The World Beneath Your Feet

The World Beneath Your Feet

If you could journey to the center of the Earth, what would the environment around you be like? While fanciful accounts of Earth’s interior include long-bearded dwarves with pick-axes, the reality of Earth’s interior is quite different.

Study the diagram below of Earth’s Interior and answer the questions that follow based on the diagram.

Questions based on the diagram

1)  How thick is the crust?

2)  How thick is the mantle?

3)  How thick is the outer core?

4)  How thick is the inner core?

5)  How does the thickness of the layers of the Earth compare?

6)  The crust seems so thin relative to the other layers. Are we in danger of accidently breaking through the crust and getting sucked into the fiery chasms of the mantle? Why or why not?

7)  How dense is the continental crust?

8)  How dense is the oceanic crust?

9)  How dense is the mantle?

10)  How dense is the outer core?

11)  How dense is the inner core?

12)  Use differences in density to explain why the various layers of the Earth are arranged in the order we observe.

13)  What is the temperature at 1,000km depth?

14)  What is the temperature at 3,000km depth?

15)  What is the temperature at the Earth’s core?

16)  What is the temperature on the Earth’s surface?

17)  What is the temperature of the crust?

18)  What is the temperature of the mantle?

19)  What is the temperature of the outer core?

20)  What is the temperature of the inner core?

21)  What could cause the observed temperature differences in the Earth that you noted above? (Any reasonable answer may be accepted since professional Geologists don’t yet agree on what causes temperature differences inside the Earth)

22)  What layers of the Earth are liquid? How can you tell from the diagram?

23)  Which layers are solid?

24)  Why are there ????? all over the melting point temperature line in the mantle?

25)  What would happen to a piece of crustal (lithospheric) rock if it were thrust down into the mantle?

26)  What would happen to a glob on liquid, hot magma if it were to rise up from the mantle and burst through the crust?

27)  What is pressure?

28)  How does pressure change as you go deeper inside the Earth?

29)  What is the pressure at 2,400km depth?

30)  What is the pressure at the center on the Earth?

31)  What is the pressure at Earth’s surface?

32)  How does changing pressure and temperature affect rock that gets buried deep in the crust? Rises up from the asthenosphere towards the Earth’s surface?

Bonus Challenge Research Question

If no one has ever directly observed any layer of the Earth except the crust, how did anyone figure out what information should go on this diagram?