Earth's mantle facts for kids
The mantle is a super thick layer inside Earth. It's like a giant shell, about 1,800 miles (2,900 km) deep! This amazing layer makes up about 84% of our planet's total size. The mantle sits right above Earth's hot, iron-rich core. The core takes up about 15% of Earth's volume. Think of the Earth like an onion, and the mantle is the biggest layer under the skin we live on.
Contents
Earth's Upper Mantle
The upper part of the mantle is very important. Over a long time, parts of the mantle have melted. This melting and volcano activity created the very thin crust we live on. Gases released from the melting mantle also helped form Earth's atmosphere. This is the air we breathe!
The Uppermost Mantle
The crust is like a thin skin around the mantle. It's about 5 to 75 km thick. The upper mantle has two main parts. The very top part of the mantle, along with the crust, is quite stiff. This stiff layer is called the lithosphere. It can be up to 200 km thick. The uppermost mantle itself is about 50 to 120 km of that.
The Asthenosphere
Below the lithosphere, the upper mantle changes. It becomes much softer and can flow slowly. This softer part is called the asthenosphere. It's made of rock that acts like a very thick, slow-moving liquid. The asthenosphere is about 200 km thick.
Earth's Lower Mantle
The lower mantle is much, much thicker than the upper mantle. It's made of super hot, melted rock called magma. But because of the huge pressure deep inside Earth, this magma is very thick and flows even slower. The temperature in the lower mantle can reach about 4,000 °C (7,000 °F)!
The mantle is mostly made of three elements. These are oxygen (about 44.8% by weight), magnesium (22.8%), and silicon (21.5%). These elements are mostly found as compounds. For example, there's a lot of silica (SiO2), which is about 46% of the mantle. There's also magnesium oxide (MgO), which makes up about 37.8%.
A Place Without Crust
In 2007, a group of scientists found something amazing. They were on a ship called the RRS James Cook. They discovered a spot in the Atlantic where the mantle has no crust covering it! This special place is in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. It's between the Cape Verde Islands and the Caribbean. It's also near the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. This area is about three kilometers under the ocean surface. It covers thousands of square kilometers.
Scientists later found other similar spots. They call these "Oceanic Core Complexes" (OCCs). Many of them even have active hydrothermal vents. These are like hot springs on the ocean floor.
Images for kids
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Minerals change form deep inside the mantle.
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This picture shows how the mantle moves. Red areas are hot, and blue areas are cold. Hot material from the core–mantle boundary rises up. Cold material from the surface sinks down.
See also
In Spanish: Manto terrestre para niños
