Abstract
Two types of crust coexist on Earth—the continental crust and oceanic crust—each with distinctively different elevations, chemical compositions, ages, and formation mechanisms. Earth's oceanic crust, with a basaltic composition, is the norm on rocky planetary surfaces, whereas the andesitic continental crust sets Earth apart from other rocky planetary members in the solar system. Exploration of the ocean floor only began about 70years ago, but we appear to understand the nature of the oceanic crust far better than that of the continental crust, on which all of human history is played out. The continental crust has complex formation processes and evolution histories which are highly debated in the geoscience community today. This chapter, from a composition perspective, briefly reviews our current knowledge of Earth's two types of crust.
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