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Dynamic geologic forces created Earth’s crust, and the crust continues to be shaped by the planet’s movement and energy. Today, tectonic activity is responsible for the formation (and destruction) of crustal materials. Earth’s crust is divided into two types: oceanic crust and continental crust.
The mantle is the mostly solid bulk of Earth's interior. The mantle lies between Earth's dense, super-heated core and its thin outer layer, the crust. The mantle is about 2,900 kilometers (1,802 miles) thick, and makes up a whopping 84 percent of Earth’s total volume.
“Crust” describes the outermost shell of a terrestrial planet. Our planet’s thin, 40-kilometer (25-mile) deep crust—just 1% of Earth’s mass—contains all known life in the universe. Earth has three layers: the crust, the mantle, and the core. The crust is made of solid rocks and minerals. Beneath the crust
Earth’s core is the very hot, very dense center of our planet. The ball-shaped core lies beneath the cool, brittle crust and the mostly solid mantle . The core is found about 2,900 kilometers (1,802 miles) below Earth’s surface, and has a radius of about 3,485 kilometers (2,165 miles).
Earth’s crust is the planet’s thinnest layer, accounting for just one percent of Earth’s mass. There are two kinds of crust: thin, dense oceanic crust and thick, less-dense continental crust .
In plate tectonics, Earth’s outermost layer, or lithosphere —made up of the crust and upper mantle—is broken into large rocky plates. These plates lie on top of a partially molten layer of rock called the asthenosphere .
Most volcanoes form at the boundaries of Earth’s tectonic plates. These plates are huge slabs of Earth’s crust and upper mantle, which fit together like pieces of a puzzle. These plates are not fixed, but are constantly moving at a very slow rate. They move only a few centimeters per year.
The lithosphere is the solid, outer part of Earth. The lithosphere includes the brittle upper portion of the mantle and the crust, the outermost layers of Earth’s structure. It is bounded by the atmosphere above and the asthenosphere (another part of the upper mantle) below.
Scientists describe Earth in terms of spheres. The solid surface layer of Earth is the lithosphere. The atmosphere is the layer of air that stretches above the lithosphere. The Earth’s water—on the surface, in the ground, and in the air—makes up the hydrosphere.
The outermost layer, called the crust, is solid, too. Together, these solid parts are called the lithosphere. Earth's crust is made up of hard rocks. It is the only part of the Earth that humans see. There are two types of lithosphere. One is on land. The other makes up the ocean floor. Moving, Sliding Plates. The lithosphere is divided into ...