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Even taking into account the flattening of the Earth at the poles (about 0.33% for the whole Earth, 0.25% for the inner core) and crust and upper mantle heterogeneities, this difference implied that P waves (of a broad range of wavelengths) travel through the inner core about 1% faster in the north–south direction than along directions ...
Earth cutaway from core to exosphere Geothermal drill machine in Wisconsin, USA. Temperature within Earth increases with depth. Highly viscous or partially molten rock at temperatures between 650 and 1,200 °C (1,200 and 2,200 °F) are found at the margins of tectonic plates, increasing the geothermal gradient in the vicinity, but only the outer core is postulated to exist in a molten or fluid ...
The transition between the inner core and outer core is located approximately 5,150 km (3,200 mi) beneath Earth's surface. Earth's inner core is the innermost geologic layer of the planet Earth . It is primarily a solid ball with a radius of about 1,220 km (760 mi), which is about 19% of Earth's radius [0.7% of volume] or 70% of the Moon 's radius.
The solid, high-density composition of the inner core, predominantly iron and nickel, results in increased seismic velocity compared to the liquid outer core. [44] While light elements also present in the inner core modulate this velocity, their impact is relatively contained. [45]
The lithosphere–asthenosphere boundary (referred to as the LAB by geophysicists) represents a mechanical difference between layers in Earth's inner structure. Earth's inner structure can be described both chemically (crust, mantle, and core) and mechanically.
Earth's density varies considerably, between less than 2700 kg/m 3 in the upper crust to as much as 13 000 kg/m 3 in the inner core. [13] The Earth's core accounts for 15% of Earth's volume but more than 30% of the mass, the mantle for 84% of the volume and close to 70% of the mass, while the crust accounts for less than 1% of the mass. [13]
The Earth core's heat flow—heat leaving the core and flowing into the overlying mantle—is thought to be due to primordial heat, and is estimated at 5–15 TW. [23] Estimates of mantle primordial heat loss range between 7 and 15 TW, which is calculated as the remainder of heat after removal of core heat flow and bulk-Earth radiogenic heat ...
Plates in the crust of Earth. Earth's crust is its thick outer shell of rock, referring to less than one percent of the planet's radius and volume.It is the top component of the lithosphere, a solidified division of Earth's layers that includes the crust and the upper part of the mantle. [1]