• Question: why do people think the middle of the earth is a magma?

    Asked by anon-192521 to Sophie, Simon, Obi, Kelly, Jessica on 9 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 9 Nov 2018:

      Our research on planet earth has shown we have a solid iron core, outside of this the pressure and temperature caused by mass (gravity) results in high temperatures, so high the rock is liquid, Only at the outer edges does it cool to form a hard skin tens of miles thick. We call this the crust, and that is what the continents sit on.

      That the middle bit is liquid has been confirmed by seismic (soundwaves transmitted through the earth) and by observation in volcanoes.

    • Photo: Kelly Rushton

      Kelly Rushton answered on 12 Nov 2018:

      Magma is only part of what is within the earth – and when volcanoes erupt we see it – but then it sets when it cools down and forms rock. There are whole islands that have been formed this way.

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