• Question: What would happen if we removed all of the mantle in the earth, instantly and simultaneously

    Asked by markbarwell to Andrew, Daniel, Hayley, Natalia, Peta on 17 Nov 2011.
    • Photo: Daniel Scully

      Daniel Scully answered on 17 Nov 2011:

      The Earth’s surface isn’t as stable as we sometimes think. It’s made up of tectonic plates floating on the mantle.

      So if you instantaneously removed the mantle the plates would all collapse in towards the centre of mass of what remained.

      Everything would crash together and you’d probably end up with a large asteroid field orbiting the Sun where the Earth used to be.

    • Photo: Peta Foster

      Peta Foster answered on 17 Nov 2011:

      Well that makes up quite a lot of he planet… therefore the outside shell would collapse inwards which would destroy life as we know it for sure…. then the gravity would be a lot less… the earth would cool down a lot…

      … lets hope it doesn’t happen ay? 😉

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