This activity was adapted from Kortz and Smay (2012) Lecture Tutorials for Introductory Geoscience.
Kortz and Smay (2012) retain the intellectual property rights to this exercise. This material is for your
personal use only. It may not be shared or posted anywhere online.
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Peter Miraglia, Valerie Melecio, Topic 2 Activity
Nathan Ress, Kyle Mietkowski Layers of the Earth Lecture Tutorial
(Adapted from Kortz and Smay, 2012)
Part 1: Outer Layers of Earth – SEE RUBRIC ON LAST PAGE
The diagram below shows the composition and engineering behavior of rocks in the outer portion (a few
hundred kilometers or miles) of Earth.
Composition Surface of Earth Engineering Behavior
Crust Rock, breaks under stress
Lithosphere
Iron-rich rock, breaks under stress
Mantle
Iron-rich rock, bends under stress Athenosphere
1. Under Composition, put an X next to the two layers shown that have the same composition. (½
point)
2. Under Engineering Behavior, put an X next to the two layers that have the same engineering
behavior under stress. (½ point)
These are the two common ways of dividing the outer part of Earth into layers. The crust and mantle
are layers based on composition, and the lithosphere and asthenosphere are layers based on
engineering behavior.
3. Under Composition, label the two composition layers “crust” and “mantle” and bracket the top and
bottom of each layer with a bracket symbol. { (½ point)
4. Under Engineering Behavior, label the two behavioral layers “lithosphere” and “asthenosphere” and
bracket the top and bottom of each layer with a bracket symbol. } (½ point)
5. A tectonic plate is made up of the lithosphere. What are the layers of Earth that are included in a
tectonic plate? (1 point) The crust and the upper mantle.
6. What is an important characteristic when determining what makes up a tectonic plate versus what
makes up the layer beneath it? (1 point)
a. Composition
b. Whether it breaks or bends
7. Is the term “lithosphere” just a different, more scientific name for the crust? Explain your answer
using the characteristics of each layer. (1 point)
It is not because the Lithosphere also includes the upper portion of the mantle
which like the crust is rigid and breaks under stress.
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Part 2: Earth’s Layers
Earth can be divided into three layers based on composition: the crust, the mantle, and the core. The
core can be divided into two layers based on phase: the liquid outer core and the solid inner core. The
depths in the chare below are approximate and vary with location.
Layer Depth of Top Depth of Bottom Phase and Composition
Crust surface of Earth 30 km solid, rock
Mantle 30 km 2900 km mostly solid, rock
Outer core 2900 km 5100 km liquid, metal
Inner core 5100 km center of Earth solid, metal
8. Sketch and label the four layers of the Earth on the diagram below. The inner core has been drawn
and labeled for you. The scale shown is in kilometers. Each tick represents 500 km. (2 points)
CRUST
MANTLE
OUTER CORE
Inner
Core
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
MAGMA SOURCE
Part 3: The Mantle
Materials melt with a combination of high temperature and low pressure. If the temperature is too low
or the pressure is too high, rocks will not melt. The outer core has the right combination of temperature
and pressure for metal to be molten. At 15 to 100 km below the surface, the temperature and pressure
are potentially just right to partially melt rock. This depth is where pockets of most volcanic magma are
formed.
9. On the diagram of Earth, draw a star at the depth of the source of magma. (½ point)
10. What layers melt to form magma? (½ point)
a. Crust
b. Upper (outer) mantle
c. Lower (inner) mantle
d. Outer core
e. Inner core
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11. Overall, how much of the mantle is liquid? (½ point)
a. Very little to none
b. About half
c. Most to all
12. According to your diagram, estimate how far the molten metal from the outer core would have to
travel to erupt as a volcano. For comparison, New York and Los Angeles are ~4,000 km apart. (½
point) ~2,900 Km to erupt on the surface plus the height of the volcano.
13. Two students are debating whether the molten outer core erupts as volcanoes. (1 point)
a. Student 1: I don’t think the molten outer core erupts as volcanoes because the magma
would have to travel thousand of kilometers through the mantle to reach the surface and I
don’t think it could go that far through the mostly solid mantle.
b. Student 2: if the outer core erupted as volcanoes, then we would have pure metal erupting
out of Earth’s surface. Volcanoes erupt molten rock, so the molten source cannot be the
outer core.
Do you agree with one or both students? Why?
We disagree with Student 2 because they make it seem as if pure
metals are erupting which can not be the case since as the metals
erupt, they would melt and therefore the elements would combine.
Additionally, their descriptions of pure metals is vague and they
incorrectly identified the metals that make up the outer core. They
failed to mention magnesium and calcium as metals that make up the
outer core. We do however agree with student 1 because, they
accurately state that traveling thousands of kilometers through the
mantle is not possible.
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