Our planet Earth is one of the nine that make up the solar system. Specifically, it is the fifth in terms of its size and the only one with oxygen and plenty of water to allow life. Regarding its structure or anatomy, the Earth is made up of different layers of rock that are established around a central nucleus.
Terrestrial layers
The structures of the Earth make up the geosphere, which is about 6400 km in radius, from the most superficial layer or crust to the center of the Earth or core.
The Earth's core is made up mainly of iron and nickel and its temperature is above 3,000 degrees Celsius. The inner core is solid and the outer core is liquid. The outermost layer is the crust, which supports the oceans and continents. The crust is solid and is composed of rocks, its depth being about 50 km. Between the core and the crust is the Earth's mantle.
Characteristics of the land cover
This layer is about 3000 kilometers thick and is a region of very hot dense rock. It remains practically in a solid state due to the great pressure exerted by the upper crust. There is no continuity between the crust and the mantle. This radical alteration between one structure and another is known as the Mohorovicic discontinuity, which acts as a border element between both layers. This intermediate zone between the crust and the mantle separates the materials with lower density of the crust (for example, calcium, sodium and potassium) from the materials with higher density of the mantle (the silicates of iron and magnesium).
Through seismographs it is possible to obtain information on the behavior of the earth's mantle, since it is not possible to access this layer directly. Seismic records provide essential information for understanding the structure of the mantle. Thus, geologists speak of two differentiated layers:
1) the upper mantle that reaches 700 km and the speed of seismic waves is higher than those produced in the crust and
2) the inner mantle has a thickness ranging from 700 to 2,900 kilometers.
The data that geologists have obtained on the earth's mantle have allowed us to understand the process of formation of the earth's crust, which was probably formed by magmatic differentiation, since the magma comes from the asthenosphere, the upper liquid part of the earth's mantle.
Photos: iStock - 3alexd / StockFinland
