Compare and contrast oceanic crust with continental crust. In your answer, be sure to consider the features of the two types of crust, such as thickness and composition. For example, what are the major elements in each type of crust?

“Crust” describes  the outermost shell of a terrestrial planet. Our planet’s thin, 40-kilometer (25-mile) deep crust—just 1% of Earth’s mass—contains all known life in the universe.

Earth has three layers: the crust, the mantle, and the core. The crust is made of solid rocks and minerals. Beneath the crust is the mantle, which is also mostly solid rocks and minerals, but punctuated by malleable areas of semi-solid magma. At the center of the Earth is a hot, dense metal core.

Earth’s layers constantly interact with each other, and the crust and upper portion of the mantle are part of a single geologic unit called the lithosphere. The lithosphere’s depth varies, and the Mohorovicic discontinuity (the Moho)—the boundary between the mantle and crust—does not exist at a uniform depth. Isostasy describes the physical, chemical, and mechanical differences between the mantle and crust that allow the crust to “float” on the more malleable mantle. Not all regions of Earth are balanced in isostatic equilibrium. Isostatic equilibrium depends on the density and thickness of the crust, and the dynamic forces at work in the mantle.

Just as the depth of the crust varies, so does its temperature. The upper crust withstands the ambient temperature of the atmosphere or ocean—hot in arid deserts and freezing in ocean trenches. Near the Moho, the temperature of the crust ranges from 200° Celsius (392° Fahrenheit) to 400° Celsius (752° Fahrenheit).