If the Earth were the size of an apple how thick would the solid crust be?
Please don`t say the thickness of the skin because that makes my friend
very uncomfortable.
Paul
Marquis
Hi Paul,
Well, I hope to not worry your friend with this answer. The radius of the earth
is about 6400 km. The continental crust is about 60 km thick so we'll say 1% of
the radius. If an apple has a radius of 3 cm, then 1% of that is 0.3 mm. I've
never measured the thickness of apple skin so I don't know how 0.3 mm compares
to it. By the way, the oceanic crust is closer to 6 km thick.
If you look in most earth science books, they greatly exaggerate the thickness
of the crust mainly because otherwise they couldn't draw it. The good ones tell
you that they have done so.
Sincerley,
Scott Rowland, University of Hawaii
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