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Description composition of the earth for children with a photo: the structure of the planet in the figure, what the crust, mantle and core consist of, what the upper shell looks like, the thickness of the layers.

Earth is the third planet from the Sun, but also the only planet so far in the solar system and the known Universe, on which an advanced form of life lives. it native home which will be useful for children to learn. Let's take a closer look at the structure of the Earth, which will help our photos, diagrams and drawings.

To begin explanation for children about the composition of the Earth follows from the fact that we live on a unique planet, since it has water. Of course, there are other worlds, as well as satellites, where there is an atmosphere, ice and even oceans, but only we are lucky to have all the factors to create and maintain life.

For the little ones it is important to know that the earth's oceans occupy approximately 70% of the entire surface, and go 4 km deep. in liquid form fresh water found in rivers, lakes and in the form of atmospheric water vapor, which results in great weather diversity.

Should explain to children that the earth is multi-layered. The outer is represented by the bark. It is filled with ocean basins and continents. The earth's crust occupies 5-75 km. The densest parts are hidden under the continents, and the thinnest parts are hidden under the oceans. Now let's study the composition of the Earth by layers: crust, mantle, core.

Earth's crust - an explanation for children

The earth's crust contains elements such as: oxygen (47%), silicon (27%), aluminum (8%), iron (5%), calcium (4%), and 2% each of magnesium, potassium and sodium. It is created in the form of giant plates that move through the liquid mantle. Important explain to children that, although we do not notice, the plates do not stop moving. When they collide, we feel earthquakes, and if one runs over the other, a deep trench or mountains are formed. These movements are described by the theory of plate tectonics.

Mantle of the Earth - an explanation for children

Further, with a thickness of 2890 km, is the mantle. It is represented by silicate rocks rich in magnesium and iron. Because of the intense heat, rocks are created. Then they cool down and return to the core again. It is believed that this is what sets the tectonic plates in motion. When the mantle manages to break through the crust, you see a volcanic eruption.

Earth's core - an explanation for children

Surely even for the little ones It is clear that the core is located inside the Earth. Interestingly, it consists of two halves: the inner (solid) with a radius of 1220 km is surrounded by the outer (liquid - an alloy of nickel and iron) with a thickness of 2180 km. While the planet rotates at its usual pace, the inner core rotates separately, forming a magnetic field. You can also tell children about how auroras are formed. Indeed, for this, the charged particles of the solar wind need to pass into the air molecules above the magnetic poles of the planet, and then these molecules begin to shine.

Now you know what the Earth is made of. If children or schoolchildren of any age are curious to know more interesting facts and details about the third planet from the Sun, be sure to visit the other pages of the section. Don't forget to use the 3D model solar system, which shows all the planets, as well as a map of Venus, its surface and orbital features. For the rest, our photos, pictures, drawings, as well as an online telescope operating in real time will always help you. The structure of the Earth is incredibly easy to understand if you follow the visuals.

Since time immemorial, people have tried to portray scheme internal structure Earth. They were interested in the bowels of the Earth as storerooms of water, fire, air, and also as a source of fabulous wealth. Hence - the desire to penetrate the thought into the depths of the Earth, where, according to Lomonosov,

nature (i.e., nature) forbids hands and eyes.

The first diagram of the internal structure of the Earth

The greatest thinker of antiquity, the Greek philosopher, who lived in the 4th century BC (384-322), taught that there is a “central fire” inside the Earth, which breaks out from “fire-breathing mountains”. He believed that the waters of the oceans, seeping into the depths of the Earth, fill the voids, then the water rises again through the cracks, forms springs and rivers that flow into the seas and oceans. This is how the water cycle works. The first diagram of the structure of the Earth by Athanasius Kircher (according to the engraving of 1664). More than two thousand years have passed since then, and only in the second half of the 17th century - in 1664 the first diagram of the internal structure of the Earth. Its author was Athanasius Kircher. She was far from perfect, but quite pious, as it is easy to conclude by looking at the drawing. The earth was depicted as a solid body, inside which huge voids were connected between themselves and the surface by numerous channels. The central core was filled with fire, and the voids closer to the surface were filled with fire, water, and air. The drafter of the scheme was convinced that the fires inside the Earth warmed it and produced metals. The material for underground fire, according to his ideas, was not only sulfur and coal, but also other mineral substances of the bowels of the earth. Underground streams of water generated winds.

The second scheme of the internal structure of the Earth

In the first half of the 18th century, there appeared the second diagram of the internal structure of the Earth. Its author was woodworth. Inside, the Earth was no longer filled with fire, but with water; water created a vast water sphere, and channels connected this sphere with the seas and oceans. A powerful hard shell, consisting of layers of rocks, surrounded the liquid core.
The second diagram of the structure of Woodworth's Land (based on an engraving from 1735).

Rock layers

How are they formed and arranged? rock layers, was first pointed out by an outstanding researcher of nature Dane Nicholas Stensen(1638-1687). The scientist lived for a long time in Florence under the name Steno, practicing medicine there. Stensen (Steno) contrasted the fantastic views of the authors of the earth structure schemes with direct observations from the practice of mining. Miners have long noticed the regular arrangement of sedimentary rock layers. Stensen not only correctly explained the reason for their formation, but also the further changes to which they were subjected. These layers, he concluded, settled out of the water. Initially, the precipitation was soft, then hardened; at first, the layers lay horizontally, then, under the influence of volcanic processes, they experienced significant displacements, which explains their inclination. But what was correct in relation to sedimentary rocks cannot, of course, be extended to all other rocks that make up the earth's crust. How did they form? Is it from aqueous solutions or from fiery melts? This question for a long time, until the 20s of the XIX century, attracted the attention of scientists.

Dispute between Neptunists and Plutonists

Between the supporters of water - Neptunists(Neptune - the ancient Roman god of the seas) and supporters of fire - plutonists(Pluto is the ancient Greek god of the underworld) heated debates have repeatedly arisen. Finally, the researchers proved the volcanic origin of basalt rocks, and the Neptunists were forced to admit defeat.

Basalt

Basalt- a very common volcanic rock. She often comes to the surface of the earth, and on great depths forms a solid foundation earth's crust. This breed - heavy, dense and hard, dark in color - is characterized by a columnar build in the form of five-six-coal units. Basalt is beautiful construction material. It is also smeltable and used for the production of basalt castings. Products have valuable technical qualities: refractoriness and acid resistance. High-voltage insulators, chemical tanks, sewer pipes, etc. are made from basalt casting. Basalts are found in Armenia, Altai, and other regions in Transbaikalia. Basalt differs from other rocks in its large specific gravity. Of course, it is much more difficult to determine the density of the Earth. And this is necessary to know in order to correctly understand the structure of the globe. The first and at the same time sufficiently accurate determinations of the density of the Earth were made two hundred years ago. The density was taken as an average of many determinations equal to 5.51 g/cm 3 .

Seismology

Science has brought considerable clarity to the concept of seismology studying the nature of earthquakes (from the ancient Greek words: "seismos" - earthquake and "logos" - science). There is still a lot of work to be done in this direction. According to the figurative expression of the largest seismologist, academician B. B. Golitsyn (1861 -1916),
all earthquakes can be likened to a lantern that is lit for a short time and, illuminating the interior of the Earth, allows us to see what is happening there.
With the help of very sensitive self-recording seismographs (from the already familiar words “seismos” and “grapho” - I write), it turned out that the speed of propagation of earthquake waves through the globe is not the same: it depends on the density of the substances through which the waves propagate. Through the thickness of sandstone, for example, they pass in two seconds. once again slower than through granite. This made it possible to draw important conclusions about the structure of the Earth. Earth, on modern scientific views, can be represented as three balls nested in each other. There is such a children's toy: a colored wooden ball, consisting of two halves. If you open it, there is another colored ball inside, an even smaller ball in it, and so on.
  • The first outer ball in our example is Earth's crust.
  • Second - the Earth's shell, or mantle.
  • Third - inner core.

Modern scheme of the internal structure of the Earth. The wall thickness of these "balls" is different: the outer one is the thinnest. Here it should be noted that the earth's crust is not a homogeneous layer of the same thickness. In particular, under the territory of Eurasia, it varies within 25-86 kilometers. How do seismic stations, i.e., stations that study earthquakes, determine the thickness of the earth's crust along the line Vladivostok - Irkutsk - 23.6 km; between St. Petersburg and Sverdlovsk - 31.3 km; Tbilisi and Baku - 42.5 km; Yerevan and Grozny - 50.2 km; Samarkand and Chimkent - 86.5 km. The thickness of the Earth's shell, on the contrary, is very impressive - about 2900 km (depending on the thickness of the earth's crust). The core shell is somewhat thinner - 2200 km. The innermost core has a radius of 1200 km. Recall that the equatorial radius of the Earth is 6378.2 km, and the polar one is 6356.9 km.

The substance of the Earth at great depths

What happens with the substance of the earth that make up the globe, at great depths? It is well known that temperature increases with depth. In the coal mines of England and in the silver mines of Mexico, it is so high that it is impossible to work, despite all sorts of technical devices: at a depth of one kilometer - over 30 ° heat! The number of meters that you need to go down into the depths of the Earth in order for the temperature to rise by 1 ° is called geothermal stage. Translated into Russian - "the degree of heating of the Earth." (The word "geothermal" is composed of two Greek words: "ge" - earth, and "terme" - heat, which is similar to the word "thermometer".) The value of the geothermal step is expressed in meters and can be different (between 20-46) . On average, it is taken at 33 meters. For Moscow, according to data from deep drilling, the geothermal gradient is 39.3 meters. The deepest borehole so far does not exceed 12000 meters. At a depth of more than 2200 meters in some wells already appears superheated steam. It has been successfully used in industry. And what can you find if you penetrate further and further to? The temperature will continuously increase. At a certain depth, it will reach such a value at which all rocks known to us should melt. However, in order to draw correct conclusions from this, it is also necessary to take into account the effect of pressure, which also continuously increases as it approaches the center of the Earth. At a depth of 1 kilometer, the pressure under the continents reaches 270 atmospheres (under the ocean floor at the same depth - 100 atmospheres), at a depth of 5 km - 1350 atmospheres, 50 km - 13,500 atmospheres, etc. In the central parts of our planet, the pressure exceeds 3 million atmospheres! Naturally, the melting point will also change with depth. If, for example, basalt melts in factory furnaces at 1155°, then at a depth of 100 kilometers it will begin to melt only at 1400°. Assumed scientists temperature at a depth of 100 kilometers it is 1500° and then, slowly increasing, only in the most central parts of the planet it reaches 2000-3000°. As laboratory experiments show, under the influence of increasing pressure solid bodies- not only limestone or marble, but also granite - acquire plasticity and show all signs of fluidity. This state of matter is typical for the second ball of our scheme - the shell of the Earth. Hotbeds of molten mass (magma) directly associated with volcanoes are of limited size.

Earth's core

shell substance Earth's core viscous, and in the core itself, due to the enormous pressure and high temperature, it is in a special physical state. Its new properties are similar in terms of hardness to those liquid bodies, and in relation to electrical conductivity - with the properties of metals. In the great depths of the Earth, the substance passes, as scientists say, into a metallic phase, which is not yet possible to create in the laboratory.

The chemical composition of the elements of the globe

The brilliant Russian chemist D. I. Mendeleev (1834-1907) proved that the chemical elements represent a harmonious system. Their qualities are in regular relations with each other and represent the successive stages of a single matter from which the globe is built.
  • By chemical composition the earth's crust is mainly formed by nine elements of more than a hundred known to us. Among them, first of all oxygen, silicon and aluminum, then, in a smaller amount, iron, calcium, sodium, magnesium, potassium and hydrogen. The rest account for only two percent of the total weight of all listed elements. The earth's crust, depending on its chemical composition, was called sial. This word indicated that in the earth's crust, after oxygen, silicon predominates (in Latin - "silicium", hence the first syllable is "si") and aluminum (the second syllable is "al", together - "sial").
  • In the subcortical membrane, an increase in magnesium is noticeable. That is why she is called sima. The first syllable is "si" from silicon - silicon, and the second - "ma" from magnesium.
  • The central part of the globe was believed to be mainly formed from nickel iron hence its name - nife. The first syllable - "ni" indicates the presence of nickel, and "fe" - iron (in Latin "ferrum").
The density of the earth's crust is on average 2.6 g/cm 3 . With depth, a gradual increase in density is observed. In the central parts of the nucleus, it exceeds 12 g / cm 3, and jumps, especially at the boundary of the shell of the nucleus and in the innermost nucleus. Great work on the structure of the Earth, its composition and distribution processes chemical elements outstanding Soviet scientists left us in nature - Academician V.I. Vernadsky (1863-1945) and his student Academician A.E. Fersman (1883-1945) - a talented popularizer, author of fascinating books - "Entertaining Mineralogy" and "Entertaining Geochemistry" .

Chemical analysis of meteorites

The correctness of our ideas about the composition of the internal parts of the Earth is also confirmed chemical meteorite analysis. Some meteorites are dominated by iron - that's what they are called iron meteorites, in others - those elements that are found in the rocks of the earth's crust, which is why they are called stone meteorites.
Meteor falling. Stone meteorites are fragments of the outer shells of decayed celestial bodies, and iron - fragments of their internal parts. Although stony meteorites do not look like our rocks in appearance, they are close in chemical composition to basalts. Chemical analysis iron meteorites confirms our assumptions about the nature of the central core of the Earth.

Earth's atmosphere

Our understanding of the structure Earth will be far from complete if we limit ourselves only to its bowels: the Earth is surrounded primarily by an air shell - atmosphere(from the Greek words: "atmos" - air and "sfire" - a ball). The atmosphere that surrounded the newborn planet contained water in the future oceans of the Earth in a vapor state. The pressure of this primary atmosphere was therefore higher than the present. As the atmosphere cools, flows superheated water poured onto the Earth, the pressure became lower. Hot waters created the primordial ocean - water shell Earth, otherwise the hydrosphere (from the Greek "gidor" - water), (for more details:

The bowels of the Earth are very mysterious and practically inaccessible. Unfortunately, there is still no such apparatus with which you can penetrate and study the internal structure of the Earth. The researchers found that on this moment the deepest mine in the world has a depth of 4 km, and the deepest well is located on the Kola Peninsula and is 12 km.

However, certain knowledge about the depths of our planet is still established. Scientists have studied its internal structure using the seismic method. basis this method, is a measurement of vibrations during an earthquake or artificial explosions produced in the bowels of the Earth. Substances with different density and composition passed vibrations through themselves at a certain speed. This made it possible to measure this speed with the help of special instruments and analyze the results obtained.

Scientists' opinion

The researchers found that our planet has several shells: the earth's crust, mantle and core. Scientists believe that about 4.6 billion years ago, the stratification of the bowels of the Earth began and continues to stratify to this day. In their opinion, all heavy substances descend to the center of the Earth, joining the planet's core, while lighter substances rise up and become the earth's crust. When the internal stratification ends, our planet will turn into a cold and dead one.

Earth's crust

It is the thinnest shell of the planet. Its share is 1% of the total mass of the Earth. People live on the surface of the earth's crust and extract from it everything necessary for survival. In the earth's crust, in many places, there are mines and wells. Its composition and structure is studied using samples collected from the surface.

Mantle

Represents the most extensive shell of the earth. Its volume and mass is 70 - 80% of the entire planet. The mantle is solid but less dense than the core. The deeper the mantle is located, the greater its temperature and pressure become. The mantle has a partially melted layer. With this layer solids moving towards the core of the earth.

Nucleus

It is the center of the earth. It has very high temperature(3000 - 4000 o C) and pressure. The core consists of the densest and heaviest substances. It is approximately 30% of the total mass. The solid part of the core floats in its liquid layer, thereby creating the earth's magnetic field. It is the protector of life on the planet, protecting it from cosmic rays.

Non-fiction film about shaping our world

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Layers of the Earth pictures for kids. The main condition is that the child has an interest in the topics that this science deals with. You can try to awaken a child's desire to learn more about our planet by watching cartoons, movies or children's programs on this topic.

When studying complex volumetric topics, try to use visual didactic materials. Highly good way- Make these manuals with your child.

In teaching a child at home, you can include a geography lesson on the structure of the Earth. To do this, you will need a sectional drawing of our planet, with the designation of all its layers: the earth's crust, mantle, outer and inner core.

After that, you can invite the child to color and name the different layers in the drawing of the Earth on their own, as well as estimate its size, for this, the approximate diameter of the globe in kilometers is given below.

For greater clarity, prepare several drawings, where all layers are black and white, and one is color. Attach plates with the name of the color layer and a brief description of it to such drawings.


Also prepare in advance four circles of different diameters from colored paper that matches the color of the layers of the Earth in your drawing. Invite the child to make his own model of the planet. Let him take circles from colored paper, correlate them with the tablets, determining which layer of the Earth each of them corresponds to.

If the child has already learned to read, have him read the appropriate sign aloud. brief description. If not, read it for yourself. Then you need to glue the circles correctly and sign all the layers. At the end, repeat all the new information again.


In a similar way, geography is taught for kids who still cannot understand and learn too complex topics. It will be interesting for younger children to make a model of our planet from a foam ball with their own hands, painting it with watercolors or gouache. A globe can be used as an example. First, explain that the Earth is actually round, and the globe is a small copy of it. In the process of work, explain to the baby that the blue color on the globe indicates the seas and oceans, brown - mountains, green - plains, and white - ice.

Depending on how inquisitive your child is, delve into topics that interest him. With a self-made model of the Earth, you can come up with various games for the development of kids: for example, demonstrate how the planet revolves around the Sun and its axis and how night follows day.

Layers of the earth for children in pictures

Astronomers study space, receive information about the planets and stars, despite their great remoteness. At the same time, there are no less mysteries on the Earth itself than in the Universe. And today scientists do not know what is inside our planet. Watching how lava pours out during a volcanic eruption, one might think that the Earth is also molten inside. But it's not.

Nucleus. The central part of the globe is called the core (Fig. 83). Its radius is about 3,500 km. Scientists believe that the outer part of the nucleus is in a molten-liquid state, and the inner one is in a solid state. The temperature in it reaches +5,000 °C. From the core to the surface of the Earth, temperature and pressure gradually decrease.

Mantle. The Earth's core is covered by a mantle. Its thickness is approximately 2,900 km. The mantle, like the core, has never been seen. But it is assumed that the closer to the center of the Earth, the higher the pressure in it, and the temperature - from several hundred to -2,500 ° C. It is believed that the mantle is solid, but at the same time red-hot.

Earth's crust. Above the mantle, our planet is covered with crust. This is the top solid layer of the Earth. Compared to the core and mantle, the earth's crust is very thin. Its thickness is only 10-70 km. But this is the earthly firmament on which we walk, rivers flow, cities are built on it.

The earth's crust is formed by various substances. It is made up of minerals and rocks. Some of them you already know (granite, sand, clay, peat, etc.). Minerals and rocks differ in color, hardness, structure, melting point, solubility in water and other properties. Many of them are widely used by man, for example, as fuel, in construction, for the production of metals. material from the site

Granite
Sand
Peat

The upper layer of the earth's crust is visible in deposits on the slopes of mountains, steep river banks, and quarries (Fig. 84). And mines and boreholes, which are used to extract minerals, such as oil and gas, help to look into the depths of the crust.