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All the Spheres of the Earth Solar System

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All the Spheres of the Earth
Print All the Spheres of the Earth Reading Comprehension with Sixth Grade Work

Print All the Spheres of the Earth Reading Comprehension

Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	high interest, readability grades 6 to 7
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	5.77

Vocabulary

challenging words:

peridotite, argon, oceanic, basalt, dependent, best, tectonic, lithosphere, atmosphere, nitrogen, biosphere, groundwater, granite, magma, continental, hydrosphere

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All the Spheres of the Earth By Patti Hutchison

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¹     Do you know that there are four "spheres" that make up our Earth? They are the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere. These four systems are separate, but they also work together with each other.
 
²     The "sphere" we know best is the lithosphere. This is the land we live on. It is the crust of the Earth. It also includes the mantle. This is the solid layer below the crust. There are two kinds of crust. They are the continental crust and the oceanic crust. Continental crust is made mostly of granite. Basalt is the main type of rock found in oceanic crust. The upper mantle, closest to the crust, is mostly made up of a hard rock called peridotite.
 
³     The lithosphere is made up of huge, solid pieces of rock. These are called tectonic plates. The continental crust is about 150 kilometers thick. The oceanic crust is about 70 kilometers thick. New oceanic lithosphere is always being made. It is made from cooled material from the lower mantle. The lower mantle is the layer of liquid rock or magma far below the Earth's surface.
 
⁴     New lithosphere is made at oceanic ridges. It is younger than continental crust. The oldest oceanic crust is only about 200 million years old. Some continental lithosphere is billions of years old.

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