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Crust (geology)
In geology, the crust is the outermost solid shell of a
rocky planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. It is
usually distinguished from the underlying mantle by
its chemical makeup; however, in the case of icy
satellites, it may be distinguished based on its phase
(solid crust vs. liquid mantle).

The crusts of Earth, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars,

Io, and other planetary bodies formed via igneous
processes, and were later modified by erosion,
impact cratering, volcanism, and sedimentation.

The internal structure of Earth

Most terrestrial planets have fairly uniform crusts.
Earth, however, has two distinct types: continental
crust and oceanic crust. These two types have
different chemical compositions and physical properties, and were formed by different geological processes.

Contents
Types of crust
Primary crust / primordial crust
Secondary crust
Tertiary crust
Earth's crust
Structure
Composition
Formation and evolution
Moon's crust
See also
References
External links

Types of crust
Planetary geologists divide crust into three categories, based on how and when they formed.[1]

Primary crust / primordial crust

This is a planet's "original" crust. It forms from solidification of a magma ocean. Toward the end of planetary
accretion, the terrestrial planets likely had surfaces that were magma oceans. As these cooled, they solidified into
crust.[2] This crust was likely destroyed by large impacts and re-formed many times as the Era of Heavy Bombardment
drew to a close.[3]

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The nature of primary crust is still debated: its chemical, mineralogic, and physical properties are unknown, as are the
igneous mechanisms that formed them. This is because it is difficult to study: none of Earth's primary crust has
survived to today.[4] Earth's high rates of erosion and crustal recycling from plate tectonics has destroyed all rocks
older than about 4 billion years, including whatever primary crust Earth once had.

However, geologists can glean information about primary crust by studying it on other terrestrial planets. Mercury's
highlands might represent primary crust, though this is debated.[5] The anorthosite highlands of the Moon are
primary crust, formed as plagioclase crystallized out of the Moon's initial magma ocean and floated to the top;[6]
however, it is unlikely that Earth followed a similar pattern, as the Moon was a water-less system and Earth had
water.[7] The Martian meteorite ALH84001 might represent primary crust of Mars; however, again, this is debated.[5]
Like Earth, Venus lacks primary crust, as the entire planet has been repeatedly resurfaced and modified.[8]

Secondary crust
Secondary crust is formed by partial melting of silicate materials in the mantle, and so is usually basaltic in
composition.[1]

This is the most common type of crust in the Solar System. Most of the surfaces of Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars
comprise secondary crust, as do the lunar maria. On Earth, we see secondary crust forming primarily at mid-ocean
spreading centers, where the adiabatic rise of mantle causes partial melting.

Tertiary crust
Tertiary crust is more chemically-modified than either primary or secondary. It can form in several ways:

Igneous processes: partial-melting of secondary crust, coupled with differentiation or dehydration[5]

Erosion and sedimentation: sediments derived from primary, secondary, or tertiary crust
The only known example of tertiary crust is the continental crust of the Earth. It is unknown whether other terrestrial
planets can be said to have tertiary crust, though the evidence so far suggests that they do not. This is likely because
plate tectonics is needed to create tertiary crust, and Earth is the only planet in our Solar System with plate tectonics.

Earth's crust

Structure
The crust is a thin shell on the outside of the Earth,
accounting for less than 1% of Earth's volume. It is
the top component of lithosphere: a division of
Earth's layers that includes the crust and the upper
part of the mantle.[9] The lithosphere is broken into
tectonic plates that move, allowing heat to escape
from the interior of the Earth into space.

The crust lies on top of the mantle, a configuration

that is stable because the upper mantle is made of
peridotite and so is significantly denser than the
crust. The boundary between the crust and mantle is
conventionally placed at the Mohorovičić Plates in the crust of Earth
discontinuity, a boundary defined by a contrast in
seismic velocity.

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The crust of the Earth is of two distinctive

types:

1. Oceanic: 5 km (3 mi) to 10 km (6 mi)

thick[10] and composed primarily of
denser, more mafic rocks, such as
basalt, diabase, and gabbro.
2. Continental: 30 km (20 mi) to 50 km
(30 mi) thick and mostly composed of
less dense, more felsic rocks, such as
granite.
Because both continental and oceanic crust
are less dense than the mantle below, both
types of crust "float" on the mantle. This is Geologic provinces of the world (USGS)
Shield Oceanic crust:
isostasy, and it's also one of the reasons
Platform 0–20 Ma
continental crust is higher than oceanic:
continental is less dense and so "floats" Orogen 20–65 Ma

higher. As a result, water pools in above the Basin >65 Ma

oceanic crust, forming the oceans. Large igneous province

The temperature of the crust increases with Extended crust

depth,[11] reaching values typically in the
range from about 200 °C (392 °F) to 400 °C
(752 °F) at the boundary with the underlying mantle. The temperature increases by as much as 30 °C (54 °F) for every
kilometer locally in the upper part of the crust, but the geothermal gradient is smaller in deeper crust.[12]

Composition
The continental crust has an average composition similar to that of andesite.[13] The most abundant minerals in
Earth's continental crust are feldspars, which make up about 41% of the crust by weight, followed by quartz at 12%,
and pyroxenes at 11%.[14] Continental crust is enriched in incompatible elements compared to the basaltic ocean crust
and much enriched compared to the underlying mantle. Although the continental crust comprises only about 0.6
weight percent of the silicate on Earth, it contains 20% to 70% of the incompatible elements.

Most Oxide Percent

Abundant
Approximate %
Elements SiO2 60.6
by weight
of Earth's
Crust Al2O3 15.9
O 46.6
CaO 6.4
Si 27.7
MgO 4.7
Al 8.1
Na2O 3.1
Fe 5.0
Fe as FeO 6.7
Ca 3.6
K2O 1.8
Na 2.8

K 2.6 TiO2 0.7

Mg 1.5 P2O5 0.1

All the other constituents except water occur only in very small quantities and total less than 1%. Estimates of average
density for the upper crust range between 2.69 and 2.74 g/cm3 and for lower crust between 3.0 and 3.25 g/cm3.[15]
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Formation and
evolution
Earth formed
approximately 4.6 billion
years ago from a disk of
dust and gas orbiting the
newly formed Sun. It
formed via accretion,
where planetesimals and
other smaller rocky bodies
collided and stuck,
gradually growing into a
planet. This process
generated an enormous
amount of heat, which
caused early Earth to melt
completely. As planetary
accretion slowed, Earth
began to cool, forming its
Abundance (atom fraction) of the chemical elements in Earth's upper continental
first crust, called a primary crust as a function of atomic number. The rarest elements in the crust (shown in
or primordial crust.[16] yellow) are not the heaviest, but are rather the siderophile (iron-loving) elements in
This crust was likely the Goldschmidt classification of elements. These have been depleted by being
repeatedly destroyed by relocated deeper into Earth's core. Their abundance in meteoroid materials is
large impacts, then higher. Additionally, tellurium and selenium have been depleted from the crust due
to formation of volatile hydrides.
reformed from the magma
ocean left by the impact.
None of Earth's primary crust has survived to today; all was destroyed by erosion, impacts, and plate tectonics over the
past several billion years.

Since then, Earth has been forming secondary and tertiary crust. Secondary crust forms at mid-ocean spreading
centers, where partial-melting of the underlying mantle yields basaltic magmas and new ocean crust forms. This "ridge
push" is one of the driving forces of plate tectonics, and it is constantly creating new ocean crust. That means that old
crust must be destroyed somewhere, so, opposite a spreading center, there is usually a subduction zone: a trench
where an ocean plate is being shoved back into the mantle. This constant process of creating new ocean crust and
destroying old ocean crust means that the oldest ocean crust on Earth today is only about 200 million years old.

In contrast, the bulk of the continental crust is much older. The oldest continental crustal rocks on Earth have ages in
the range from about 3.7 to 4.28 billion years [17][18] and have been found in the Narryer Gneiss Terrane in Western
Australia, in the Acasta Gneiss in the Northwest Territories on the Canadian Shield, and on other cratonic regions such
as those on the Fennoscandian Shield. Some zircon with age as great as 4.3 billion years has been found in the Narryer
Gneiss Terrane.

The average age of the current Earth's continental crust has been estimated to be about 2.0 billion years.[19] Most
crustal rocks formed before 2.5 billion years ago are located in cratons. Such old continental crust and the underlying
mantle asthenosphere are less dense than elsewhere in Earth and so are not readily destroyed by subduction.
Formation of new continental crust is linked to periods of intense orogeny; these periods coincide with the formation
of the supercontinents such as Rodinia, Pangaea and Gondwana. The crust forms in part by aggregation of island arcs
including granite and metamorphic fold belts, and it is preserved in part by depletion of the underlying mantle to form
buoyant lithospheric mantle.

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Moon's crust
A theoretical protoplanet named "Theia" is thought to have collided with the forming Earth, and part of the material
ejected into space by the collision accreted to form the Moon. As the Moon formed, the outer part of it is thought to
have been molten, a “lunar magma ocean.” Plagioclase feldspar crystallized in large amounts from this magma ocean
and floated toward the surface. The cumulate rocks form much of the crust. The upper part of the crust probably
averages about 88% plagioclase (near the lower limit of 90% defined for anorthosite): the lower part of the crust may
contain a higher percentage of ferromagnesian minerals such as the pyroxenes and olivine, but even that lower part
probably averages about 78% plagioclase.[20] The underlying mantle is denser and olivine-rich.

The thickness of the crust ranges between about 20 and 120 km. Crust on the far side of the Moon averages about
12 km thicker than that on the near side. Estimates of average thickness fall in the range from about 50 to 60 km. Most
of this plagioclase-rich crust formed shortly after formation of the moon, between about 4.5 and 4.3 billion years ago.
Perhaps 10% or less of the crust consists of igneous rock added after the formation of the initial plagioclase-rich
material. The best-characterized and most voluminous of these later additions are the mare basalts formed between
about 3.9 and 3.2 billion years ago. Minor volcanism continued after 3.2 billion years, perhaps as recently as 1 billion
years ago. There is no evidence of plate tectonics.

Study of the Moon has established that a crust can form on a rocky planetary body significantly smaller than Earth.
Although the radius of the Moon is only about a quarter that of Earth, the lunar crust has a significantly greater
average thickness. This thick crust formed almost immediately after formation of the Moon. Magmatism continued
after the period of intense meteorite impacts ended about 3.9 billion years ago, but igneous rocks younger than 3.9
billion years make up only a minor part of the crust.[21]

See also
Eduction

References
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doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_90-1 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-1-4614-9213-9_90-1).
ISBN 9781461492139.
2. Chambers, John E. (2004). "Planetary accretion in the inner Solar System". Earth and Planetary Science Letters.
223 (3–4): 241–252. Bibcode:2004E&PSL.223..241C (http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2004E&PSL.223..241C).
doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2004.04.031 (https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.epsl.2004.04.031).
3. Taylor, Stuart Ross (1989). "Growth of planetary crusts". Tectonophysics. 161 (3–4): 147–156.
Bibcode:1989Tectp.161..147T (http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1989Tectp.161..147T). doi:10.1016/0040-
1951(89)90151-0 (https://doi.org/10.1016%2F0040-1951%2889%2990151-0).
4. Earth's oldest rocks. Van Kranendonk, Martin., Smithies, R. H., Bennett, Vickie C. (1st ed.). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
2007. ISBN 9780080552477. OCLC 228148014 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/228148014).
5. 1925–, Taylor, Stuart Ross (2009). Planetary crusts : their composition, origin and evolution. McLennan, Scott M.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521841863. OCLC 666900567 (https://www.worldcat.or
g/oclc/666900567).
6. Taylor, G. J. (2009-02-01). "Ancient Lunar Crust: Origin, Composition, and Implications". Elements. 5 (1): 17–22.
doi:10.2113/gselements.5.1.17 (https://doi.org/10.2113%2Fgselements.5.1.17). ISSN 1811-5209 (https://www.wor
ldcat.org/issn/1811-5209).
7. Albarède, Francis; Blichert-Toft, Janne (2007). "The split fate of the early Earth, Mars, Venus, and Moon".
Comptes Rendus Geoscience. 339 (14–15): 917–927. Bibcode:2007CRGeo.339..917A (http://adsabs.harvard.ed
u/abs/2007CRGeo.339..917A). doi:10.1016/j.crte.2007.09.006 (https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.crte.2007.09.006).

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8. Venus II—geology, geophysics, atmosphere, and solar wind environment. Bougher, S. W. (Stephen Wesley),
1955–, Hunten, Donald M., Phillips, R. J. (Roger J.), 1940–. Tucson, Ariz.: University of Arizona Press. 1997.
ISBN 9780816518302. OCLC 37315367 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/37315367).
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Geological Survey. Retrieved August 30, 2013.
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11. Peele, Robert (1911). "Boring" (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Boring).
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pp. 1–64 of Treatise on Geochemistry (eds. H. D. Holland and K. K. Turekian), Elsevier-Pergamon, Oxford
ISBN 0-08-043751-6
14. Anderson, Robert S.; Anderson, Suzanne P. (2010). Geomorphology: The Mechanics and Chemistry of
Landscapes (https://books.google.com/books?id=hDt5A2-km_wC). Cambridge University Press. p. 187.
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Earth/). Australian Museum Online. Retrieved 2007-09-14.
16. Erickson, Jon (2014). Historical Geology: Understanding Our Planet's Past (https://books.google.com.au/books?id
=EIrwxgpc9GsC). Infobase Publishing. p. 8. ISBN 978-1438109640. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
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The Crust (ed. R. L. Rudnick) volume 3, pp. 321–348 of Treatise on Geochemistry (eds. H. D. Holland and K. K.
Turekian), Elsevier-Pergamon, Oxford ISBN 0-08-043751-6
19. A. I. S. Kemp and C. J. Hawkesworth, 2003, Granitic Perspectives on the Generation and Secular Evolution of the
Continental Crust. In The Crust (ed. R. L. Rudnick) volume 3, pp. 349–410 of Treatise on Geochemistry (eds. H.
D. Holland and K. K. Turekian), Elsevier-Pergamon, Oxford ISBN 0-08-043751-6
20. Wieczorek, M. A. & Zuber, M. T. (2001), "The composition and origin of the lunar crust: Constraints from central
peaks and crustal thickness modeling", Geophysical Research Letters, 28 (21): 4023–4026,
Bibcode:2001GeoRL..28.4023W (http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2001GeoRL..28.4023W),
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21. Herald Hiesinger and James W. Head III (2006). "New views of Lunar geoscience: An introduction and overview"
(https://web.archive.org/web/20120224232636/http://www.planetary.brown.edu/pdfs/2961_proof.pdf) (PDF).
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bs/2006RvMG...60....1H). doi:10.2138/rmg.2006.60.1 (https://doi.org/10.2138%2Frmg.2006.60.1). Archived from
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Condie, Kent C. (1989). "Origin of the Earth's Crust". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
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External links
USGS Crustal Thickness Map (https://earthquake.usgs.gov/data/crust/crust.php)
"Crust of the Earth" (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Encyclopedia_Americana_(1920)/Crust_of_the_Earth).
Encyclopedia Americana. 1920.
"Geology" (https://theodora.com/encyclopedia/g/geology.html). 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.

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