What does plastic mean in asthenosphere?
Answer: Rocks in the asthenosphere are “plastic”, meaning that they can flow in response to deformation. Below that is the mantle, which of made up of denser rocks than the crust.
What is the importance of plastic asthenosphere?
The asthenosphere is the more plastic, molten layer below the more rigid crust. Crustal blocks like tectonic plates ride across the asthenosphere, being pushed and pulled by the convection (rising hot, sinking cold). The heat transfer helps dictate plate tectonics.
Is the asthenosphere plastic or elastic?
Traditionally, the boundary between lithosphere and asthenosphere (LAB) is defined by a difference in response to stress: the lithosphere remains elastic or brittle, while the asthenosphere deforms viscously and accommodates strain through plastic deformation.
Why is the asthenosphere considered plastic solid?
The Asthenosphere is made up of semi-plastic rock. Since the Lithosphere has a lower density, it floats on top of the Asthenosphere similar to the way in which an iceberg or a block of wood floats on water. The lower mantle below the Asthenosphere is more rigid and less plastic.
What does it mean if a layer is plastic?
Earthquake waves indicate that at a depth between 37 and 155 miles the stuff of the earth is less rigid than that above and below it. Such a layer would have an important bearing on tectonic processes. By Don L. Anderson.
Is the asthenosphere brittle?
Summary. The lithosphere is the brittle crust and uppermost mantle. The asthenosphere is a solid but it can flow, like toothpaste.
What is an interesting fact about the asthenosphere?
The rock in the asthenosphere is low density and partially molten. Underneath the oceans the asthenosphere is closer to the earth’s surface. When crustal plates sink into the earth’s mantle deep zone earthquakes can occur in the asthenosphere.
What are the characteristics of the asthenosphere?
The asthenosphere is the denser, weaker layer beneath the lithospheric mantle. It lies between about 100 kilometers (62 miles) and 410 kilometers (255 miles) beneath Earth’s surface. The temperature and pressure of the asthenosphere are so high that rocks soften and partly melt, becoming semi-molten.
What is asthenosphere made of?
The asthenosphere is also known as the “low velocity” zone of the mantle because seismic waves slow down as they pass through it. This property tells us that the asthenosphere is composed of partially molten rock slushlike material consisting of solid particles with liquid occupying spaces in between.
What is the asthenosphere and describe its characteristics?
What is an example of asthenosphere?
Examples of asthenosphere in a Sentence. Recent Examples on the Web. These pieces, divided between older continental crust and younger oceanic crust, ride atop the gooey asthenosphere, a semiliquid layer of magma and partly melted rock.
What does the asthenosphere do?
The asthenosphere is a layer of great geological importance to the Earth’s mantle. It is responsible to create new earth crust, which means that new lands will be produced.
What are the characteristics of asthenosphere?
Asthenosphere characteristics. The asthenosphere is composed of semi-fused and solid materials at the same time. On it floats the lithosphere , which is a rigid layer that is composed by the external part of the mantle and by the terrestrial crust allowing the tectonic plates to move.
How thick is the asthenosphere?
asthenosphere. The asthenosphere is the ductile part of the earth just below the lithosphere, including the upper mantle. The asthenosphere is about 180 km thick.