What are the five main physical layers of the structure of the earth?

Answer 1

Starting on the surface: crust, upper mantle, lower mantle, outer core, inner core.

1. The Crust--The outer skin of the planet is composed of igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rock.

2. The Upper Mantle--Lithosphere: The uppermost mantle consists of hard rock and is attached to the crust and comprises the lithosphere. The lithosphere is comprised of tectonic plates which 'float' independently of each other. The lithosphere contains more mantle than crust. Oceanic lithosphere ranges from 50 km to 100 km in thickness, and continental lithosphere ranges from 40 km to 200 km. Asthenosphere: Just below the lithosphere lies the asthenosphere, an area of highly viscous but solid rock. Its viscosity allow it to move slowly over time, which it does as it transfers heat to the lithosphere via convection currents. These convection currents are responsible for the movement of Earth's tectonic plates. The depth of the asthenosphere averages somewhere between 100 km and 200km with depths up to 410 km.

3. The Lower Mantle--The depth of the lower mantle ranges from 670 km to 2798 km. Little is known about the lower mantle other than that seismic waves indicate it is fairly homogenous in lithology.

4. The Outer Core--The outer core lies at a depth from 2900 km to 5150 km. It's composed of liquid iron and nickel along with small amounts of lighter elements, with temperatures ranging from 4,000 degrees C to 6,100 degrees C near the boundary with the inner core.

5. The Inner Core--From the boundary with the outer core to the center of the Earth, a distance of about 1220 km is the solid sphere of the inner core, a ball of incredibly hot iron-nickel alloy. Temperatures here reach between 5,000 and 7,000 degrees C, and pressures are calculated to be around 3,000,000 units of atmospheric pressure. Despite the high temperature, at these pressures the metals cannot remain molten.

Answer 2

the lithosphere, the asthenosphere, the mesosphere, the oceanic crust and the continental crust.

Answer 3

The five physical layers are the lithoshere asthenoshere mantle inercore and outercore

Answer 4

outer core, inner core, lithosphere, asthenosphere, and mesosphere.

Answer 5

The five layers of the earth are the crust, upper mantle, lower mantle and the outer and inner core.