EARTHSS 17 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Meteorology, Supercontinent, Continental Shelf
30 Sep 2016
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Document Summary
The earth"s layered structure: the early earth was a molten ball of magma due to the gravitational heating and radioactive decay. Dense metals like fe (iron) and ni (nickel) sank to the core. The less dense magma (melted rock) rose and cooled down to produce a primitive rocky crust. In between the core and the rocky crust arose a mantle composed of intermediate dense materials: earth"s interior layers. 35 km thick (30-70), variable up to several billion years old. Basaltic high concentrations of iron and magnesium. 6 7 km thick, uniform no more than 200 million years old. The mantle solid rock layer between the crust and the core. Contains much more iron than the crust = denser. It takes up about 82% of earth"s volume. Lower mantle mostly molten rock (magma) that flows around. Composed mainly of fe, ni, s, and o. Inner roughly the size of the moon but as hot as the sun.
