THE Earth's crustit is one of the three main layers of the Earth and makes up almost the entire solid composition of the planet, that is, it is the portion of the Earth where the rocks are found. Below it is the mantle, composed basically of magma.
This layer is the thinnest on Earth, having an appearance similar to a “shell” on the planet. The thickness of the Earth's crust varies between 5 and 70 kilometers, which seems a lot to humans, however almost nothing in front of the 6,380 kilometers that make up the distance between the surface and the center of our planet. To date, humans have only been able to drill to a depth of 12 kilometers.
In terms of location, the earth's crust can be divided into two parts: a crustoceanic and the continental crust. The oceanic is the thinnest, with a depth that varies between 5 and 10 kilometers, while the continental is thickest, ranging between 30 and 70 kilometers.
The outermost part of the crust is called the relief, which is responsible for showing us the terrestrial transformations on its surface. It is always changing, whether by internal or endogenous agents (volcanism and tectonism) or by external or exogenous agents (action of water, wind and living beings).
It is important not to forget that the Earth's crust is not completely continuous over the planet, that is, it has some "cracks" that divide it into several more or less fitted pieces, as in a puzzle. These pieces are called tectonic plates and they are always moving because they are floating on the magma of the Earth's interior.
Because of this movement, the relief undergoes transformations, such as the formation of mountains and ocean trenches, in addition to the manifestation of earthquakes and volcanic activities. For this reason, we can say that, contrary to what many people think, the earth's crust is not a static, stationary medium, but a space that is in constant movement and transformation.
By Rodolfo Alves Pena
Graduated in Geography
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