what is lithosphere ? in 10 lines
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Answer:
Every rocky planet has a lithosphere, but what is lithosphere? It is the rigid outermost shell of a rocky planet. Here on Earth the lithosphere contains the crust and upper mantle. The Earth has two types of lithosphere: oceanic and continental. The lithosphere is broken up into tectonic plates.
Oceanic lithosphere consists mainly of mafic(rich in magnesium and iron) crust and ultramafic(over 90% mafic) mantle and is denser than continental lithosphere. It thickens as it ages and moves away from the mid-ocean ridge. This thickening occurs by conductive cooling, which converts hot asthenosphere into lithospheric mantle.
It was less dense than the asthenosphere for tens of millions of years, but after this becomes increasingly denser. The gravitational instability of mature oceanic lithosphere has the effect that when tectonic plates come together, oceanic lithosphere invariably sinks underneath the overriding lithosphere
New oceanic lithosphere is constantly being produced at mid-ocean ridges and is recycled back to the mantle at subduction zones, so oceanic lithosphere is much younger than its continental counterpart. The oldest oceanic lithosphere is about 170 million years old compared to parts of the continental lithosphere which are billions of years old.
The continental lithosphere is also called the continental crust. It is the layer of igneous, sedimentary rock that forms the continents and the continental shelves. This layer consists mostly of granitic rock.
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Answer:
the uppermost layer of the earth is called lithosphere. it is made up of rocks and soil. its top layer is called crust.out of the total area of the lithosphere about 71% is covered by water.the remaining 29% is above the surface of water in the form of the land masses. the vast areas of water surrounding the land masses on the earth are called oceans. since all oceans are interconnected,the level of water remains the same everywhere