page_title: Lithosphere
section_title: Types
hierarchical_section_title: Lithosphere / Earth's lithosphere / Types
context_page_description: A lithosphere is the rigid, outermost shell of a terrestrial-type planet, or natural satellite, that is defined by its rigid mechanical properties. On Earth, it is composed of the crust and the portion of the upper mantle that behaves elastically on time scales of thousands of years or greater. The outermost shell of a rocky planet, the crust, is defined on the basis of its chemistry and mineralogy.
context_section_description: There are two types of lithosphere:
  Oceanic lithosphere, which is associated with oceanic crust and exists in the ocean basins (mean density of about 2.9 grams per cubic centimeter)
  Continental  lithosphere, which is associated with continental crust (mean density of about 2.7 grams per cubic centimeter)
  The thickness of the lithosphere is considered to be the depth to the isotherm associated with the transition between brittle and viscous behavior. The temperature at which olivine begins to deform viscously (~1000 °C) is often used to set this isotherm because olivine is generally the weakest mineral in the upper mantle. Oceanic lithosphere is typically about 50–140 km thick (but beneath the mid-ocean ridges is no thicker than the crust), while continental lithosphere has a range in thickness from about 40 km to perhaps 280 km; the upper ~30 to ~50 km of typical continental lithosphere is crust. The mantle part of the lithosphere consists largely of peridotite. The crust is distinguished from the upper mantle by the change in chemical composition that takes place at the Moho discontinuity.
caption: Different types of lithosphere