what elements make up most of the mantle?

Sagot :

Answer:

What elements make up most of the Earth’s Mantle?

The Earth’s Mantle is made up of what is mostly known as silicates.  

Explanation:

Here are the most common silicates found within the Mantle:

  • Garnet
  • Olivine
  • Pyroxene

Garnet is a precious stone that comes in a variety of colors and shades. It naturally comes in a somewhat hard crystal form. They can be glasslike in appearance once polished but can also be opaque.  

Through studies made by geologists, they have seen that Olivine makes up a noticeably large component of the Earth’s Upper Mantle. This brittle yellow to yellow-green mineral is transparent.  

Just like Olivine, Pyroxene is also abundant in the Upper Mantle. They are seen as rocks which are usually dark gray in color with a slight shade of whatever ion it contains. This will depend on the area where the sample was gathered.  

Remember, these elements are mostly taken from samples that were presumed to be from the Upper Mantle since accessibility to the Lower Mantle is impossible at the present time. The billions of tons of earth material above an excavation team is a risk no one is ready to take. This is why any effort to study the mantle is done on the ocean floor where a large portion of it is said to be exposed at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean between the Western African Islands known as Cape Verde and the Caribbean off the coast of Central America.  

Here are the layers of the Earth:

  1. The Crust
  2. The Mantle
  3. The Outer Core
  4. The Inner Core  

The Crust is the outer most part of our planet and this is where we live. Even though it is the thinnest layer of the earth, it still ranges between 5 kilometers thick at its thinnest portion (usually beneath the ocean) to 70 kilometers or more thick at many areas. It lies above our main topic, the Mantle. The Crust is also broken into its many tectonic plates with faultlines between them. These plates slide on top of the moving Outer Mantle causing the growth or shrinking of seas, oceans, mountain ranges. They also cause volcanic activities, earthquakes, and tsunamis. Continental movement which has been happening forever is made by the same geologic phenomenon.  

Below it is the Outer Core which is composed of mostly Nickel and Iron. It is theorized that the temperatures here can be as high as 5000 degrees Celsius or more than 9000 degrees Fahrenheit, enough to liquefy both nickel and iron. Right at the center of the Earth is the Inner Core which is subjected to tremendous pressure from all directions, and for that reason, despite reaching well over 5000 degrees Celsius, it is said to remain solid. The Core is also the source of the Electro-Magnetic Field that protects all living things on our planet from the sun’s solar winds.  

The earth is forever changing its surface, continents that were once joined together have separated will someday meet again to form another super continent. This will keep happening long after we are all gone.

Click on the links for more information:

Volcano concept map https://brainly.ph/question/1952021

Where is the Ring of Fire? https://brainly.ph/question/1848507

What is the temperature of the Earth’s Crust? https://brainly.ph/question/1296567