Layers of the Earth

and Atmosphere
Done by: Sarig, Alvina, and Garin
Earth Layers
 The Crust
• The crust is the outermost layer of the Earth.
• It is also the thinnest layer as it ranges from only 2 miles in
some areas of the ocean floor, and 75 miles deep under the
mountains.
• The crust is made up of large amounts of silicone and
aluminum.
• There are two types of
crust: oceanic crust
and continental crust.

• The crust is composed

of plates on which the
oceans and continents rest.
 The Mantle
• The mantle makes up 70% of the Earth’s mass, and
therefore is the thickest layer of Earth.
• It is solid, but can flow.
• The hot material (magma) in the mantle rises to the
top of the mantle, cools, then sinks, reheats, and rises
again. These convection currents cause changes in the
Earth’s surface.
• The temperature if the
mantle ranges from 600
degrees Celsius to 1200
degrees Celsius.
 The Outer Core
• The core is made up of 2 parts: the outer and inner core.
• The outer core is also known as the liquid core because it is
composed of molten metals that are about 4,7000 degrees
Celsius.
• It is located about 1,800
miles beneath the crust and
is about 1,400 miles thick.

• The temperature of the

outer core is 4000 degrees
Celsius.
 The Inner Core
• The inner core is a solid sphere composed mostly of iron.
• It is believed to be as hot as 6,650°C.

• Heat in the core is

probably generated by
the radioactive decay of
uranium and other elements.

• It is solid because of the

pressure from the outer core,
mantle, and crust compressing
it tremendously.
Atmosphere
Layers
 Layers Of The Atmosphere
• The atmosphere is made of layers based on temperature. These
layers are the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere and
thermosphere. A further layer at about 500 km above the Earth's
surface is called the exosphere.

• As an example, larger planes

Will sometimes fly in the
upper portion of the Troposphere,
called the Tropopause,
or even into the lower area
of the next layer, called the
Stratosphere.
 The Troposphere
• This is the lowest part of the atmosphere - the part we live in.
It contains most of our weather - clouds, rain, snow. In this
part of the atmosphere the temperature gets colder as the
distance above the earth increases. The troposphere contains
about 75% of all of the air in the atmosphere, and almost all
of the water vapor (which forms clouds and rain).
• The lowest part of the troposphere is called
the boundary layer. This is where the air
motion is determined.
• The top of the troposphere is called
the tropopause. This is where it is
about 7 to 10 km
above the Earth's surface.
 The Ozone Layer
• The ozone layer is one layer of the stratosphere, the
second layer of the Earth's atmosphere. Ozone is only a
line of gas in the atmosphere, only about 3 molecules for
every 10 million molecules of air. But it does a very
important job. Like a sponge, the ozone layer absorbs bits
of radiation hitting Earth from the sun.
• The Ozone layer is in a layer that
begins between 10 and 17 kilometers
above the Earth's surface and extends up
to about 50 kilometers. This region of the
atmosphere is called the stratosphere.
 The Stratosphere
• This layer of the atmosphere goes upwards from the
tropopause to about 50 km. The increase in temperature
with height occurs because of absorption of ultraviolet
(UV) radiation from the sun. Temperatures in the
stratosphere are highest over the summer, and lowest
over the winter.

• By absorbing dangerous UV radiation,

the ozone layer in the stratosphere protects
us from skin cancer and other health damage.
 The Mesosphere
• The middle layer. The mesosphere lies between the
thermosphere and the stratosphere. “Meso” means
middle, and this is the highest layer of the
atmosphere in which the gases are all mixed up
rather than being layered by their mass. The
mesosphere is 35 kilometers thick. The Mesosphere
extends from about 50 to 85 km above our planet.

• Random Fact: When a meteor is

falling towards the Earth’s surface,
It begins to burn up in the Mesosphere.
 Thermosphere
• The thermosphere lies between the exosphere and
the mesosphere. “Thermo” means heat, and the temperature
in this layer can reach up to 4,500 degrees Fahrenheit
(2482.2 Degrees Celsius). If you were to hang out in the
thermosphere, though, you would be very cold because there
aren’t enough gas molecules to transfer the heat to you. This
also means there aren’t enough molecules for sound waves
to travel through.

• This layer of Earth’s atmosphere

is about 513 kilometers thick.

• This is also where you’ll

find low Earth orbit satellites.
 The Ionosphere
• An interesting layer called the ionosphere overlaps
the Mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere. It’s a very
active part of the atmosphere, and it grows and shrinks
depending on the energy it absorbs from the sun.

• In the ionosphere, charged particles are affected by the

magnetic fields of both Earth and the sun. This is
where auroras happen. Those are the bright, beautiful
lights that you sometimes see near Earth’s poles. They’re
caused by high-energy particles from the sun interacting
with the atoms in this layer of our atmosphere.
The Ionosphere - Auroras
 The Exosphere
• The exosphere is the very edge of our atmosphere. This layer
separates the rest of the atmosphere from outer space. It’s about
10,000 kilometers thick. That’s almost as wide as Earth itself.
The exosphere is really big.
• The exosphere has gases
like hydrogen and helium,
but they are very spread out.
There is a lot of empty space
in between. There is no air
to breathe, and it’s very cold.
• The Exosphere is basically
a boundary between Earth
and outer space, it is about
halfway to the moon.