What is the depth and the temperature of the core?
Table of Contents
What is the depth and the temperature of the core?
The Inner and Outer Core
| Inner Core | Outer Core |
|---|---|
| solid | liquid |
| made of solid metals | made of liquid metals |
| temperature as high as 9,000° F (4,982° C) | temperatures range from 4,000 to 9,000° F (2,204 to 4,982° C) |
| depth: about 3,200 to 3,900 miles (5,150 to 6,276 km) | depth: about 1,800 to 3,200 miles (2,897 to 5,150 km) |
How deep is the Earth’s outer core?
about 2,400 km
Earth’s outer core is a fluid layer about 2,400 km (1,500 mi) thick and composed of mostly iron and nickel that lies above Earth’s solid inner core and below its mantle. Its outer boundary lies 2,890 km (1,800 mi) beneath Earth’s surface.
How much is the temperature at the center of the Earth?
In new research, scientists studying what the conditions at the core should be like found that the center of the Earth is way hotter than we thought—around 1,800 degrees hotter, putting the temperature at a staggering 10,800 degrees Fahrenheit.
How do we know the earth’s core temperature?
But how do scientists know how hot Earth’s core is? Seismic waves are the types of waves produced by earthquakes and other tectonic plate movements that occur below Earth’s surface. By measuring seismic waves, scientists can learn a lot about the composition of Earth’s subsurface layers.
What is the temperature of the inner and outer core?
A team of scientists has measured the melting point of iron at high precision in a laboratory, and then drew from that result to calculate the temperature at the boundary of Earth’s inner and outer core — now estimated at 6,000 C (about 10,800 F). That’s as hot as the surface of the sun.
How hot is the center of the sun?
about 27 million degrees Farenheit
the temperature at the very center of the Sun is about 27 million degrees Farenheit (F).