Name Class Date

CHAPTER 4 Plate Tectonics

1 Inside the Earth

SECTION

BEFORE YOU READ

After you read this section, you should be able to answer
these questions:
• What are the layers inside Earth?
• How do scientists study Earth’s interior?

What Is Earth Made Of?

Scientists divide the Earth into three layers based on STUDY TIP
composition: the crust, the mantle, and the core. These Summarize As you read,
divisions are based on the compounds that make up each make a chart showing the
layer. A compound is a substance composed of two or features of Earth’s layers. In-
clude both the compositional
more elements. The densest elements make up the core. layers and the physical layers.
Less-dense compounds make up the crust and mantle.

THE CRUST
The thinnest, outermost layer of the Earth is the crust.
There are two main kinds of crust: continental crust and
oceanic crust. Continental crust forms the continents. It
is thicker and less dense than oceanic crust. Continental
crust can be up to 100 km thick. Oceanic crust is found
beneath the oceans. It contains more iron than continen-
tal crust. Most oceanic crust is 5 km to 7 km thick. READING CHECK
1. Compare How is
oceanic crust different from
continental crust?
Oceanic
crust

100 km
30 km Continental
crust 5 km

Mantle Math Focus

2. Identify What fraction
of the thickness of the
Oceanic crust is thinner and denser than continental crust. thickest continental crust is
the thickness of the oceanic
crust? Give your answer as a
reduced fraction.

Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

Interactive Textbook 61 Plate Tectonics
Name Class Date

SECTION 1 Inside the Earth continued

THE MANTLE
The layer of the Earth between the crust and the core
is the mantle. The mantle is much thicker than the crust.
It contains most of the Earth’s mass. The mantle contains
more magnesium and less aluminum than the crust. This
READING CHECK makes the mantle denser than the crust.
3. Explain Why is the mantle No one has ever visited the mantle. The crust is too
denser than the crust? thick to drill through to reach the mantle. Therefore, sci-
entists must use observations of Earth’s surface to draw
conclusions about the mantle. In some places, mantle
rock pushes to the surface. This allows scientists to study
the rock directly.
Another place scientists look for clues about the
mantle is the ocean floor. Melted rock from the mantle
flows out from active volcanoes on the ocean floor. These
underwater volcanoes have given scientists many clues
READING CHECK about the composition of the mantle.
4. Identify How can
scientists learn about the THE CORE
mantle if they cannot study The layer beneath the mantle that extends to the cen-
it directly?
ter of the Earth is the core. Scientists think the core
is made mostly of iron and smaller amounts of nickel.
Scientists do not think that the core contains large
amounts of oxygen, silicon, aluminum, or magnesium.

������������������ �����������������������
�������������������� �����������������������
������������������ ���������������������

TAKE A LOOK
5. List What are the three
compositional layers of the
Earth?

�������������������
���������������������
���������������������

Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

Interactive Textbook 62 Plate Tectonics
 Name Class Date

SECTION 1 Inside the Earth continued

EARTH’S PHYSICAL STRUCTURE

Scientists also divide Earth into five layers based on
physical properties. The outer layer is the lithosphere. It
is a cool, stiff layer that includes all of the crust and a small
part of the upper mantle. The lithosphere is divided into
pieces. These pieces move slowly over Earth’s surface. READING CHECK
The asthenosphere is the layer beneath the litho- 6. Define What is the
sphere. It is a layer of hot, solid rock that flows very lithosphere?
slowly. Beneath the asthenosphere is the mesosphere,
which is the lower part of the mantle. The mesosphere
flows more slowly than the asthensosphere.
There are two physical layers in Earth’s core. The
outer layer is the outer core. It is made of liquid iron and
nickel. At the center of Earth is the inner core, which
is a ball of solid iron and nickel. The inner core is solid
because it is under very high pressure.

�����
�����������
�������� �����������������
����� Critical Thinking
�����
������������� 7. Infer What do you think
���������� ���������� is the reason that scientists
�������
����������� divide the Earth into two
���������� different sets of layers?
�������� ������

�������������

TAKE A LOOK
8. Describe What are the
What Are Tectonic Plates? five layers of Earth, based on
Pieces of the lithosphere that move around on top of physical properties?
the asthenosphere are called tectonic plates. Tectonic
plates can contain different kinds of lithosphere. Some
plates contain mostly oceanic lithosphere. Others contain
mostly continental lithosphere. Some contain both conti-
nental and oceanic lithosphere. The figure on the top of
the next page shows Earth’s tectonic plates.

�����������������
��������
�������
�������
Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.
Interactive Textbook 63 Plate Tectonics
Name Class Date

SECTION 1 Inside the Earth continued

��������������
��������������
�����
TAKE A LOOK
9. Identify Give the name ����������� ������
of one plate that contains �����
�������
mostly oceanic lithosphere ������������� �������������� �����
and of one plate that ����� �����
����������
contains mostly continental �����
�����
lithosphere.
���������
Oceanic: �����

Continental:

STRUCTURE OF A TECTONIC PLATE

The tectonic plates that make up the lithosphere are
like pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle. The figure below
shows what a single plate might look like it if were sepa-
rated from the other plates. Notice that the plate contains
both continental and oceanic crust. It also contains some
mantle material.

Andes mountain range

Oceanic
����������������� crust
����������
�������
������� Mid-ocean
ridge

Continental
crust

TAKE A LOOK
10. Compare Which type of Mantle
crust is thicker, oceanic crust
or continental crust? This figure shows what the South American plate might look like if it were lifted off
the asthenosphere. Notice that the plate is thickest where it contains continental
crust and thinnest where it contains oceanic crust.

Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

Interactive Textbook 64 Plate Tectonics
Name Class Date

SECTION 1 Inside the Earth continued

How Do Scientists Study Earth’s Interior?

How do scientists know things about the deepest
parts of the Earth? No one has ever been to these places.
Scientists have never even drilled through the crust, which
is only a thin layer on the surface of the Earth. So how do
we know so much about the mantle and the core?
Much of what scientists know about Earth’s layers
comes from studying earthquakes. Earthquakes create
vibrations called seismic waves. Seismic waves travel
at different speeds through the different layers of Earth.
Their speed depends on the density and composition of
the material that they pass through. Therefore, scientists
can learn about the layers inside the Earth by studying
seismic waves. READING CHECK
Scientists detect seismic waves using instruments 11. Define What are seismic
called seismometers. Seismometers measure the times waves?
at which seismic waves arrive at different distances from
an earthquake. Seismologists can use these distances
and travel times to calculate the density and thickness of
each physical layer of the Earth. The figure below shows
how seismic waves travel through the Earth.

�������������
����������
��������������
��������������������
���������������
���������������

TAKE A LOOK
���������������������������� 12. Explain What is one way
������������������������������� that scientists know the outer
��������
������������������������ core is liquid?
������������
������������������������
�����������������������������
�������������������������
�������������������������
������������������������������

Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

Interactive Textbook 65 Plate Tectonics
Name Class Date

Section 1 Review
SECTION VOCABULARY
asthenosphere the soft layer of the mantle on mantle the layer of rock between the Earth’s
which the tectonic plates move crust and core
core the central part of the Earth below the mesosphere the strong, lower part of the mantle
mantle between the asthenosphere and the outer core
crust the thin and solid outermost layer of the tectonic plates a block of lithosphere that
Earth above the mantle consists of the crust and the rigid, outermost
lithosphere the solid, outer layer of Earth that part of the mantle
consists of the crust and the rigid upper part
of the mantle

1. Describe Complete the table below.

Crust Mantle Core

Thickness or radius 3,430 km

Location outer layer of the

Earth
Percent of Earth’s
mass

2. Compare How is the inner core similar to the outer core? How are they different?

3. Compare How is the crust different from the lithosphere? How are they the same?

4. Identify Give three ways scientists can learn about the Earth’s mantle.

Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

Interactive Textbook 66 Plate Tectonics
 F Inside the Restless Earth Answer Key continued

SECTION 5 TIME MARCHES ON 7. Possible answer: Different scientists are

1. dinosaurs interested in different properties of the Earth.
2. by studying rocks and fossils 8. lithosphere, asthenosphere, mesosphere,
inner core, outer core
3. about 50 million years
9. Oceanic: Pacific
4. Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene,
Pliocene Continental: African
5. by changes in life on Earth 10. continental crust
6. Paleozoic 11. vibrations created by earthquakes
7. Paleozoic 12. Some kinds of seismic waves cannot travel
through it.
8. Birds and mammals did not evolve until
after the Paleozoic era. Review
9. Reptiles were the dominant land animals 1. Crust Mantle Core
during the era.
Thickness 5 km to 100 km 2,900 km 3,430 km
10. Being warm-blooded and having young or radius
develop inside the mothers’ bodies could
Location outer layer of middle inner layer
allow mammals to survive in a wider the Earth layer of the of the
temperature range than dinosaurs. If the Earth Earth
extinction was caused by climate change, Percent less than 1% 67% 33%
mammals would have been more likely to of Earth’s
survive. mass

Review 2. The inner core is solid, but the outer core is

liquid. Both are made of iron and nickel.
1. eon, era, period, and epoch
3. The lithosphere contains the crust and some
2. about 4.6 billion years
of the mantle.
3. Different kinds of rocks form in different
Both the crust and the lithosphere are the
environments. Different kinds of organisms outermost layers of Earth.
live in different environments. By studying
the rocks and fossils that formed long ago, 4. by studying mantle rocks that push to the
geologists can infer which environments surface, by studying rocks on the sea floor,
existed then. using seismic waves
4. Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian,
Mississippian, Pennsylvanian, Permian SECTION 2 RESTLESS CONTINENTS
5. by mass extinctions 1. They were once part of a single continent.
6. Possible answers: sudden events and gradual 2. Europe; they share similar-aged mountain
events; examples of sudden/gradual events rocks.
3. The same kinds of fossils are found on
widely separated continents.
Chapter 4 Plate Tectonics 4. about 200 million years ago
5. North America and Europe were connected;
SECTION 1 INSIDE THE EARTH India and Asia were separated.
1. The continental crust is thicker and contains 6. an underwater mountain chain
less iron than oceanic crust.
7. when Earth’s magnetic poles change places
2. about 1/20
8. They are mirror images of each other.
3. The rock in the mantle contains more mag-
nesium and less aluminum than the crust. Review
4. by studying rock that erupts from the mantle 1. The shapes of continental coastlines seem
5. crust, mantle, core to match. Similar fossils are found on widely
6. the upper, rigid layer of Earth made of the separated continents. Mountain chains of
crust and some of the mantle similar ages and compositions are found on
widely separated continents.

Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

Interactive Textbook Answer Key 39 Inside the Restless Earth