What does the inside of the earth look like? March 31, 2009
Posted by askpari in Deep Hole, Earth’s Center, Hard Mantel, Hard Rock, Hot Liquid Metal, Hot Liquid Outer Core, Solid Metal Inner Core.Tags: Ball Shaped Inner Core, Black Rock, Earth, Earth’s Core, Earth’s Surface, Earthquake, Hole, Inside Earth, Liquid Metal, Liquid Outer Core, Mantle, Metal Inner Core, Outer Core, Rock, Rocky Crust, Solid Metal, Temperature, World
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Beneath the earth’s rocky crust are the hard mantel, hot liquid outer core, and the solid metal inner core.
Have you ever tried to dig a deep hole—maybe all the way to the other side of the world? Of course, you could dig only a few feet. But suppose you could dig a hole straight to the center of the earth. What would you find on the way?
First comes the crust, or rocky “skin,” that covers the earth. This may be about 30 miles thick in some places. As we go down into this crust, we find that it begins to get hotter and hotter. At two miles below the surface of the earth, the temperature is hot enough to boil water. Next comes a layer of hard, black rock, about 1,800 miles thick. Inside this layer is the earth’s core. The core seems to be a kind of super-hot liquid metal.
Scientists think that in the center of this core there lies a ball-shaped inner core of solid metal, which forms the very center of the earth itself. We have been able to find out about the inside of the earth by studying earthquakes. Probably we will never get to look at the earth’s core, but someday we will know more about it.
Photo courtesy: nasa.gov
