Earth's Structure

Today we learned about the different parts of the Earth and what they are made of, we also talked a little bit about Seismic waves (the things that earthquakes create).

So the Core is made up of 4 main layers: the crust, the mantle, and the core.

The crust is the outer most part of the Earth and it is only 1% of the entire earth, the place where we walk on every day. It is split up into oceanic crust and continental crust. The oceanic crust is made of rocks like basalt because the magma from the mantle cools immediately when it hits the water. The continental crust is made up of rocks like granite and they are typically older rocks. The oceanic crust is located below the continental crust.

Caption - The Core

Next is the mantle and it is the biggest part of the Earth making up about 84%. The mantle is split into three portions. First is the upper most part of the mantle, the lithosphere. The lithosphere is the part of the Earth that contains the tectonic plates. Underneath the lithosphere is the asthenosphere, this part of the mantle contains magma that is not quite liquid or solid, this is where metamorphic rocks would be created. Finally is the mesosphere which is made up of some solid magma and some liquid magma.

Lastly is the core. The Journey to the Center of the Earth correctly shows how the core is like, it is full of life and easily habitable, NOT!!! the core makes up 15% of the Earth and in is by far the densest layer. The outer core is made up of rotating molten iron and it also creates our magnetic field. The inner part of out core is made of solid iron and a little nickel.

Finally there are seismic waves. There are two kinds of seismic waves, Compressional waves (p waves) and shear waves (s waves). P waves are the waves that can travel through water, so their effect is felt further than s waves. On the other hand, s waves are more destructive.

Class was awesome today!!! Hopefully tomorrow will be just as fun so Dillon can tell us what happens tomorrow as our new scribe post.