THE INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF THE EARTH

THE INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF THE EARTH

At the end of the chapter, students should be able to :

1. Describe the different types of landform

2. Describe the layers of the earth

TASK :

Describe the characteristics of the type of landform!

LAYERS OF THE EARTH

1. The Core

The core is the centre of Earth. Temperatures here can be as high as 5.000 degree celcius. Interestingly, although the temperatures are high, the innermost part of the core is solid. It is because of the great pressure and weight exerted on the core by the outer layers of the earth.

2. The Mantle

The mantle is almost 2.900 km thick and makes up nearly 80 percent of the earth total volume. The temperatures in this layer reach more than 2.000 degrees celcius and the upper part of this layer is often is a semi molten or semi liquid state.

3. The Crust

The crust is the outermost layer of the earth. It is solid and varies in thickness from 6 – 70 km. the earth’s crust is not continous layer but is made up of many separate pieces called plate. The plates float on the semi molten mantle beneath them. They are of different sizes and they seem to fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.

“According to scientist, the plates originally formed one gigantic piece of land, or supercontinent, called pangaea. Over million of years, the plates separated and moved to become the pieces of land that we see today.”

“Plural of the plateau is plateaux”