images

Earth cutaway

by

Illustration Grégoire Cirade/Novapix

Reference

t-glb99-01002

Date

2009-07-18

Art cutaway of Earth showing interior structure. The surface is a crust, a thin layer of solid rock about 7 km thick under the oceans and 30 to 40 km thick where there are continents.
Below is the mantle, a 2900 km thick layer of molten rock.
The outer core consists of liquid metal, mostly iron and nickel.
The inner core has a similar composition but is solid.