Mantle (geology) - Wikipedia

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move to sidebar hide (Top) 1 Examples Toggle Examples subsection 1.1 Earth 1.2 Other planets 1.3 Moons 1.4 Asteroids 2 See also 3 References 4 Further reading 5 External links Toggle the table of contents

Mantle (geology)

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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

The internal structure of Earth Main article: Earth's mantle

The Earth's mantle is a layer of silicate rock between the crust and the outer core . Its mass of 4.01 × 10 24 kg is 67% the mass of the Earth. [ 1 ] It has a thickness of 2,900 kilometres (1,800 mi) [ 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 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. 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 ~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

See also: 4 Vesta § Geology

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

^ a b c d e f Katharina., Lodders (1998). The planetary scientist's companion . Fegley, Bruce. New York: Oxford University Press . ISBN 978-1423759836 . OCLC 65171709 . ^ "What is the Earth's Mantle Made Of? – Universe Today" . Universe Today . 2016-03-26 . Retrieved 2018-11-24 . ^ Swindle, T. D. (2002-01-01). "Martian Noble Gases" . Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry . 47 (1): 171– 190. Bibcode : 2002RvMG 47..171S . doi : 10.2138/rmg.2002.47.6 . ISSN 1529-6466 . ^ a b c Wieczorek, M. A. (2006-01-01). "The Constitution and Structure of the Lunar Interior" . Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry . 60 (1): 221– 364. Bibcode : 2006RvMG 60..221W . doi : 10.2138/rmg.2006.60.3 . 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 . ^ Reddy, Vishnu; Nathues, Andreas; Gaffey, Michael J. (2011-03-01). "First fragment of Asteroid 4 Vesta's mantle detected". Icarus . 212 (1): 175– 179. Bibcode : 2011Icar..212..175R . doi : 10.1016/j.icarus.2010.11.032 . 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. Jeanloz, Raymond (2000). "Mantle of the Earth". In Haraldur Sigurdsson; Bruce Houghton; Hazel Rymer; John Stix; Steve McNutt (eds.). Encyclopedia of Volcanoes . San Diego: Academic Press . pp. 41– 54. ISBN 978-0-12-643140-7 . Nixon, Peter H. (1987). Mantle xenoliths: J. Wiley & Sons , 844p., ( ISBN 0-471-91209-3 ). Donald L. Turcotte and Gerald Schubert , Geodynamics, Cambridge University Press , Third Edition (2014), ISBN 978-1-107-00653-9 (Hardback) ISBN 978-0-521-18623-0 (Paperback)

External links

The Wikibook Historical Geology has a page on the topic of: Structure of the Earth 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) v t e Structure of Earth Shells Crust Mantle Upper mantle Lithospheric mantle Asthenosphere Lower mantle (aka Mesosphere ) Core Outer core Inner core Global discontinuities Mohorovičić (crust–mantle) 410 discontinuity (upper mantle) 660 discontinuity (upper mantle) D’’ discontinuity (lower mantle) Core–mantle boundary Inner-core boundary Regional discontinuities Conrad continental crust Gutenberg (upper mantle) Lehmann (upper mantle) Category Portals : Geology Earth sciences Astronomy Stars Outer space Solar System Science Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mantle_(geology)&oldid=1292695338 " Categories : Structure of the Earth Planetary geology Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata Wikipedia pages semi-protected against vandalism This page was last edited on 28 May 2025, at 09:22 (UTC) . Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy . Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. , a non-profit organization. Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers Contact Wikipedia Code of Conduct Developers Statistics Cookie statement Mobile view Search Toggle the table of contents Mantle (geology) 19 languages Add topic
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