Earth’s Interior
Geo 12
Name______________
1. Complete the following table with information from your notes or research. Note that Physical State
refers to the state of the material, i.e. solid, liquid, or semi-solid. Also note that there is an overlap
between the lithosphere, and asthenosphere, and the mantle.
Layer
Continental crust
Average thickness
Density
Physical state
Oceanic crust
Lithosphere
Asthenosphere
Mantle
Outer core
Inner core
2. For the fill in the blanks, match each characteristic with the corresponding Earth layer by indicating
the number. Some characteristics apply to more than one layer.
1. Lithosphere 2. Continental crust
3. Outer core
5. Asthenosphere
7. Oceanic crust
6. Inner core
4. Mantle
a) ______ density of 2.7 g/cc
b) ______ rigid; solid
c) _____ density of 3.0 g/cc
d) ______ density of 10 g/cc
e) ______ liquid
f) ______ plastic
g) ______ density of up to 13 g/cc
h) ______ granitic (felsic) composition
i) _______ basaltic (mafic) composition
j) ______ iron, nickel, sulphur composition
k) ______ composed of crust and upper mantle
m) ______ thickest crust
l) ______ underlies the lithosphere
n) ______densest layer
o) ______ least dense layer
3. Compare and contrast, in terms of density, state, and location:
a) The asthenosphere and the lithosphere
b) The inner and outer core
c) The asthenosphere and the mantle
d) The crust and the lithosphere
4.a) Using the information from the following diagram, calculate the volume of each layer of the Earth
4
3
indicated. The formula for the volume of a sphere is: 𝑉 = 𝜋𝑟 3 .
Begin with the calculation of the inner core. To calculate the volume of the outer core, calculate the
volume of the sphere containing both the inner and outer core, and subtract the volume of the inner
core. Continue in this manner to calculate all layers indicated on the diagram.
b) Plot these calculated volumes as a bar graph with the names of the layers on the horizontal axis and
the volumes calculated on the vertical axis.
c) Which layer, by far, encompasses the greatest volume of the Earth’s interior?
d) Which layer encompasses the least volume of the Earth’s interior?