Name ___________________________
Date: ___________________
Course: Life Science/Ms. Lopez
9a
Homeroom:
Aims: SWBAT analyze the layers of the Earth during its formation.
SWBAT identify the Earth’s crust as its lithosphere.
Do Now:
Do Now: Read the passage below and answer the questions that follow.
The Apache Indians
They believed that in the beginning there was nothing. Suddenly,
there was a thin disk with a man inside. After awaking from his nap
he looked up and light appeared, looking down he created a sea of
light, to the east he created the streaks of dawn and to the west the
colorful streaks of dusk. After creating all the light, he wiped his
hands together and then thrust them in a downward motion. A girl
on a cloud appeared. He asked her where she was going and she
did not answer. She asked him where he was from and he said
from the east. She asked where the earth was and he asked where
the sky was. He had created workers to help with the building of
Earth. Once he saw that his work was done, he disappeared
leaving the workers to create the world’s population.
What happened to the man who created workers to help with the building of Earth?
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Why or why not is this passage an example of a scientific theory?
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1
Mini Lesson: Layers of the Earth
VOCABULARY
DEFINITION
EXAMPLE
The Grand Canyon
____________________________
The solid part of the Earth,
you
or any planet, consisting of
think of any
the crust. Any rocky area
planets from
my video that on Earth.
would have a
lithosphere?”
“Can
Layers of the Earth
Which layer is the thickest?
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Which layer is the thinnest?
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2
Layers of the Earth!
Chorus
Throw your hands up for the layers of the earth
Throw ‘em up for what's below the surface
Throw your hands up, and let's discuss
The inner core, outer core, mantle, and crust
Verse I
The layer we’ll discuss first
Is the central ___________ core, in the center of the earth
A solid ball buried below the dirt
We believe it’s primarily metallic __________
You could never take a trip to the inner core, right?
The heat will burn you up, ____________ Fahrenheit
4,000 miles below the Earth’s crust
One down three to go y’all.
1,800 miles from the tip top
The ____________ core is hard at work and it don’t stop.
It’s busy spinning around the ___________ core, and listen,
This steady movement causes Earth’s magnetism.
Ranging from 4 to 9,000 degrees,
It contributes 1/5 of the heat flowin’ to you and me.
It’s ________________ metals that violently flow
So let it settle… and when you’re ready let me know. Just…
Chorus
Verse II
The ______________ layer is the largest of the class.
About half of our planet’s mass.
The mantel is composed of very hot dense rocks,
That move and flow, always on the go, they never lock,
Never stop, and they’re responsible for tectonic shift
Please believe the Earth’s plates are adrift
It’s pretty thick and the heat is awesome
1,600 at the top, 4,000 at the bottom
The continental crust’s surface is where we breathe
A lot of rock up to 25 miles deep.
The oceanic crust is next door
It’s 3-5 miles thick just below the ocean floor.
Earth's surface: 70% H20.
Where do you get all that water? Salty sea flow,
fresh water’s in the glaciers, ice caps, and snow.
Chorus
3
We Do
The Four Layers
The Earth is composed of four different layers. Many geologists believe that as the Earth
cooled the heavier, denser materials sank to the center and the lighter materials rose to the
top. Because of this, the crust is made of the lightest materials (rock- basalts and granites)
and the core consists of heavy metals (nickel and iron).
The crust is the layer that you live on, and it is the most widely studied and understood. The
mantle is much hotter and has the ability to flow. The Outer and Inner Cores are hotter still
with pressures so great that you would be squeezed into a ball smaller than a marble if you
were able to go to the center of the Earth!
Which of the four layers would be considered the lithosphere?
Why? __________________________________________________________________________________
Layer
Use the picture above to complete the Data Table:
Thickness
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Texture
The Crust
The Earth's Crust is like the skin of an apple. It is very thin in comparison to the other three
layers. The crust is only about 3-5 miles (8 kilometers) thick under the oceans (oceanic crust)
and about 25 miles (32 kilometers) thick under the continents (continental crust). The
temperatures of the crust vary from air temperature on top to about 1600 degrees
Fahrenheit (870 degrees Celsius) in the deepest parts of the crust. You can bake a loaf of
bread in your oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit , at 1600 degrees F. rocks begin to melt.
The crust of the Earth is broken into many pieces called plates. The plates "float" on the soft
part of the mantle which is made up of molten rock that is pushed upward towards the
crust. These plates usually move along smoothly but sometimes they stick and build up
pressure. The pressure builds and the rock bends until it snaps. When this occurs an
Earthquake is the result! Notice how thin the crust of the Earth is in comparison to the other
layers. The seven continents and ocean plates basically float across the mantle which is
composed of much hotter and heavier material.
Three things you just learned about the crust:
The most dense, heaviest, materials sunk to the
middle of the Earth. The core is composed of solid
iron, which is magnetic and creates the
gravitational pull that keeps us from floating like
we would in space! This is why the moon orbits
around the Earth.
5
The Mantle
SANTA BARABARA
The mantle is the layer located directly under the
WE ARE HERE
Crust. It is the largest layer of the Earth, 1800 miles
thick! That’s the same distance from Chicago,
Illinois to Santa Barbara, California. The mantle is
composed of very hot, dense rock. This layer of
rock even flows like pudding. This flow is due to
great temperature differences from the bottom
to the top of the mantle. The movement of the
CHICAGO
mantle is the reason that the plates of the Earth move! The temperature of the mantle varies
from 1600 degrees Fahrenheit at the top to about 4000 degrees Fahrenheit near the bottom!
Three things you just learned about the Mantle:
1 similarity between the crust and the mantle:
1 difference between the crust and the mantle:
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Outer Core
Independent Practice
The core of the Earth is like a ball of very hot metals. (4000 degrees F. to 9000 degrees F.) The
outer core is so hot that the metals in it are all in the liquid state. The outer core is about 1400
miles thick. The outer core is composed of the melted metals nickel and iron.
Three things you just learned about the Outer Core:
Inner Core
The inner core of the Earth has temperatures and pressures so great that the metals are
squeezed together and are not able to move about like a liquid, but are forced to vibrate in
place as a solid. The inner core begins about 4000 miles beneath the crust and is about 800
miles thick. The temperatures may reach 9000 degrees F. and the pressures are 45,000,000
pounds per square inch. This is 3,000,000 times the air pressure on you at sea level.
Three things you just learned about the Inner Core:
1 similarity between the inner core and the outer core:
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Name ___________________________
Date: ___________________
Course: Life Science/Ms. Lopez
9b
Homeroom:
Homework #9 – Due Tomorrow
Ms. Lopez 646-­‐477-­‐2658 ** [email protected] ** https://dph6science.wikispaces.com/ Active Earth
National Geographic Kids
And what a long, long story it is. Earth is over
4.5 billion years old! When Earth first formed,
it didn't have different layers. It didn't have
oceans or mountains, either. In fact, you might
not have recognized our cool, blue planet. It
was just a big, sizzling blob of melted rock.
Slowly, Earth cooled. As it cooled, the heaviest
materials, such as iron, sank down. Lighter
materials, such as the mineral silica, rose to
the surface. Over hundreds of millions of
years, the materials settled into three layers.
How did the layers of the Earth form?
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No one has drilled to Earth's deepest layers yet. Even so, geologists have an idea of
what those layers are like from studying seismic waves. Those are waves of energy
caused by earthquakes. As they travel through Earth, the waves move quickly through
some layers and more slowly through others. Geologists know some layers are made of
liquid metal, such as iron. They know others are solid rock.
Humans have been unable to travel to the center of the Earth, we still do not have the
technology. Explain one tool geologist use to study the inner layers of the Earth.
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___________________________________________________________________
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8
TURN PAGE 
Core to Crust
To picture Earth's layers, think of a
hard-boiled egg. Picture the yolk,
the egg white, and the eggshell.
Earth's "yolk" is called the core. It's
thousands of miles below your
feet—and it's hotter than hot!
Temperatures in the core can reach
over 6,650°C (12,000°F). The core
is made of metals—mostly iron and
nickel.
Based on the temperature of the center of the Earth, why is it so hard to develop
technology to travel to it?
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Above the core, like an egg white, is Earth's thick mantle. The mantle is
made of partially melted rock. Finally, above the mantle is Earth's cool
crust—the eggshell. The crust is our home sweet home. All you can see is
part of it—canyons, fields, even oceans. The crust varies in thickness from
5 to 100 kilometers (3 to 62 miles). That may sound thick, but compared
to Earth's other layers, the crust is thinner than that eggshell.
Name the layer that is normally divided into two layers nowadays.
___________________________________________________________________
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Explain in your own words how the Earth’s layers is similar to an egg.
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Name ___________________________
Date: ___________________
Course: Life Science/Ms. Lopez
9c
Homeroom:
Exit Slip #9 – Earth Layers
Directions: Label the following layers in the diagram below. Outer core, Crust, Inner Core, Mantle
5. Which layer of the Earth do humans interact with everyday?
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Directions: Fill in the Blank
6. Any solid part of the Earth, or any planet, consisting of the crust is
considered the __________________________________.
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