How do scientists know the inside of the earth is made of layers?
546142
They use seismographs all around the world to see how earthquake vibrations move through the earth like giant sound waves. They can tell that there are different layers with different physical characteristics by the reflection and refraction of the seismic waves.\n\nThere are other methods to "see" inside the earth, but seismic exploration has been the most fruitful by far.
27423
There are a few main parts to the earth. The earth is like a tootsie pop: a hard crunchy exterior, and it is soft inside. They are in roughly concentric spheres. The main layers of the earth are called the crust, the mantle and the core. \n\nThe outside shell of the earth is called the crust. The crust is about 5-60 kilometers thick and forms about 1% of the volume of the earth. We live on the crust. \n\nUnder the crust is a very large part of the earth called the mantle. The mantle is about 84% of the volume of the earth. The mantle is about 2800 kilometers thick.\n\nInside the mantle, is the soft middle of the earth, called the core. The core is roughly a round ball, and is about 15% of the volume of the earth, and has a radius of about 3400 Km. \n\nOf course, one can get much more detailed, but this is enough to give you a start, so you can understand what you read on the internet.
375078
middle layer would be mantle, center would be core.
883595
The inner core has a radius of about 1,220 km (about 800 miles) and is located from 5,100 to 6,300 km (3,200 to 4,000 miles) below earth's surface. Recent discoveries suggest that the solid inner core itself is composed of layers, separated by a transition zone about 250 to 400 km thick.
1182736
They use very expensive equipment. They can send mechanical waves into the ground and break up rocks.\n\nOther ways include the following ---\n\nSeismic Exploration:\n\nExplosive\nVibrator Truck\nAire Gun - Oceanic exploration\n\nDetectors:\n\nGeophones (jugs) - land\nHydrophones - Ocean\n\nSubsurface Maps:\n\nStructural - Locates high areas (traps)\nIsopach - contour lines to show thickness of rock - estimates amount of oil or gas.
94764
crust, mantel, outer core, inner core, is that wat ur lookin for?
300814
the temperature at the inner core of the earth is at the high is about 7,000 degrees Celsius
125194
The Earth consists of several atmospheric, hydrologic, and mainly geologic layers. Its components are the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the crust, the mantle, and its core. The biosphere is a tiny layer in this composition and is usually not considered part of the physical layers of the Earth.\n\nThe geologic component layers of the Earth are located at the following depths below surface:\n\n0 to 60 km - Lithosphere (locally varies between 5 and 200 km) \n0 to 35 km - Crust (locally varies between 5 and 70 km) \n35 to 60 km - Uppermost part of mantle \n35 to 2890 km - Mantle \n100 to 700 km - Asthenosphere \n2890 to 5100 km - Outer core \n5100 to 6378 km - Inner core \n\nArea:\n\nTotal: 510.073 million km2 \nland: 148.94 million km2 \nWater: 361.132 million km2 \nNote: 70.8 % of the world's surface is covered by water, 29.2 % is exposed land \nLand boundaries: the land boundaries in the world total 251,480 km (not counting shared boundaries twice)\n\nCoastline: 356,000 km\n\nMaritime claims: see United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea\n\nLand use\nArable land: 10% \nPermanent crops: 1% \nPermanent pastures: 26% \nForests and woodland: 32% \nUrban areas: 1.5% \nOther: 30% (1993 est.) \nIrrigated land: 2,481,250 km2 (1993 est.)\n\n\nContiguous zone: 24 nautical miles (44 km) claimed by most, but can vary \nContinental shelf: 200 m depth claimed by most or to depth of exploitation; others claim 200 nautical miles (370 km) or to the edge of the continental margin \nExclusive fishing zone: 200 nautical miles (370 km) claimed by most, but can vary \nExclusive economic zone: 200 nautical miles (370 km) claimed by most, but can vary \nTerritorial sea: 12 nautical miles (22 km) claimed by most, but can vary \nNote: boundary situations with neighboring states prevent many countries from extending their fishing or economic zones to a full 200 nautical miles (370 km) \n42 nations and other areas are completely landlocked (see list of landlocked countries)
751689
The crust and mantle are generally solid.  The inner and outer core are molten rock and metal...very dense, but still liquid.
84285
Of course, the inner core is solid. It is the outer core that is fluid. \n\nNo one really knows what is producing heat in the inner core, and in what proportions:\n\n1. radioactive decay\n2. tidal forces heating, due to gravity gradient of moon, sun etc graviational field \n3. exothermic reactions\n4. gravitational energy release as denser materials settle down into the middle\n5. insulation (some of the heat is still primoridial)\n6. frictional forces from movement of materials in the earth\n\nand so on. This is obviously a fairly complicated nonlinear system, and we do not understand all the physics involved.
286404
When there is an earthquake, they can measure it on the other side of the world.  If Earth was one type of solid, the vibrations are a certain way.  Because the vibrations change as they pass through the earth, they can conclude some things, like the core is liquid.  They also drill deep into the earth and pull out samples to see what is down there.  We manage to drill far enough to find oil.
603146
*\nGetting to the Core\nDon't believe Jules Verne. The center of the Earth is not a nice place to visit, unless you like hanging out in a blast furnace. The outer core of the Earth, about two-thirds of the way to the center, is molten iron. Deeper yet, at the inner core, the pressure is so great -- 3.5 million times surface pressure -- that iron solidifies, even though the temperature is believed to exceed 11,000 degrees Fahrenheit, hotter than the surface of the sun.\n\nDespite rapid advances in high-pressure laboratory techniques, it's not yet possible to duplicate these conditions experimentally, and until Stixrude and Cohen's work, scientists could at best make educated guesses about iron's atom-to-atom architecture -- its crystal structure -- at the extremes that prevail in the inner core. Using a quantum-based approach called density-functional theory, Stixrude and Cohen set out to do better than an educated guess. With recent improvements in numerical techniques, density-functional theory had predicted iron's properties at low pressure with high accuracy, leading the researchers to believe that with supercomputing they could, in effect, reach 3,000 miles down into the inner core and pull out what they needed.\n\n\nCRYSTAL AT THE CENTER OF THE EARTH: Anisotropy of Earth's Inner Core  [New Window] \nThere's a giant crystal buried deep within the Earth, at the very center, ... The center of the Earth is not a nice place to visit, unless you like hanging ...\nhttp://www.psc.edu/science/Cohen_Stix/cohen_stix.html
730051
I have read that the gaseous planets don't have a rocky core like the inner planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, & Mars. What scientists theorize is that they have a slushy sphere of ammonia, iron, and a number of elements that may be larger than our planet. But as the first answer correctly states is that there is no known boundary or crust to make an accurate measurement from for now.
167190
Some things in science have obvious applications. Some things do not and are just knowledge for knowledge's sake. I think that knowledge of the center of the earth falls in that second category; there is no immediate obvious spin-off from knowing about the center of the earth. However, there are potential and indirect reasons why one might want to know about it:\n\n1. Knowledge about the structure of the earth helps us understand how the earth and possibly other planets came to be. We really do not understand much about planetary formation. This knowledge is not directly applicable, but we might need to know where to look in the rest of the universe for other earth-like planets, and knowledge of how planets form could help. This would be in the distant future, if at all. \n\n2. The dynamo that produces the earth's magnetic field is in the core of the earth, and knowledge about the core helps us understand more about the dynamo. This can lead to a better understanding of the sun and its dynamo, and the relation of the sun's dynamo to controlled fusion, which we have not been able to produce here on earth yet, but which would help us meet our energy needs. So there are possible connections with energy production. \n\n3. The earth's core contains some very hot fluids circulating around, and we do not understand much about the physics of these materials. Various engineering projects that use these, like the cooling systems of breeder reactors might be able to use this information. \n\n4. To learn about the earth's core, we have to develop better observational and modeling tools, which can be useful for other more applied projects. \n\n5. The core is not necessarily disconnected from the mantle, and what happens in the core probably affects what happens in the mantle, including hotspots (that create volcanoes) and plate tectonics (that cause earthquakes and tsunamis). Understanding the dynamics of the earth's interior might give us insight into eventually understanding and even possibly predicting some aspects of these very dangerous natural phenomena. \n\nI could probably come up with many more ideas, but this is a start. So even though one might be tempted to say "the core? what does it have to do with anything?", it is not necessarily true. There are all kinds of potential connections between different fields of science, and one has to look at things with an open mind.
387342
The earth's spheres 101:\n\nAtmosphere\nComposition: 78% Nitrogen; 21% Oxygen; the rest (1%) is Argon, Carbon Dioxide, and other gases.\nStructure: Has 4 layers divided by temperature changes...\ntroposphere-the layer we live in; most oxygen b/c of gravity; weather occurs here; temp decreases as you go up; atmospheric pressure decreases also\nstratosphere-contains atmospheric ozone layer; jets fly in this layer; temp increases due to ozone layer; pressure continues to decrease\nmesosphere-temp decreases again; meteorites burn up as enters our atmosphere here; temp decreases b/c moving away from ozone layer; pressure decreases\nthermosphere-literally means "heat sphere"; is the hottest of all the layers despite the fact it has the least amount of air b/c cosmic radiation is constantly bombarding air particles; satellites put into orbit here\n\nLithosphere:\nComposition of crust-made mostly of silicon, oxygen, & aluminum\nstructure-crust is divided into lithospheric plates that move due to convection of molten rock in the asthenosphere; there are over a dozen major plates; movement of plates cause earthquakes to occur as well as volcanic activity\n\nHydrosphere\nIncludes all the water in the earth's rivers, lakes, streams, air, oceans, groundwater, & living tissues; 98% of water is stored in the oceans; most of earth's freshwater is locked up in glaciers; groundwater is the most abundant source of usable freshwater\nmovement of water (water cycle)-water moves in a constant cycle called the water cycle; most of the water that constitutes precipitation comes from the oceans; water is evaporated from oceans, lakes, etc. then rises w/ warm air masses, cools, condenses, becomes clouds, precipitates, then either becomes groundwater, runoff, etc. then makes its way back into the oceans.
157317
The Earth can be divided into three large sections: the mantle, inner core, and outer core. The inner core is at the center of the earth. The pressure and temperature of the earth increases as one moves closer to the center. The inner core of the earth is about 7000 degree Celsius.
45948
Actually the CORE of the earth is one of the layers. It is liquid. The earth is like a tootsie pop: hard outer shell, creamy middle.