THE DIFFERENTIATION OF

THE EARTH BY GRAVITY

SORTING AND THE EARTH
COMPONENTS
Table of Contents

●Differentiation of the Earth

●Components of the Earth

This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND.

Differentiation of the Earth
• The Earth formed by the process known as Accretion. This process is
"gravity-driven", and involves gravitational attraction of material.
• Release of energy during impact of the accreting bodies produced heat.
• Differentiation is the first stage of planetary formation.
• It is the conversion of gravitational potential energy to heat during core
formation.
• Differentiation is perhaps the most significant event in the history of the
Earth.
• It led to the formation of the core and the mantle and a crust with
continents.
• Differentiation initiated the escape of gases from the moving interior,
which eventually led to the formation of the atmosphere and oceans.
Differentiation Cont'd
• Differentiaton led to the formation of a molten iron core was the
first stage of planetary formation, in which the Earth was converted
from a homogenous body, with roughly the same kind of material at
all depths, to a layered body, with a dense iron core, a crust
composed of lighter materials with relatively lower melting points,
and between them the mantle.
• The iron melting led to the onset of a mechanism that sped up the
differentiation process.
• This mechanism is convective overturn -- a process whereby
molten material may overturn, transfering heat buried deeply within
the planet to the outer layers. The hotter material expands, becomes
lighter than the material above it, and floats upward, carrying its
heat to the surface, where the hot matter cools and sinks again.
Differentiation Cont'd
• Convective overturn probably was the mechanism that produced
the thin crust, and ultimately determined the different chemical
composition of the crust.
• The very hot young Earth would also have been very active
tectonically (that is with lots of volcanic activity), leading to
outgassing of volatile gases from within the planet that formed
the early atmosphere.
• Water vapor was a dominant emission during the outgassing of
volcanoes which became the source of present day oceans.
• Over geologic time and particularly during the active early
phase, vast quantities of water and carbon dioxide have been
vented into the air - quite sufficient to form the oceans.
Components of the Earth
The Earth is made up of the following
components;
• Atmosphere
• Crust
• Hydrosphere
• Core
• Asthenosphere
Atmosphere
•One of the main components of Earth’s interdependent physical system
•An atmosphere is made of the layers of gases surrounding a planet or other celestial
body.
•Earth’s atmosphere is composed of about 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and one percent
other gases.
•These gases are found in atmospheric layers defined by unique features such as
temperature and pressure and these layers include:
• The Troposphere, Stratosphere and Ionosphere are 20km, 40km, 60km respectively
from the from earth surface
•The atmosphere protects life on earth by shielding it from incoming ultraviolet (UV)
radiation, keeping the planet warm through insulation, and preventing extremes between
day and night temperatures.
•The sun heats layers of the atmosphere causing it to convect driving air movement and
weather patterns around the world.
Hydrosphere
• The Hydrosphere is associated with water in the liquid state, which covers about 70% of
the Earth's surface.
• Most liquid water is found in the oceans, the others are found as freshwater, found in rivers,
lakes, and groundwater
• Additionally, frozen water in the forms of snow, sea ice, icebergs, ice sheets, and glaciers
are identified as part of a separate sphere of the Earth System, the Cryosphere.
• Water in a gas state (water vapor) is probably best considered as a feature of the
Atmosphere.
• Water is necessary for sustaining life on Earth and helps connect the Earth's systems.
Precipitation, evaporation, freezing and melting and condensation are all part of
the hydrological cycle (AKA water cycle)- a never-ending global process of water
circulation from clouds to land, to the ocean, and back to the clouds.
• This cycling of water is intimately linked with energy exchanges among the Atmosphere,
Cryosphere, Hydrosphere, and Geosphere. These connections help define the Earth's
climate and cause much of natural climate variability.
Crust
● The crust is the outermost layer of the earth and part of it's lithosphere.
● Planetary crusts are generally composed of a less dense material than that
of its deeper layers.
● It is cooler and more rigid than the deeper layers like the mantle and core.
● The crust can be divided into two;
● Continental crust
● Oceanic crust
● The continental crust has a SIAL composition and is 20-70km deep.
● The oceanic crust has a SIMA composition , is 5-10km thick and is
composed primarily of a dark dense rock called Basalt.
Asthenosphere
• Asthenosphere is the zone of Earth’s mantle lying beneath
the lithosphere and believed to be much hotter and more
fluid than the lithosphere.
• The asthenosphere extends from about 100 km (60 miles) to
about 700 km (450 miles) below Earth’s surface.
• It is mechanically weak.
• The asthenosphere is almost solid, but a slight
amount of melting contributes to its mechanical
weakness.
• It is composed of peridotite, a rock containing mostly
the minerals olivine and pyroxene.
Core
• The core extends from near 2900 km depth to the center, taking up more than half of the
Earth's radius.
• It occupies roughly one-sixth of the Earth's volume and accounts for nearly one-third of
its mass.
• Earth's core is the deepest, hottest layer, and it's made up of two layers itself: the
outer core which borders the mantle and the inaner core, which is a ball-shaped layer
made almost entirely of metal.
• The outer core is about 1,400 miles thick, and it's made mostly of a combination (called
an alloy) of iron and nickel, along with small amounts of other dense elements like gold,
platinum, and uranium.
• The inner core, which is about 750 miles thick, is made primarily of iron. Unlike the
outer core, the inner core is mostly solid.