Earth, inside out

[science_spot]

When I think of the word Earth, I picture it from the sky, as a blue ball with scattered white fuzz covering it's surface.  It's hanging in a vast sea of blackness, as I view it from really far away.  Something like this image, from NASA, taken during the Apollo missions.

 

It looks rather inviting!  But if we strip away the blue water and all the lush life on it's surface, the Earth takes on a much different appearance.  Right below the surface is rock.  Lots of it.  This is called the lithosphere and it covers the entire surface of the Earth, even underwater, to a depth of up to 200km.  The lithosphere consists of the uppermost crust as well as the upper matle.  Below this is the mantle and then the outer and inner core, as shown in this diagram from Rochester Area Colleges.

 

The lithosphere is made of of many different types of rocks.  Some people study these rock types, the movement of these rocks (and how that movement affects human populations), and the history & generation of these rocks.  you canget more information about these topics from the following links:

Structure of the Earth (Wikipedia)

Elements in the Earth's Crust (Wikipedia)

Structural geology of the Earth's Interior (PNAS original publication, free access)

The Rock Cycle and Composition of Rocks in the Lithosphere (PhysicalGeogrpahy.com)

 

Tonya

AKA sunmoonstars

The Science Spot