(14 minute video about the layers of the Earth)
After watching the video:
Draw a diagram or illustration of the Earth’s core showing the three main layers.
Use different colours to show the temperature of the different layers.
Structure of the Earth Interactive. Check your knowledge of the Earth's layers.
•Earth has four layers: the crust, the mantle, the outer core and the inner core.
•The crust is the layer upon which we live. It is made up of rock. The crust is about 70 km thick on land (the continental crust) and about 5 km thick under the ocean floor (the oceanic crust).
•The mantle is the layer underneath the crust. It is made up of solid and liquid rock. The mantle is much thicker than the crust. It is around 3000 km deep.
•The outer core is the layer underneath the mantle. The outer core is made up of liquid (melted) iron and nickel. It is around 2000 km thick.
•The inner core is at the very centre of the planet. It is also made up of iron and nickel. However, due to the intense pressure surrounding it, the metals exist in a solid state. The inner core is around 1200 km thick.
THE EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE
The earth is surrounded by a layer of gases called the atmosphere. The atmosphere is very important to life on Earth and does many things to help protect life and help life to survive.
The atmosphere protects Earth like a big blanket of insulation. It absorbs the heat from the Sun and keeps the heat inside the atmosphere helping the Earth to stay warm, called the Greenhouse Effect. It also keeps the overall temperature of the Earth fairly steady, especially between night and day. So we don't get too cold at night and too hot during the day. There is also a portion of the atmosphere called the ozone layer. The ozone layer helps to protect the earth from the Sun's radiation.
This big blanket also helps to form our weather patterns and climate. The weather keeps too much hot air from forming in one place and causes storms and rainfall. All of these things are important to life and the Earth's ecology.
