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LITHOEN

Earth layer

Oceanic crust

The thin, dense crust underlying the ocean basins, generated continuously at mid-ocean ridges and returned to the mantle at subduction zones. It varies little in thickness compared with continental crust.

Classification

division basis
compositional

How this record is known

1
Settled consensus
Cited as the accepted position of the discipline.

1 of 1 claims on this page cite at least one registered source. Counts describe how each statement is known, not how likely it is to be true.

What Lithoen records

Each claim states how it is known and cites its evidence.

Established5 km

Oceanic crust varies little in thickness and generally extends only to about 5 kilometres.

  • precision note: About 5 km, with little variation, as stated by the source.

Evidence support: Supported by the cited evidence one source

Evidence: Kious 1996 Primary authority

In the knowledge graph

Record last updated 2026-09-06. Corrections follow the published corrections policy; superseded claims are retained, never silently edited.