Manteel (geology)

The manteel is a pairt o a terrestrial planet or ither rocky body lairge eneuch tae hae differentiation bi density. The interior o the Yird, similar tae the ither terrestrial planets, is chemically dividit intae layers. The manteel is a layer atween the crust an the ooter core. Yird's manteel is a silicate rocky shell aboot 2,900 km (1,800 mi) thick^[1] that constitutes aboot 84% o Yird's volume.^[2] It is predominantly solit but in geological time it behaves lik verra viscous liquid. The manteel encloses the het core rich in airn an nickel, that occupies aboot 15% o Yird's vollum.^[2][3] Past episodes o meltin an volcanism at the shallaer levels o the manteel hae produced a thin crust o creestallised melt products near the surface, upon which we leeve.^[4] Information aboot structure an composeetion o the manteel aither result frae geopheesical investigation or frae direct geoscientific analyses on Yird manteel derived xenoliths.

The structur o the Yird

Twa main zones are distinguished in the upper manteel: the inner asthenosphere componed o plastic flaein rock aboot 200 km thick,^[5] an the lawermaist pairt o the lithosphere componed o rigid rock aboot 50 tae 120 km thick.^[6] A thin crust, the upper pairt o the lithosphere, surroonds the manteel an is aboot 5 tae 75 km thick.^[7]

In some places unner the ocean the manteel is actually exponed on the surface o the Yird.^[8] Thare are an aa a few places on land whaur manteel rock haes been pushed tae the surface bi tectonic activity, maist notably the Tablelands region o Gros Morne Naitional Pairk in the Canadian province o Newfoundland an Labrador.