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Is the mantle of the earth iron?

Updated: 4/28/2022
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โˆ™ 12y ago

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The earth's mantle is composed in part of minerals that contain iron:

The Earth's mantle is composed of rocks that have higher concentrations of mafic minerals (containing iron and magnesium) and lower in concentrations of the felsic minerals (aluminum and silica) than the rocks of Earth's crust.

The concentrations of the above elements therefore mean that the Earth's mantle is composed of a series of minerals that are predominately calcium / iron / magnesium aluminum silicates.

Such as:

  • Olivine - (Mg,Fe)2SiO4
  • Pyroxene - X(Si,Al)2O6, where X represents either calcium, sodium, iron or magnesium
  • Spinel - MgAl2O4
  • Garnet - X3Y2(SiO4)3 where X and Y can be a mixture of aluminum, iron, calcium, manganese or magnesium.

However the layers of the earth that are predominantly iron (approx 85 %) are the inner and outer core.

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โˆ™ 12y ago
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