MinuteEarth

Why Earth Has Two Levels | Hypsometric Curve

Listen Later

To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords:

  • Hypsometric Curve: Basically, a chart that shows the proportions of surface area at every elevation on a planet.
  • Crust: Earth's outermost layer, made out of two distinct materials – oceanic crust (which is denser) and continental crust (which is less dense).
  • Lithosphere: The rigid outer layer of Earth, including the crust and the hard, un-bending part of the upper mantle.
  • Subduction: The process of an ocean plate crashing into another plate and getting forced to dive down into Earth's mantle.
  • Isostasy: Describes the way earth's crust sort of floats in the underlying mantle. Continental crust is less dense and thicker, and floats higher than the oceanic crust, which is denser and thinner. Geologists talk about things like "isostatic rebound," which is what happens after an ice age, when the ice melts off a continent and the continent lifts up, like a floating raft in a pool after someone gets off (though continents rise more slowly).


    • MinuteEarth is produced by Neptune Studios LLC

    https://neptunestudios.info

    If you like what we do, you can help us!

    - Become our patron: https://patreon.com/MinuteEarth  

    - Buy our merch: http://dftba.com/minuteearth  

    - Buy our book: https://minuteearth.com/books

    - Sign up to our newsletter: http://news.minuteearth.com  

    - Share with your friends and family

    - Leave us a comment (we read them!)


    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    ...more
    View all episodesView all episodes
    Download on the App Store
    MinuteEarthBy Minute Earth
    • 4.2
    • 4.2
    • 4.2
    • 4.2
    • 4.2

    4.2

    5 ratings

    More shows like MinuteEarth

    View all
    Planet Money by NPR

    Planet Money

    30,609 Listeners

    More or Less by BBC Radio 4

    More or Less

    863 Listeners

    The History Hour by BBC World Service

    The History Hour

    586 Listeners

    BrainStuff by iHeartPodcasts

    BrainStuff

    1,652 Listeners

    Gastropod by Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley

    Gastropod

    3,648 Listeners

    CrowdScience by BBC World Service

    CrowdScience

    471 Listeners

    Savor by iHeartPodcasts

    Savor

    1,499 Listeners

    Today, Explained by Vox

    Today, Explained

    10,331 Listeners

    The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week by Popular Science

    The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

    2,184 Listeners

    FT News Briefing by Financial Times

    FT News Briefing

    684 Listeners

    Short Wave by NPR

    Short Wave

    6,592 Listeners

    Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford by Pushkin Industries

    Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

    5,109 Listeners

    The World in Brief from The Economist by The Economist

    The World in Brief from The Economist

    1,089 Listeners

    The World, the Universe and Us by New Scientist

    The World, the Universe and Us

    116 Listeners

    Unexplainable by Vox

    Unexplainable

    2,303 Listeners