The uppermost part of the continental crust — the part actually exposed to sampling, weathering and erosion. Compositional estimates for it differ substantially from estimates for the crust as a whole, and the two must never be quoted interchangeably.
SchematicBulk Earth, bulk silicate Earth, the crust and the upper continental crust are four different volumes, and therefore four different compositions. The core holds most of Earth’s iron, so a figure for one is not a figure for another.Full description of this figure
Concentric shells drawn to scale from Lithoen’s recorded layer thicknesses. The outermost line is the crust. The shell within it is the mantle; mantle and crust together are bulk silicate Earth. Inside those lie the outer and inner core. Bulk Earth is everything, core included. The upper continental crust is only the outermost sampled part of the continental portion of the crust. Because the core holds most of Earth’s iron and its siderophile elements, bulk Earth and bulk silicate Earth are compositions of two different volumes rather than two estimates of one.
Original Lithoen diagram · LITHOEN-ORIGINAL
Classification
scope
crustalSubdivision
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.
EstablishedA sampled subdivision, compositionally distinct from the whole crust.
Upper continental crust is a subdivision of the continental crust, not a synonym for it. It is the part actually available to sampling, weathering and erosion, and its composition differs from that of the crust taken as a whole.
precision note: Recorded so that a value attributed to “the crust” cannot silently be read as a value for the part of it anyone has ever held.
Evidence support: Supported by the cited evidence· one source
