What is the average thickness of the continental crust of earth?

Question

Question

This question was previously asked in

SSC CGL 2022 Tier-I Official Paper (Held On : 02 Dec 2022 Shift 1)

Answer 1

The correct answer is 30 km.

Key Points

Important Points

Layer	Characteristics
Crust	The uppermost layer over the earth’s surface is called the crust. It is the thinnest of all the layers. It is about 35 km. on the continental masses and only 5 km. on the ocean floors. The main mineral constituents of the continental mass are silica and alumina. It is thus called sial (si-silica and al-alumina). The oceanic crust mainly consists of silica and magnesium; it is therefore called sima (si-silica and ma-magnesium) The crust makes up only 1% of the volume of Earth.
Mantle	Just beneath the crust is the mantle which extends up to a depth of 2900 km. below the crust. The mantle is semi-liquid, sort of like a malleable plastic, and makes up 84% of Earth's volume.
Core	The innermost layer is the core with a radius of about 3500 km. It is mainly made up of nickel and iron and is called NiFe (Ni – nickel and Fe – ferrous i.e. iron). The central core has very high temperature and pressure. The core makes up only 15% of the volume of Earth.

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