Interior of the Earth

In this chapter, we will talk about the direct and indirect sources of information of the interior of the earth, and the structure of the earth.

Direct Source of Evidence

Evidence collected from mining – Surface rocks are available swiftly solid earth material. Gold Mines in South Africa are found at a 3-4 km depth

Evidence from Integrated Ocean Drilling Project – Two such projects dwell into the depths of Earth to find more about the Earth’s structure. They are the Integrated Ocean Drilling Project and Deep Ocean Drilling Project. The deepest drill in the Arctic Ocean has been made up to 12 km

Evidence from volcanic explosions-Volcanic Explosions give a superior and direct insight into what is happening inside the Earth and provide information about the Structure of the Earth

Indirect Source of Evidence

Evidence by analysis of properties of matter – It provides us with information on the increasing temperature and pressure of Earth’s Interior as the distance from the surface increases

Evidence by meteors – It is said that some of the meteors might resemble the structure of the Earth. So, studying the meteors might give a detailed insight into the structure of the Earth

Evidence from gravity – It is noticed that the gravitational force is different at different latitudes on the surface. It is greater near the poles and comparatively less at the equator. It is because of the distance from the Earth’s centre. The larger the distance from the centre, the more the gravitational force at that place. The gravity also depends upon numerous factors like the mass of the material, distribution etc. Gravity anomaly is the difference between gravity readings and gives us information about the distribution of the material in the Earth’s crust

Evidence from magnetic surveys – Magnetic surveys give crucial information about the distribution of magnetic materials throughout the globe

Evidence from seismic activities – The seismic surveys provide a complete and vivid picture of the Earth’s interior

Structure of the Earth

Based on the various findings of these above studies, the interior structure of the Earth can be classified into three layers:

1. The Crust

The crust is the brittle outermost solid part of the Earth. Its thickness varies from ocean to continental areas. Earth’s ocean crust is thinner than continental crust. The ocean crust layer is around 5 km thick, but the continental crust can go 30 km. The mountain continental in the Himalayan crust can go up to 70 km.

2. The Mantle

The mantle is the part below the crust and extends from Moho’s discontinuity to a depth of 2900 km. Mohorovičić discontinuity (Moho) or separates the crust from the mantle.The upper part of the Earth’s mantle is known as the asthenosphere. It’s the main source of magma, and its layers extend up to 400 km.

The crust and the upper part of the mantle are known as the lithosphere. The thickness of the lithosphere layer ranges from 10-200 km.

The solid lower part of the mantle extends beyond the asthenosphere.

3. The core

This layer is found at a depth of 2900 km. The core is further classified into two categories – the Outer core and the Inner core. While the outer core is in a liquid state, and the inner core is in a solid-state. Further, the outer core has a density of 12 g/cm3. The core is made up of heavy materials like nickel and iron that make up the Nife layer.

Conclusion

Conclusively, we have intricately looked into the interior of the earth, assessing the evidence on it. We also looked into detail the different layers along with their densities. We can hence conclude by stating that there are three different layers to the Earth: the core, the mantle, and the crust. The core is further bifurcated into inner and outer cores, the mantle into upper and lower mantles, as well as the crust into continental and oceanic crusts, they are all separated into two halves. The inner and outer cores are mainly iron, with a little nickel thrown in for good measure.