What is the thin, solid outermost layer of the Earth called?

What is the thin, solid outermost layer of the Earth called?

• A. Crust
• B. Mantle
• C. Core
• D. Lithosphere

Answer: (A)

The thin, solid outermost layer of the Earth is the crust. It sits above the much thicker mantle and comes in two main types: continental crust, which is granitic and less dense, and oceanic crust, which is basaltic and more dense. The crust is separated from the mantle by the Moho boundary and, while it forms the surface we live on, it makes up only a tiny fraction of Earth’s total thickness compared with the mantle and core. The notion of a rigid shell that includes the crust and the very top part of the mantle is called the lithosphere, but the name for the outermost solid layer itself is simply the crust. The mantle lies beneath the crust, and the core is at the planet’s center.

The thin, solid outermost layer of the Earth is the crust. It sits above the much thicker mantle and comes in two main types: continental crust, which is granitic and less dense, and oceanic crust, which is basaltic and more dense. The crust is separated from the mantle by the Moho boundary and, while it forms the surface we live on, it makes up only a tiny fraction of Earth’s total thickness compared with the mantle and core. The notion of a rigid shell that includes the crust and the very top part of the mantle is called the lithosphere, but the name for the outermost solid layer itself is simply the crust. The mantle lies beneath the crust, and the core is at the planet’s center.