Why Do Geologists Think Earth S Core Contains Mostly Iron
Olivia Luz
Samples of earth s crust contain less iron than meteorites.
The moon has a similar core. Comets contain more iron than earth s crust does. The entire core is a solid mass. So the theory is that when earth formed 4 5 billion years ago a lot of iron worked its way down to the core.
Why do geologists believe the inner core is solid. Iron cannot generate a magnetic field. The crust is made mostly of nickel. The overall sg of the earth is much higher than the sg of crustal rocks ie the earth is about twice as heavy as the rocks on the surface would suggest.
That s where most of the mass is and it s where most of the iron must be too. Granite contains mostly felsic minerals which give it a relatively low density. Why do geologists think earth s core contains mostly iron. We know that it s iron chiefly because we know how dense it is.
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We knew by the 1890s from the way earth responds to the gravity of the sun and moon that the planet has a dense core probably iron. However from what we see in asteroid composition gravity of earth and how energy seismic waves travel through the core we have reason to infer the core is made predominantly of iron. The crust also contains mostly iron. They believe that earth was once all molten when it was first forming.
Since iron is one of the heavier elements it would have sank to. Outer core because it is iron rich liquid. In 1906 richard dixon oldham found that earthquake waves move through the earth s center much slower than they do through the mantle around it because the center is liquid.
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