Name: ______________________________________ Date: ______________________
50 km
6400 km
The distance from the surface of the earth's crust to the center of the inner core of the earth is 6400 km.
The Crust is the outer layer of the earth. This is where we live. It is where all plants and animals live. It includes the mountains, valleys, plains, hills, and ocean floors. The crust contains all the minerals (like gold, silver, iron, and salt) and oil deposits (as well as natural gas and coal) that we mine for use in many substances. The crust is a very thin layer of the entire earth. It is only about 50 km thick in most places, but can be as thin as 6 km under the oceans. It can be as thick as 90 km around mountain ranges. The crust is made up of solid rock, soil, sand and the plants, animals and oceans that cover the surface. Earthquakes take place in the crust.
The mantle is the layer just beneath the crust. The mantle is about 2900 km thick. The part closest to the crust is fairly solid, but the part closer to the center of the earth is more liquid and can flow slowly. The mantle is made up of melted rock. When this melted rock is under the surface of the earth, it is called magma. When it bubbles up onto the surface, we call it lava. The mantle, which is made of iron (Fe), magnesium (Mg), aluminum (Al), silicon (Si), and oxygen (O) silicate compounds. The temperature there is over 1000 o C.
The outer core is a so hot that all the rock and metals here are completely liquid. This layer is made up of liquid iron and sulfur. This layer is about 2200 km thick. It's temperature is about 3700 o C.
The inner core is also very hot (4300 o C). However, the pressure here is so high that the iron is no longer a liquid, it is now squeezed into a solid core of iron. This layer is about
1250 km from the outer edge to the center of the core. It is so hard that no machine on earth, if we could ever reach it, could even make a dent in the layer.

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5.
2.
3.
Name: ______________________________________ Date: ______________________
Working on your own or with a small group of classmates, try to think of a list of everyday objects that you could use as a model of the layers of the earth.
For each idea, explain how the parts of that object are similar to the real structure of the earth and explain how the parts of that object are different from the real structure of the earth. I have given you the 1 st object to get you started!
Name of the object How its similar to the real earth
How its different from the real earth
1.
A hard boiled egg

Geo-Zone Mini-Project
Name: _________________________________ Date Due: Monday, April 7 th , 2008
• Draw a diagram of the earth’s geo-zones.
• Be sure that the layers are drawn to “scale” (e.g. 1 cm = 500 m etc.)
• You should use a compass and coloured pencils or markers.
• Label each “geo-zone” and state some characteristics of each zone.
• Remember the layers vary in thickness, according to:
Layer Average Thickness Total Radius of
Earth
Total Radius of your Earth
Drawing (cm)
Thickness of your diagram’s layer
Crust 50 Km
Mantle 2900 Km
2200 Km
6400 Km
6400 Km
6400 Km Outer
Core
Inner
Core
2500 km (whole diameter)
6400 Km
To figure out the ratio:
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
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For example:
If you wanted to figure out how wide to make your mantle if the radius of your whole circle was
8 cm then fill in the numbers as shown in the calculation and then cross multiply and divide.
8 cm
6400 km

3 .
6 cm
2900 km