DIFFERENTIATED EARTH

By Juliana F. Castillo
Introduction
Earth is our home planet. Scientists believe Earth and its moon
formed around the same time as the rest of the solar system. They
think that was about 4.5 billion years ago. Earth is the fifth-largest
planet in the solar system. Its diameter is about 8,000 miles. And
Earth is the third-closest planet to the sun. Its average distance
from the sun is about 93 million miles. Only Mercury and Venus are
closer.
Earth is the only planet known to have large amounts of liquid
water. Liquid water is essential for life. Earth is the only planet
where life is known to exist
Structure of earth
When did differentiation
happen?
About 4.5 billion years ago

After the beginning of Earth’s accretion at 4.56 billion years ago

Before the formation of the moons oldest known rocks, 4.47 billion
years ago
 Sources Of Heat To Melt Earth

Frequent and violent impacts

Decay of radioactive elements

Homogeneous accretion
Heterogeneous accretion
Homogeneous accretion
 Similar elements stick together, creating a
solid mass. The heat generated in
this process melts the particles. The
heavier elements sink to the center
because of gravity, creating the Earth's
solid core
Heterogeneous accretion:
First, particles of metal stick together, creating
the Earth's core. Lighter elements stick to this
core as it continues to cool. The gravity of this
mass attracts most of the atoms that make up
the atmosphere.
why the layers of the Earth formed in a
differentiated manner?
Scientists believe the Earth was formed in the same
way as the stars and other planets formed from a hot
mass of gases with high temperatures. The high
temperatures are generated as particles of gases were
drawn together by gravity and compressed millions of
years ago. When the Earth cooled down, it contracted,
getting smaller and the gases changed to liquid as they
cooled. The heavier materials moved towards the
center of the Earth.
As the Earth cooled even more, a solid crust formed over the
liquid material. One theory of the origin of the gases in our
atmosphere includes the hypothesis that the gases were
trapped into layers of rock beneath the Earth’s surface. The
gases escaped primarily through volcanic eruptions to form
the atmosphere. Water vapor was released during these
volcanic eruptions and the water vapor condensed to form
the oceans. Nitrogen came out in smaller amounts and
remained in the gaseous form becoming the most abundant
element in the Earth’s atmosphere today. Oxygen became
part of the atmosphere through photosynthesis when green
plants evolved.
Processes of Earth Differentiation
1)Early Earth heats up due to radio-
active decay, compression,
and impacts. Over time the temperature
of the planet interior rises
Earth Differentiation
2)The iron "drops" follow gravity and
accumulate towards the core. Lighter
materials, such as silicate minerals,
migrate upwards in exchange.
3) Initially large portions of the crust might have
been molten - the so called magma ocean. The
latter would have cooled to form a layer of
basaltic crust (such as is present beneath the
oceans today). Continental crust Would have
formed later. It is probable that The Earth’s
initial crust was remelted several times due to
impacts with large asteroids.
 Layers
The inner core is solid, the outer core is liquid, and the
mantle is solid. This is due to the relative melting points of
the different layers (nickel–iron core, silicate crust and
mantle) and the increase in temperature and pressure as
depth increases. At the surface, the nickel-iron alloys and
silicates are cool enough to be solid. In the upper mantle,
the silicates are generally solid but localized regions of
melt exist, leading to limited viscosity.
The differentiation between these layers is due to
processes that took place during the early stages of
Earth's formation (ca. 4.5 billion years ago). At this time,
melting would have caused denser substances to sink
toward the center while less-dense materials would
have migrated to the crust. The core is thus believed to
largely be composed of iron, along with nickel and some
lighter elements, whereas less dense elements
migrated to the surface along with silicate rock.

The Earth's interior is differentiated. This means that its internal
structure consists of layers, arranged like the skin of an onion. Peel
back one, and you find another.
Crust
 The crust is the outermost layer of the planet, the cooled and hardened
part of the Earth that ranges in depth from approximately 5-70 km (~3-44
miles). This layer makes up only 1% of the entire volume of the Earth,
though it makes up the entire surface (the continents and the ocean
floor).
 The thinner parts are the oceanic crust, which underlies the ocean basins
at a depth of 5-10 km (~3-6 miles), while the thicker crust is the
continental crust. Whereas the oceanic crust is composed of dense
material such as iron magnesium silicate igneous rocks (like basalt), the
continental crust is less dense and composed of sodium potassium
aluminum silicate rocks, like granite.
Upper Mantle:
The mantle, which makes up about 84% of Earth's
volume, is predominantly solid, but behaves as a very
viscous fluid in geological time. The upper mantle, which
starts at the "Mohorovicic Discontinuity" (aka. the
"Moho" – the base of the crust) extends from a depth of
7 to 35 km (4.3 to 21.7 mi) downwards to a depth of
410 km (250 mi). The uppermost mantle and the
overlying crust form the lithosphere, which is relatively
rigid at the top but becomes noticeably more plastic
beneath.
Lower Mantle:
The lower mantle lies between 660-2,891 km (410-
1,796 miles) in depth. Temperatures in this region of the
planet can reach over 4,000 °C (7,230 °F) at the
boundary with the core, vastly exceeding the melting
points of mantle rocks. However, due to the enormous
pressure exerted on the mantle, viscosity and melting
are very limited compared to the upper mantle. Very little
is known about the lower mantle apart from that it
appears to be relatively seismically homogeneous.
Outer Core:
The outer core, which has been confirmed to be
liquid (based on seismic investigations), is 2300 km
thick, extending to a radius of ~3,400 km. In this
region, the density is estimated to be much higher
than the mantle or crust, ranging between 9,900
and 12,200 kg/m3. The outer core is believed to be
composed of 80% iron, along with nickel and some
other lighter elements.
Inner Core:
 Like the outer core, the inner core is composed primarily of
iron and nickel and has a radius of ~1,220 km. Density in the
core ranges between 12,600-13,000 kg/m3, which suggests
that there must also be a great deal of heavy elements there
as well – such as gold, platinum, palladium, silver and
tungsten.
 The temperature of the inner core is estimated to be about
5,700 K (~5,400 °C; 9,800 °F). The only reason why iron and
other heavy metals can be solid at such high temperatures is
because their melting temperatures dramatically increase at
the pressures present there, which ranges from about 330 to
360 gigapascals.