alleryStart learning →Oceanic crust runs about 6 kilometers thick. How thick is continental crust?
A2 to 7 kilometers
B70 to 200 kilometers
C200 to 700 kilometers
D20 to 70 kilometers
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: D. 20 to 70 kilometers
1. Earth has two kinds of crust with clearly different thicknesses.
2. Oceanic crust is thin, typically about 6 kilometers of basalt.
3. Continental crust is much thicker, running 20 to 70 kilometers of granite.
4. Neither kind reaches 200 kilometers, since the mantle begins well above that depth.
_Source: OpenStax Astronomy (CC BY 4.0), section 8.2 Earth’s Crust_
Keep practising Earth as a Planet
Browse all Earth as a Planet questions for CAST — California Science Test, or explore more Science topics.
Related questions
Sort the layers by where they sitThe Tunguska body carried the punch of a 5-megaton bomb, yet dug no crater. What explains About 2 square kilometers of new ocean floor form every year. What does that rate imply?A worldwide sediment layer from 65 million years ago is rich in which rare metal?Earth was struck as often as the Moon, yet shows far fewer craters. What removed them?Carbon dioxide warms Earth's surface because it absorbs which kind of radiation?The great ice ages were primarily the result of changes in what?Effects of the atmosphere that last through decades and centuries are given which name?