couse the rockmm to melt. Melted rock in the mantle is colled magma. The liquid magma has a lower density than the solid rock around it, so it tends to move upwards the Earth's surface. The majority of the time, magma stays underneath the Earth's surface and heats up the rock and pockets of water that it comes in contact with. Sometimes the magma actually finds its way through the Earth's crust and vents trough volcanoes as lava....

Words: 351 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Earth

...Have you ever wanted to die? Hopefully not and thanks to these two people we didn’t! 2 months ago a 2 boys named Kade Kostus and Kevin Durant met together at a basketball court in Miami ‘Florida, there was some crazy hot weathers and finally it happened. 2 girls from Japan have set bombs of in the earth’s inner core so most of the chemicals keeping us alive in the inner core have shot up in the sky and landed tall buildings. The buildings on the next day have fallen apart and killed about 3000 people in the city of Miami. Kade and Kevin met up again in Rockford Michigan and they talked about making a big ship that shoots underground so they could bag up the chemicals and place them back in the earth. That night the news channel comes to both of Kade and Kevin’s house interviewing them Kade said that “The chemicals have no name and we hope we don’t die”, on the other hand Kevin said “Ok we are leaving at 3:35 AM tomorrow and no further questions”. That morning Kade And Kevin has gone to their ship that they have built and it is placed in a secret island in Australia. The ship fires up with a super powered laser and spinning knives on the sides to keep moving fast down the earth’s layers. They finally hop in with the chemicals and the ship starts in 3 2 1 and poof. They have entered Lake Baikal because it has the thinnest crust so they could get a big boost in the mantle. They reach the crust and the crust has underwater volcanoes so it dents the ship. There...

Words: 418 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Architecture and the Environment Paper

...Uzonwanne August 28, 2011 Introduction The Environment and its inhabitants cannot be explained separately both shape each other and is shaped by the environment. There are different kinds of environments that need different kinds of behavioral workings that are sensory input, internal representations that change the structure of the earth for who people live there. “To understand the interactions of the physical world and behavior, then, we must consider the two in an intertwined fashion” (Todd & Wilson, 1993). * Physical Structure on Human Behavior * * Architectural design always played a significant aspect in one’s comfort and health. It is a different form of art surrounding one every day. Unfortunately, for years, it has not been considered this way and its benefits have not been recognized. However with the increasing research and interest in environmental conditions, greater interest in healthier living and the involvement of environmental psychology, the importance of architecture is finally being acknowledged for what it is. Today research is aware of the benefits and downsides that can come from physical structures. A person’s well-being and health is associated with structural design. One’s mood and productivity are related to the kind of architecture by which one is surrounded. The amount and size of windows in a * * * * Architecture means of controlling Human Behavior * * * * * Environmental...

Words: 253 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

M1 Assess the Implications of Health, Safety and Security Legislation and Regulations for a Business Role in a Workplace Environment.

...that would have been asked in the later assignments. A visitor had come, from Islamic Relief to tell us about the charity that helps millions around the world. I also gained information and knowledge regarding this business. It was fascinating to find out the difference between the registered charity and the football club. This was because I think it’s amazing how two different businesses can achieve different aims and objectives, yet they both can be so successful. The two businesses have different organisational structures, an organisational structure is designed and created to, divide up the work that needs to be completed thus making it easier to complete. It is used to establish control and communication; for example, dealing with retailers to organise suppliers to shops and cafés. There are different types of organisational structures, these include; Function, Geographical Area, Product Group, Type of Customer Function- The organisational structure determines how the business is operated. This is a separate part of an organisation...

Words: 395 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Book Review

...Critical Book Review: States and Markets Susan Strange 1993 Susan Strange wrote States and Markets in 1994 and it was amazingly predictive of the future of the Internal Political Economy or Global Political Economy (IPE or GPE). Although there are some blind spots in her theory and mode, and she was not able to predict many things. She was still able to accurately describe the four main structures, which affect structural and relational power structures thereby directly affecting IPE. * The model she proposes in this book is not based on rigid theories of international relations that give no room for debate, which are erroneously based on some preconceived assumptions. First, one must understand how the author defines certain ideas and concepts differently. According to Strange “ Firstly a great deal of social theory is no more then description” (Strange, 10, 1994). She expands with the facts are well known but are arranged in a different order or category (Strange, 10, 1994). Susan Strange’s security structure is not rigid, like most other security models and it does not dictate a set of conditions nor does it bias itself to one nation. It is not a uniquely American perspective that assumes military dominance nor is it a British Empire that demands subjugation. It is more easily applied to developing nations that lack the military might of a super power due to its assumption of conventional forces only and lack of military. She theorizes that without protection...

Words: 2356 - Pages: 10