• Question: what is the earth made out of

    Asked by gscientist to Paul on 27 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Paul Waines

      Paul Waines answered on 27 Jun 2013:

      hi gscientist- wow, what a question. How long do I have?

      working from the outside in, the earth has 3 parts- the crust, the mantle and the core.

      The crust is really huge plates which are always moving. They are mainly iron, but there’s also oxygen, silicon, magnesium and lots of other ‘trace’ (small amounts) elements…

      The mantle is really thick and gets warmer as you go down. The rocks in it are always moving up and down because of this heat, and this is why the crust moves around.

      The core is really hot- about 4000 degrees C! The weirdest thing about it is that it is made of solid iron, with an outer liquid part which spins in the opposite direction to the earth. This is why the earth has a magnetic field!

      There’s a lot more to it than that but I dont have room here- any more questions?

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