Friday, February 25, 2011

The earth's layers

We had already started learning about rocks and land formations last week. This week, we have learnt that the Earth's crust is made up of rocks. We have also learnt that beneath the Earth's crust is the liquid mantle and the solid core.
  The mantle of the Earth is actually made of molten magma and is >2000 degrees celsius, and the solid core of the Earth is made up of iron and some nickel. Geologists suspect that there is a third substance present but are not sure exactly what it is. The core of the Earth is about 5000 degrees celsius. The chief tool that geologists have made use of to study the Earth are earthquakes. The bigger the magnitude of the earthquake, the more it tells them about the core of the Earth.

  It was a little hard for us to comprehend that the core of the Earth was a solid when it is so hot! We hope to learn more about  the layers of the Earth.

Cherie Peh, Nicole Lien
ACE Geography

2 comments:

  1. Why is it that the bigger the magnitude of the eartquakes,the more it tells the geologists about the Earth's core?Do they find out more by maybe using the concept of light bouncing of objects which shines into our eyes?Which means when applied to this topic,it represents geologists finding out how the effect of the earthquake bouncing back to us tell us about the core?
    Esther 1-1

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  2. Esther, This is something interesting that I've never heard before, perhaps you could do a post on your own blog about it, giving links to pictures/videos to better explain this? - Miss J

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