Mantle (geology)
A mantle is a layer inside a
Examples
Earth
The
Other planets
Mercury has a silicate mantle approximately 490 kilometers (300 miles) thick, constituting only 28% of its mass.[1] Venus's silicate mantle is approximately 2,800 kilometers (1,700 miles) thick, constituting around 70% of its mass.[1] Mars's silicate mantle is approximately 1,600 kilometers (990 miles) thick, constituting ~74–88% of its mass,[1] and may be represented by chassignite meteorites.[3]
Moons
Jupiter's moons Io, Europa, and Ganymede have silicate mantles; Io's ~1,100 kilometers (680 miles) silicate mantle is overlain by a volcanic crust, Ganymede's ~1,315 kilometers (817 miles) thick silicate mantle is overlain by ~835 kilometers (519 miles) of ice, and Europa's ~1,165 kilometers (724 miles) km silicate mantle is overlain by ~85 kilometers (53 miles) 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 ~500 kilometers (310 miles) 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
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
- ^ OCLC 65171709.
- ^ "What is the Earth's Mantle Made Of? – Universe Today". Universe Today. 2016-03-26. Retrieved 2018-11-24.
- ISSN 1529-6466.
- ^ ISSN 1529-6466.
- ^ "Layers of Titan". NASA. 23 February 2012. Archived from the original on 14 September 2015. Retrieved 7 October 2015.
- ^ "Triton: In Depth". NASA. Archived from the original on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
- ^ "Griffith Observatory – Pieces of the Sky – Meteorite Histories". www.griffithobservatory.org. Archived from the original on 2020-02-10. Retrieved 2018-11-24.
- ISSN 0019-1035.
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.
- ISBN 978-0-12-643140-7.
- Nixon, Peter H. (1987). Mantle xenoliths: ISBN 0-471-91209-3).
- ISBN 978-0-521-18623-0(Paperback)
External links
- 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)