Layers of the Earth Word Search Printable

The Earth's layers with an answer key: crust, mantle and core, what each is made of, how we know.

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Layers of the Earth Word Search

Find every word hidden in the grid. Words go across and down.

0 of 16 words found

IDRROEOEEQBOBAL

CQRRMWHLNVYIEAA

URCDAPIISURFACE

GFRMNMHTUPZCBEB

LLUMTDAHUWHWELO

BASALTEORALWYNU

ASTHENOSPHEREKN

TRCASDKPRNSOLID

TPDFEEHHYMPEMSA

OOAEINEEHAIRONR

CPRESSUREGDBLTY

RRRRMEPEAMFTTYW

TIRIIEOVTASQEES

ECYCCMNICKELNHD

ONOBSOIEEFHADRE

This grid is wider and taller than its box. Slide it to see every letter.To drag, hold the first letter for a moment, then slide.Keyboard: Tab to the grid, arrow keys to move, Enter on the first and last letter.

CrustCRUST
MantleMANTLE
LithosphereLITHOSPHERE
AsthenosphereASTHENOSPHERE
BoundaryBOUNDARY
SurfaceSURFACE
IronIRON
NickelNICKEL
BasaltBASALT
MagmaMAGMA
MoltenMOLTEN
SolidSOLID
DenseDENSE
HeatHEAT
PressurePRESSURE
SeismicSEISMIC

16 of 24 words from the Layers of the Earth Key Terms list.

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Answer key: Layers of the Earth Word Search

IDRROEOEEQBOBAL

CQRRMWHLNVYIEAA

URCDAPIISURFACE

GFRMNMHTUPZCBEB

LLUMTDAHUWHWELO

BASALTEORALWYNU

ASTHENOSPHEREKN

TRCASDKPRNSOLID

TPDFEEHHYMPEMSA

OOAEINEEHAIRONR

CPRESSUREGDBLTY

RRRRMEPEAMFTTYW

TIRIIEOVTASQEES

ECYCCMNICKELNHD

ONOBSOIEEFHADRE

CRUST, MANTLE, LITHOSPHERE, ASTHENOSPHERE, BOUNDARY, SURFACE, IRON, NICKEL, BASALT, MAGMA, MOLTEN, SOLID, DENSE, HEAT, PRESSURE, SEISMIC

Next step Print the plates the lithosphere is broken into Find more rocks and minerals by name

All 108 words

Earth's Layers and Boundaries 27

Asthenosphere The weak, ductile zone of the upper mantle that lies right under the lithosphere.
Boundary The place where one layer ends and the next begins.
Chemical Describes the division into crust, mantle and core, by what each is made of.
Continental Describes the crust that forms the land masses and the shallow seabed near their shores.
Crust The thin outer shell of rock, under one percent of the radius of the planet.
Depth How far down something lies below the surface.
Discontinuity A depth where seismic waves abruptly change speed, which marks a boundary.
Earth The planet whose inside this puzzle names.
Gutenberg The seismologist whose name is on the boundary about 2,900 km down.
Inner core The innermost layer, mainly a solid ball about 1,230 km in radius.
Innermost Farthest in, as the inner core is.
Interior The inside of the planet, everything beneath the surface.
Layer One of the shells, such as the crust or the mantle, that make up the planet.
Lithosphere The rigid outer shell: the crust together with the topmost part of the mantle.
Lower With "mantle", the part from about 660 km down to the outer core.

Show all 108 words (93 more)

Earth's Layers and Boundaries, continued

Mantle The thickest layer, mostly solid rock, lying under the crust and over the core.
Mechanical Describes the division into lithosphere, asthenosphere and the rest, by how each behaves.
Moho Where the crust meets the mantle, in its short name.
Oceanic Describes the crust under the seas, which is thinner and denser than the crust of the land.
Outer core The liquid layer, mostly iron and nickel, that surrounds the solid center.
Outermost Farthest out, as the crust is.
Radius The distance from the center of the planet to its surface, about 6,371 km on average.
Shell An outer covering. The crust is the planet's, made of rock.
Surface The outside of the planet: the top of the crust.
Thickness How far a layer reaches from its top to its bottom.
Transition zone The part of the mantle that lies between its upper and lower parts.
Upper With "mantle", the part that begins just beneath the crust.

What the Layers Are Made Of 27

Alloy A blend of metals, such as the iron and nickel of the inner core.
Aluminum The metal in the silicates of the upper continental crust; the "al" of sial.
Basalt A fine-grained volcanic rock, the main rock of the ocean floors.
Bridgmanite A silicate thought to be a main mineral of the lower mantle.
Composition What something is made of.
Core The center of the planet, made mostly of iron and nickel.
Dense Heavy for its size. Mantle rock is more so than the crust above it.
Diamond A gem carried up from deep in the mantle inside kimberlite.
Gabbro A coarse-grained rock, with the same makeup as basalt, in the lower oceanic crust.
Granite A coarse-grained rock found widely in the crust of the continents.
Iron The metal that makes up most of the core.
Kimberlite A rare kind of peridotite, best known as the rock that holds diamonds.
Liquid The state of the outer core.
Magma Molten or partly molten rock beneath the surface.
Magnesium An element that the rock of the mantle and of the ocean floors is rich in.
Metal Iron or nickel, for example.
Mineral A natural solid, such as olivine, of the kind that rocks are made of.
Molten Melted by heat, as the iron and nickel of the outer core are.
Nickel The metal found with iron in the core.
Olivine A magnesium iron silicate, the main mineral of the upper mantle.
Peridotite The dense, coarse-grained rock of the upper mantle.
Pyroxene With olivine, one of the two minerals that mostly make up peridotite.
Rock The hard natural material, made of minerals, that forms the crust and the mantle.
Sial An old name for the upper crust, with rocks rich in aluminum silicates.
Silicate The kind of rock-forming mineral that makes up about 90 percent of the crust.
Sima An old name for the lower crust, with rocks rich in magnesium silicates.
Solid The state of the inner core and of nearly all the mantle.

Heat and Motion Inside the Earth 26

Caramel The sweet whose consistency the slowly flowing mantle is sometimes compared to.
Convection The slow creep of the mantle that carries heat from the interior toward the surface.
Creep Very slow movement, the way the solid mantle moves.
Current A steady flow. Those in the mantle carry heat upward.
Decay The breakdown of unstable isotopes, which gives off heat.
Ductile Able to bend and flow without breaking, as the asthenosphere is.
Dynamo The process in which the moving liquid of the outer core keeps up a magnetic field.
Electric Describes the currents in the outer core that generate the magnetic field.
Escape To get out, as heat does from the interior into space.
Flow To move along steadily, as mantle rock does over very long times.
Fluid Able to flow. The outer core is one.
Formation The making of the planet, which left heat that is still flowing out.
Gradient With "geothermal", the rate at which temperature changes with depth.
Heat Energy that flows from the hot inside of the planet toward the surface.
Isotope A form of an element. The decay of some kinds heats the mantle and the crust.
Magnetic Describes the field made by moving molten iron and nickel in the outer core.
Melt To turn from solid to liquid, as a tiny share of the asthenosphere's rock does.
Pressure The squeezing force of all the rock above, greater the deeper you go.
Primordial Describes the heat left over from the time the planet formed.
Radioactive Describes the decay of isotopes that supplies about half of the planet's inner heat.
Rigid Stiff and unbending, as the lithosphere is.
Rise To move up, as warmer, less dense material does in convection.
Sink To move down, as cooler, denser material does in convection.
Temperature How hot something is. In the crust it rises with depth.
Viscous Thick and slow to flow. Over geologic time the mantle behaves like such a fluid.
Weak Easily deformed. The asthenosphere's Greek name means "without strength".

Studying the Inside of the Earth 28

Arrive To reach a place. Primary waves do so before any other seismic wave.
Borehole A deep, narrow hole drilled into the ground. The deepest goes down just over 12 km.
Deduce To work out from evidence, which is how the nature of the core is known.
Detect To pick up or notice, as a seismograph does a passing wave.
Drill To bore a hole. The deepest effort reached about 12 km into the crust.
Earthquake A shaking of the ground that sends waves through the whole planet.
Geophysics The physical science of the planet's processes, shape and fields.
Kola The peninsula in Russia where the deepest human-made hole was drilled.
Lehmann The Danish seismologist who discovered the solid inner core in 1936.
Meteorite A rock from space. Iron ones are made of the same alloy as planetary cores.
Model A picture of the inside of the planet, built by comparing seismic records.
Mohorovicic The Croatian geophysicist for whom the crust and mantle boundary is named.
Primary With "wave", the fastest seismic wave. It can pass through solids and liquids.
Record To set down for later, as a seismograph does the shaking of the ground.
Refract To bend, as primary waves do when they meet the liquid outer core.
Sample A piece taken for study. There are mantle ones, but none of the core.
Secondary With "wave", the seismic wave that cannot travel through a liquid.
Seismic Describes the waves of energy that travel through the planet after an earthquake.
Seismogram The graph that a seismograph puts out: a record of ground motion over time.
Seismologist A scientist who studies earthquakes and the waves they send out.
Seismometer An instrument that responds to the shaking of the ground.
Shadow zone An area of the surface where direct waves from an earthquake cannot be detected.
Shear To push material sideways, as a secondary wave does to the rock it crosses.
Tomography A technique that images the inside of the planet with seismic waves.
Travel To move from place to place, as seismic waves do through the planet.
Velocity Speed in a given direction. Seismic waves change theirs between layers.
Waves With "seismic", the vibrations whose paths reveal the layers.
Xenolith A piece of foreign rock caught up in magma and carried along with it.

How it works

This layers of the Earth word search printable draws 16 of 24 key terms, such as Crust, Mantle, Outer core, Inner core, Lithosphere and Magma. The plates that the lithosphere is broken into have their own plate tectonics word search.

Read the full guide

A hard layers of the Earth word search, printable

Pick Hard Layers of the Earth under Start from a list: 32 words of nine letters or more, among them Asthenosphere, Discontinuity, Transition zone and Mohorovicic. Then press Hard, and the words also run diagonally and backwards.

Four lists by theme

Earth's Layers and Boundaries has 27 words. What the Layers Are Made Of has 27, with Peridotite, Olivine and Kimberlite. Heat and Motion Inside the Earth has 26, such as Convection, Dynamo and Creep. Studying the Inside of the Earth has 28, from Seismic and Shadow zone to Borehole and Xenolith.

Outer core, Inner core, Transition zone and Shadow zone hide closed up: OUTERCORE.
Easy Layers of the Earth has 33 words of four or five letters, such as Crust, Iron and Moho.

Questions and answers

What are the layers of the Earth in order?

From the outside in: the crust, the mantle, the liquid outer core and the solid inner core. Sorted by how the material behaves, the order is lithosphere, asthenosphere, lower mantle, outer core, inner core.

What is the thickest layer of the Earth?

The mantle. It is about 2,900 kilometers thick and makes up about 84 percent of the planet's volume. The outer core is about 2,260 kilometers thick, and the inner core is a ball about 1,230 kilometers in radius.

How do scientists know what is inside the Earth?

Mostly from seismic waves. Secondary waves cannot travel through liquid and stop at the outer core, which shows that it is liquid. There are rock samples from the mantle, and none from the core.

What is the difference between the crust and the lithosphere?

The crust is the outer shell of rock, told from the mantle by its chemistry. The lithosphere is the rigid outer layer: the crust and the topmost part of the upper mantle together.

Does the layers of the Earth word search have an answer key?

Yes, on a second page of Letter or A4, with every word ringed. Tick Show clues, not words, and Moho prints as "Where the crust meets the mantle, in its short name."

All 108 words

Earth's Layers and Boundaries 27

Earth's Layers and Boundaries, continued

What the Layers Are Made Of 27

Heat and Motion Inside the Earth 26

Studying the Inside of the Earth 28

How it works

A hard layers of the Earth word search, printable

Four lists by theme

Questions and answers

More tools