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Continental crust is a tertiary crust, formed at subduction zones through recycling of subducted secondary (oceanic) crust. [18] The average age of Earth's current continental crust has been estimated to be about 2.0 billion years. [21] Most crustal rocks formed before 2.5 billion years ago are located in cratons.
The internal structure of Earth. In geology, the crust is the outermost solid shell of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite.It is usually distinguished from the underlying mantle by its chemical makeup; however, in the case of icy satellites, it may be distinguished based on its phase (solid crust vs. liquid mantle).
Earth's crust and mantle, Mohorovičić discontinuity between bottom of crust and solid uppermost mantle. Earth's mantle extends to a depth of 2,890 km (1,800 mi), making it the planet's thickest layer. [20] [This is 45% of the 6,371 km (3,959 mi) radius, and 83.7% of the volume - 0.6% of the volume is the crust].
The remaining 29.2% of Earth's crust is land, most of which is located in the form of continental landmasses within Earth's land hemisphere. Most of Earth's land is at least somewhat humid and covered by vegetation , while large sheets of ice at Earth's polar deserts retain more water than Earth's groundwater , lakes, rivers and atmospheric ...
The Earth's crust is one "reservoir" for measurements of abundance. A reservoir is any large body to be studied as unit, like the ocean, atmosphere, mantle or crust. Different reservoirs may have different relative amounts of each element due to different chemical or mechanical processes involved in the creation of the reservoir. [1]: 18
The tectonic plates of the lithosphere on Earth Earth cutaway from center to surface, the lithosphere comprising the crust and lithospheric mantle (detail not to scale). A lithosphere (from Ancient Greek λίθος (líthos) 'rocky' and σφαίρα (sphaíra) 'sphere') is the rigid, [1] outermost rocky shell of a terrestrial planet or natural satellite.
The researchers note that studying Titan’s methane crust, and how it impacts its hydrological cycle, could help scientists understand how methane can impact Earth’s climate back home ...
Tertiary crust is the most differentiated type of crust and so has a composition vastly different to that of the bulk Earth. [16] The tertiary crust contains over 20% of the abundance of incompatible elements, which are elements with a size or charge that prevent them from being included in mineral structure. [16]