Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Interior of the Earth
- INNER CORE (6371km to approx. 5100km)
- Composition: mixture of iron and some nickel
- P and S waves move through the inner core
- Provides good evidence of a solid layer
- LEHMANN DISCONTINUITY (5100km)
- Boundary between materials of the same composition but in different states
- OUTER CORE (5100km to 2900km)
- Liquid iron nickel
- S waves cannot pass through
- Outer core is liquid
- P waves slow down
- Reduction in rigidity
- GUTENBERG DISCONTINUITY
- Change in material
- From metallic iron nickel to stony silicate material
- P wave decreases
- S waves stop altogether
- LOWER MANTLE
- Solid
- S wave can move through it
- P waves increase in velocity
- Increasin pressure causes the
rocks to become more rigid
- Less compressible
- Silicate material
- UPPER MANTLE
- Solid silicates
- Less dense than lower mantle
- Main rock: Peridotite
- CRUST
- OCEANIC CRUST
- Rich in iron and magnesium
- Basalt, Dolerite, Gabbro
- CONTINENTAL CRUST
- Rich in aluminum and silicate
- Granitic
- Igneous, Metamorphic and
Sedimentary rocks-deformed
- ASTHENOSPHERE
- Most of the mantle behaves as a solid
with the ability to flow
- Rheid
- The temperature is high
enough for about 5% of
crystals in the peridotite to
partially melt.
- Plastic properties
- Lost rigidity
- P and S wave slow down
- LITHOSPHERE
- Nearer the surface, the mantle
is cool enough to prevent
partial melting
- Rigid and brittle
- Broken into plates
- The outermost skin of the lithosphere is
the oceanic or continental crust, divided
from the mantle lithosphere by the
Moho
- The lithosphere cannot flow but is
carried by the underlying
asthenosphere