section_path: Layers
section_name: Layers
paragraph_text: Layers
  
  The pedosphere is the outermost layer of Earth's continental surface and is composed of soil and subject to soil formation processes. Below it, the lithosphere encompasses both Earth's crust and the uppermost layer of the mantle. The lithosphere rests, or "floats", on top of the mantle below it via isostasy. Above the solid ground, the troposphere and humans' use of land can be considered layers of the land.