The Layers of the Earth

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

Pretend you are going to the beach. Your toes are in the sand.

Now, you are in the forest, and your hiking boots are on the soft brown soil. You hiked all the way to the top of a rocky mountain. Your boots are on top of the rocks.

All along both imaginary adventures, you were exploring the crust of the earth. The crust is the top layer of the earth.

• See how the earth has layers like a cake and a crust like a pie?

Peek out a nearby window.

• What does the crust look like around you?

The earth's crust is the thinnest layer of the earth. It can be anywhere from a few feet thick to over forty miles thick!

There are two types of crust:

• The continental crust makes up all the land above water
• The oceanic crust is the surface found at the bottom of the ocean floor.

Beneath the crust is the mantle.

The mantle is the largest layer of the earth. It can be anywhere from four hundred miles to over one thousand miles beneath the surface of the earth!

The mantle is divided into two parts:

• The upper mantle is made out of solid and liquid rock. It can be anywhere from two thousand degrees Fahrenheit to five thousand degrees Fahrenheit!
• The mantle is beneath the upper mantle. This layer is around five thousand degrees Fahrenheit! This layer is made up of solid rock.

Take a look at the picture which shows you all the layers of the earth.

So far, you learned about the crust, upper mantle, and mantle. The upper mantle and the mantle are both considered to be the same layer.

Point and name the crust, upper mantle, and mantle on the picture below:

Beneath the mantle is the outer core. It is found over three thousand miles beneath the earth's surface.

The outer core can be anywhere from seven thousand to over ten thousand degrees Fahrenheit! This layer is made up of liquid rock, like iron and nickel.

The liquid outer core flows around the center of the earth. This circular flow creates the earth's magnetic field.

The hottest layer of the earth is the inner core. The inner core's temperature ranges from nine thousand degrees Fahrenheit to almost eleven thousand degrees Fahrenheit!

The inner core is made up of solid iron and nickel. This layer of the earth is shaped like a ball. The core stays solid because of the pressure surrounding it. If it did not have so much pressure, the iron and nickel would melt into a liquid.

Point to the outer core and the inner core in the picture above.

Great job!

Now that you know about the different layers of the earth, move on to the Got It? section to dig a little deeper and explore those layers.