Mantle (geology)
Template:Short description Script error: No such module "other uses". Script error: No such module "Protection banner". A mantle is a layer inside a planetary body bounded below by a core and above by a crust. Mantles are made of rock or ices, and are generally the largest and most massive layer of the planetary body. Mantles are characteristic of planetary bodies that have undergone differentiation by density. All terrestrial planets (including Earth), half of the giant planets, specifically ice giants, a number of asteroids, and some planetary moons have mantles.
Examples
Earth
Script error: No such module "Labelled list hatnote". The Earth's mantle is a layer of silicate rock between the crust and the outer core. Its mass of 4.01 × 1024 kg is 67% of the mass of the Earth.[1] It has a thickness of Script error: No such module "convert".[1] making up about 84% of Earth's volume. It is predominantly solid, but in geological time it behaves as a viscous fluid. Partial melting of the mantle at mid-ocean ridges produces oceanic crust, and partial melting of the mantle at subduction zones produces continental crust.[2]
Other planets
Mercury has a silicate mantle approximately Script error: No such module "convert". thick, constituting only 28% of its mass.[1] Venus's silicate mantle is approximately Script error: No such module "convert". thick, constituting around 70% of its mass.[1] Mars's silicate mantle is approximately Script error: No such module "convert". thick, constituting ~74–88% of its mass,[1] and may be represented by chassignite meteorites. Uranus and Neptune's ice mantles are approximately 30,000 km thick, composing 80% of both masses.[3]
Moons
Jupiter's moons Io, Europa, and Ganymede have silicate mantles; Io's ~Script error: No such module "convert". silicate mantle is overlain by a volcanic crust, Ganymede's ~Script error: No such module "convert". thick silicate mantle is overlain by ~Script error: No such module "convert". of ice, and Europa's ~Script error: No such module "convert". km silicate mantle is overlain by ~Script error: No such module "convert". of ice and possibly liquid water.[1]
The silicate mantle of the Earth's moon is approximately 1300–1400 km thick, and is the source of mare basalts.[4] The lunar mantle might be exposed in the South Pole-Aitken basin or the Crisium basin.[4] The lunar mantle contains a seismic discontinuity at ~Script error: No such module "convert". depth, most likely related to a change in composition.[4]
Titan and Triton each have a mantle made of ice or other solid volatile substances.[5][6]
Asteroids
Script error: No such module "Labelled list hatnote".
Some of the largest asteroids have mantles;[7] for example, Vesta has a silicate mantle similar in composition to diogenite meteorites.[8]
See also
- Earth's internal heat budget
- Lehmann discontinuity
- Mantle xenoliths
- Mantle convection
- Mesosphere (mantle)
- Numerical modeling (geology)
- Primitive mantle
References
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />
- ↑ a b c d e f Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
- ↑ a b c Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Further reading
- Don L. Anderson, Theory of the Earth, Blackwell (1989), is a textbook dealing with the Earth's interior and is now available on the web. Retrieved 2007-12-23.
- Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- Nixon, Peter H. (1987). Mantle xenoliths: J. Wiley & Sons, 844p., (Template:ISBN).
- Donald L. Turcotte and Gerald Schubert, Geodynamics, Cambridge University Press, Third Edition (2014), Template:ISBN (Hardback) Template:ISBN (Paperback)
External links
Script error: No such module "Side box".
- The Biggest Dig: Japan builds a ship to drill to the earth's mantle – Scientific American (September 2005) (archived 17 October 2007)
- Information on the Mohole Project (archived 2 November 2015)
Script error: No such module "Navbox". Template:Portal bar Template:Authority control