Structure of the Earth Flashcards
What is the inner core?
The Earth’s inner core is the Earth’s innermost part. It is believed to be primarily a solid ball with a radius of about 1,220 kilometers.
What is the outer core?
The outer core of the Earth is a fluid layer about 2,300 km (1,400 mi) thick and composed of mostly iron and nickel that lies above Earth’s solid inner core and below its mantle.
What is the mantle?
A layer of very hot, heavy rock. Convection currents make the rock here move like toffee. It lies above the outer core and makes up half of the Earth.
What is the crust?
A thin layer of solid rock broken up into segments called plates. This is the final layer and can be made of granite (continental) or basalt (oceanic).
What is it called when continents are spreading apart?
Continental Drift
When all of the continents were joined together, what was the continent called?
Pangaea
During what period did Pangaea exist?
The Permian Period (225 millions years ago)
When the continents then split into 2, what were they called?
Laurasia and Gondwanaland.
They kept spreading apart until we finally have how many continents?
7
