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Earth

The Layered Earth

The Layered Earth
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   high interest, readability grades 6 to 8
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   5.35

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    lithospheric, silicon, oceanic, basalt, lithosphere, thickness, continental, calcium, yolk, volume, asthenosphere, radius, granite, remain, various, mass

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The Layered Earth
By Patti Hutchison 		  
1     Have you eaten a boiled egg? If you have, you know that it has are three layers. The earth also has three layers, much like an egg.
 
2     An egg has a thin outer shell. Earth does also. This is called the crust. If you run your finger over the shell, you will feel small bumps. The shell can be thicker in some parts than in others. The earth's crust is like this, too.
 
3     The crust of the earth is very thin and rigid compared to the other layers. There are two types of crust, oceanic and continental. Beneath the ocean, the crust is only about five kilometers thick. The average thickness of crust below the continents is about thirty kilometers. But under mountain ranges it can be as deep as 100 kilometers.
 
4     Oceanic crust contains mostly oxygen and silicon. Continental crust is made up of two layers of rocks. The top layer is made of granite. The bottom layer is basalt. Elements in the earth's crust include aluminum, iron, sodium, and calcium. Like an egg shell, earth's crust can easily be broken.

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