We all live on the planet called Earth. The Earth is a part of the solar system.

This chapter looks at how and when our planet was formed. It also looks at the different layers that lie beneath the Earth's surface.

Planet Earth is born

Our physical environment consists of different parts like stars, planets, air and water. The Earth is one of the eight planets that form the solar system. The solar system is made of a star called the sun and a group of spinning planets called Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Satellite photographs of the Earth show that it is a sphere

The Earth's crust is made of large, slowly moving blocks of rocks called tectonic plates. All modern continents sit on tectonic plates. Tectonic plates are made of rocks that were once part of the hot liquid material of the early Earth. Modern tectonic plates move at about the same speed as our fingernails grow. Tectonic plates were formed millions of years ago and they have been moving and changing ever since. The Earth's crust is made of about 29 tectonic plates. See animation The Earth became a planet with a hard crust about 4000 million years ago. Even though the Earth was a much cooler place by then, it was still too hot to support any form of life. At that stage, the Earth did not have any water or air. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, comets and meteors were common events at that time. They were the main forces shaping the newly-formed surface of the Earth. The first landforms were like mountains and 'holes' that later became oceans and lakes.

Deep down in the Earth

According to scientific research and calculations, the distance between the surface of the Earth and its centre is about 3900 km. As yet, no one has managed to drill down more than 15 km. But there are ways of finding out what is happening deep down in the Earth without actually having to go there. Forces generated by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions bring the deeper-lying rocks closer to the surface. These rocks are samples of material that make up the 'insides' of Earth. By studying these rocks, scientists have discovered that our planet is made up of three layers of different types of rocks and metals. These layers are:

The crust
The hard surface of the Earth is called the crust. The Earth's crust is like a skin that covers the Earth. The Earth's crust is covered with soil. Soil is a complex mixture of rotting plants, animals and rocks. Soil is a very important part of the Earth's biosphere. The part of the Earth and its atmosphere that can support life is called the biosphere.

The mantle
The layer that lies directly under the crust is called the mantle. It is the thickest layer and it is mostly made of hot, melted rocks. This hot, bubbling, jelly-like mass is slowly moving up and down from the Earth's core. When volcanoes erupt, magma breaks through the Earth's crust. The whole process is very slow because this layer is made of very heavy and solid rocks.

The core
The core is the deepest layer of the Earth. Because the deepest layers have the highest temperatures, the Earth's core is the hottest part. The Earth's core temperature is about 7000 degrees Celsius - 70 times hotter than the temperature of boiling water. Scientists believe that the core is liquid on the outside and solid on the inside and is made mostly of metals like iron and nickel.