Layers of the Earth Study Guide
Standard S6E5. Students will
investigate the scientific view of how
the earth’s surface is formed.
a. Compare and contrast the Earth’s
crust, mantle, and core including
temperature, density, and composition.
CRUST:
1. The first layer of the earth is called the crust.
2. It is the layer of the Earth where we live.
3. It is the outer most (outside) layer of the
Earth.
4. It is a solid and is up to 100 kilometers thick.
5. It is the coolest in temperature of all the
layers.
6. It is composed (means made of)
minerals and rocks and is mostly made
of granite and basalt.
7. The part of the crust where the
continents are is known as continental
crust. This is the thickest part of the
crust.
8. The part of the crust beneath the
ocean water is known as the oceanic
crust, the thinnest part of the crust.
Difference in Continental
and Oceanic Crust
MANTLE:
9. The second layer of the Earth is
the Mantle.
10. It is the largest layer with a
thickness up to 2,900 kilometers.
11. It has the most mass of all the
layers.
What is MASS? The amount of matter
in an object.
12. It is a solid made of molten
(melted) rock that flows like
melted plastic.
13. It is composed (means made
of) mostly magnesium .
14. The mantle’s temperature is
higher than the crust reaching up
to 3,000°C.
Magma: Hot flowing melted rock.
CORE: It is the center (middle)
layer of the Earth. There are two
parts to the core.
Outer Core:
15. It is made of
molten/liquid iron
and nickel.
16. Its thickness is
2,300 kilometer.
17. It is hotter than
the Mantle.
Inner Core:
18. The inner core is made of solid
iron and nickel because it is the
innermost region of earth. Since it
is under such extreme pressure,
the metals become a solid.
19. The inner core has the highest
temperatures of all the layers.
20. It has a thickness of 1,200
kilometers.
21. It is the most dense of all the
layers.
Solid Nickel
Solid Iron
Other Information
22. If you were able to journey down to the
center of the earth, you would observe an
increase in pressure, temperature, and
density.
23. The Earth’s mantle is made up of very hot
material that rises to the top of the mantle,
cools, then sinks, reheats, and rises again,
constantly repeating the cycle. These
convection currents (energy transferred by
circulation of a liquid or a gas) cause the
Earth’s crust to move.
24. If an oceanic plate collided with a
continental plate of the crust, the oceanic
plate would be pushed under the continental
plate.
- Earth’s Interior
Temperature Inside the Earth
•The graph shows how
temperatures change between
Earth’s surface and the bottom
of the mantle. On this graph
the temperature at the Earth’s
surface is 0oC. Study the graph
carefully and then answer this
question: What happens to the
temperature of the earth the
farther toward the core you
go?