Earth's Inner Core Might Be on the Move

Article

Earth's solid inner core may be continually inching eastward relative to its liquid outer core, renewing itself by shedding its front while solidifying its back, a team of French scientists suggests.

"Within less than 100 million years, everything that has been crystallized on the west will have melted on the east," said lead researcher Thierry Alboussiere of Universite Joseph Fourier in Grenoble.

The idea counters traditional theory that the big ball at the center of the Earth stands still, growing uniformly in all directions as the planet cools. It could shed light on the nature of the core - such as its age, apparent seismic mismatches, and a mysterious coating of dense fluid on its surface.

About a billion years ago, the middle of the Earth began slowly solidifying from the inside out. The planet is hottest at its center, possibly even hotter than the surface of the sun, yet the core's iron is thought to be solid because of the extreme pressure that has raised its melting temperature. As it freezes, according to theory, the inner core takes in more iron, sending lighter elements up through the liquid outer core. This movement is thought to drive Earth's magnetic field.

Eh, I dont know much about the interior of the Earth, so I dont really have much to say about this. I just thought Id post this on here to share with everyone.

Im guessing this could possibly change alot about what we know of the Earth's interior. Maybe we will have a better understanding how how the Earths magnetic field works, or maybe a better understanding of earthquakes.

reply to post by buni11687


But what would cause it to do that? Wouldn't there have to be an external force to cause the core to move? And long as I'm throwing question out here, What effect would this have to us on the surface, wouldn't it throw our rotaion off? I mean, I know this is happening very, very slowly but wouldn't still effect our rotation?

Originally posted by Chance321
reply to post by buni11687

 

But what would cause it to do that?

Maybe the Earth's "wobble" causes it.

Interesting theory. Thanks for sharing OP.

Can someone explain why the core of the planet is so hot? How is it theoretically as hot as the surface of the sun? Why isn't it cooling down?

the earth has mass one heck of alot of mass try rubbing your hands toghter very hard and very fast they will heat up .
well you have trillions of tons pushing (or being pulled if you like) downwards in all directions .
at 2.5 miles down (which is the deepest MANED mine ) it takes many air conducthioners to even keep the temp down to 100% f if they are shut off for even a few mints the temp shots up to 125 150% very fast.
now some volcanoes work differently the earths tentonic plates ride over each other in places (just like rudding your hands toghter) but with billions of tons of rock being pushed over other rock well it heats up to very high numbers 5 or 6k % even as lava comes out the temp has been messered at over 3.5k and i immange the temp gauge busted lol.
unlike mars which is much smaller earth will never become totaly solid as theres way to much pressure Millions of pounds per square inch that creats the heat

awesome find!

for you!

for some time, i've had this increasingly persuasive idea, or theory, forming in my head related to the true nature of the Earth's geomagnetic structure and function.

i'd watch shows on History and Discovery channels that would say that our Earth's tectonic activity would eventually cool and the planet would basically die from lack of geologic turnover, just like Mars. Venus never had any such activity, or so they think, so we don't have a model similar to our planet available for comparison.

i don't even think Mars is a good comparison - it seemed to shoot it's geomagnetic wad hard and early, creating unbelievable volcanoes like Olympus Mons before it burned out and became still and cold.

but the Earth began to reveal itself to me as a recycling wonder with amazing unsurpassed efficiency. my first inkling of this was in understanding the role of the two deep trenches and the one ocean ridge:
we have one deep sea trench for either hemisphere - the Marianas and the Puerto Rico trenches, specifically, and all the ocean floor and what rests upon it, slowly and steadily makes it way to one of the two trenches where it is taken into the lower geologic workings in the vicinity of the mantle. also, "old" rock is taken back down to the same place at the border fault lines wherever two, or more, faults abut one another.
we have the Mid Atlantic Ridge where new land is constantly coming into the ocean via a super-active lava seep that goes on for thousands of miles and actually appears somewhat like a baseball's seam around the planet.

that is constant! the earth is constantly eating its old land and regurgitating new land. one day the Titanic will be totally gone because the part of the sea floor it rests upon is headed toward, i guess, the Puerto Rico trench.

now, when they said the Earth has a limited lifetime, it just didn't sit well with me - not that i mind it if it is true - it's billions of years in the future and i hope to be not only gone from this planet but also this dimension, etc.
but it just didn't seem TRUE. when i get those kinds of feelings, they always pan out to be accurate - and so i know it isn't my subconscious telling me this stuff because my subconscious is RARELY right, much less always!

then i had an epiphany about how the form and function of your basic electric motor, with windings, is much like the Earth itself. i was thinking about the mysterious but confirmed switching of north and south magnetic poles as evidenced by the rocks on the sea floor.

if there is an interaction between the earth's crust and the iron core, to do with this switching, then it is possibly acting much like a rotor and stator!

i'm sorry that i don't have professional words to use when explaining this stuff - i'm not at all proficient in these ideas except by intuition and something else i can't explain - i understand it all instinctively but don't know the jargon.

it seems to me that the fact that the Earth is always turning itself over and over and inside out and outside in, etc., that there is a self-propagating electromagnetic system unique to this planet that does not have a prescribed or limited lifespan.

i also think it has to do with the animal and plant life that lives here - the fact that everything alive in this system eventually dies and is recycling back into this amazing system is somehow the means for which the Planet's larger life-cycle is perpetuated indefinitely.

i think if there was no flora or fauna whatsoever, that lived here, it would be a completely different scenario.

but that doesn't mean that man is required for the Planet's health and longevity - not at all. just biologic carbon-based life, in general. something which probably thrives greatly in the absence of humankind.



anyway, thanks for letting me ramble and share my thoughts. please share yours with me!

Originally posted by Chance321
I mean, I know this is happening very, very slowly but wouldn't still effect our rotation?

the key word in the article is "relative"

Earth's solid inner core may be continually inching eastward relative to its liquid outer core, renewing itself by shedding its front while solidifying its back, a team of French scientists suggests.

the actual location of the core isn't changing - i'm sure something to do with rotation and orbit helps to keep it there as well as specific gravity.

but it's actually just renewing itself constantly by losing the front (east) and solidifying its back (west)

i assume the solid is west and loss happens in the east.

but really, the earth is round!
east and west themselves are absolutely relative terms unless it's figured in regard to the sunlight falling on the surface as we rotate in our solar orbit.

this is probably the best way they could find to explain that there is a both a point of disposal and renewal on the core that is keeping it going.

Originally posted by sremmos
Why isn't it cooling down?

i think it is because the kinetic energy of the plate tectonics and movement becomes heat at the core.
and it is that heat that causes the tectonic plates to continue to move and interact with one another.
which then makes kinetic energy which becomes heat at the core...
and that heat....

and on and on just like that.
a self-perpetuating cycle that results in the perfect form of "renewable energy."

reply to post by sremmos

Why isn't [the Earth] cooling down?

Radiogenic heating

The radioactive isotopes inside the Earth generate heat. In particular, decays of the daughter nuclei in the decay chains of uranium-238 and thorium-232, and potassium-40 generate most of the radiogenic heat produced. According to the estimated concentrations of these isotopes, the radiogenic heat production rates are 8.0, 8.3, and 3TW for the uranium-238 series, thorium-232 series, and potassium-40 decays, respectively. The sum of the estimated radiogenic heat production rate, ~19TW, is only about the half of the total heat flow measured using borehole measurements. According to some mantle convection models, these two numbers, 44TW (or 31TW) for the total heat dissipation rate from the Earth, and 19TW for radiogenic heat production rate should be similar.

As these radioactive isotopes beta-decay, they produce antineutrinos. So, measuring these antineutrinos may serve as a crosscheck of the radiogenic heat production-rate (image and text: Stanford University).

Source

[edit: formatting]

[edit on 4-8-2010 by misinformational]

Originally posted by Aggie Man

Originally posted by Chance321
reply to

post by

buni11687

 

But what would cause it to do that?

Maybe the Earth's "wobble" causes it.

Interesting theory. Thanks for sharing OP.

Maybe "it" causes the wobble.

I definately see how the whole process makes sense. Consider this, The bulk of the earths mass is distributed unevelny in that most of the mass of the earth resides in towards the core, where the density of material is highest. That being said, it is proposed (not proven) that the inner core is solid and that the outer core is liquid. The mantle freely plastically deformes and the crust is brittle solid, and likes to crack.

Originally posted by sremmos
Can someone explain why the core of the planet is so hot? How is it
theoretically as hot as the surface of the sun? Why isn't it cooling down?

Why is the core solid, the crust solid, and everything in between not solid?

This is caused by two different events. The crust has been cooled by
"space" its really that simple, but the inner core is another story. It is
solid because of pressure, derived the from the force of all particles that
make up earth driving towards the core, fueled by gravity. As the potential energy "from all mass falling inward" emense heat builds up, satisfying both the of the laws of thermodynamics potential energy must go somewhere right? So, it heats up the core, leading to a liquid interrior of the planet (outer core) however, the inner core is different. The pressure exerted on the inner parts of the core is so extremely powerful that it forces the molecules into a solid state, where they are as densly packed as possible. This forms the inner core. The core is so hot because of the energy put into the system at the beginning of the earths creation

Anyway, I hope that explains to you why the core is hot. I can tell you more if you would like.

Back on track:

The movement of the solid core makes some sense because it contains the bulk of the earths mass (concentrated), and is therefore the center of gravity and the focus of the attraction between the sun and the earth. The core sits suspended in a liquid (outer core). and force is applied by the sun, pulling the core towards the sun (and the rest of the planet too) but has a stronger pull on the core.

Consider this simple experiment as an example.
Suspend a stator magnet in a small glass of water, rotate another stator magnet's respective opposite pole around the glass of water, observe the
magnet in the glass move towards the outside magnet as it rotates.
Replace this with a more complicated system where the entire aformetioned experment takes place at hundreds of thousands of degrees while being spun around in circles on the end of a string (i know its really an eliptical orbit but come on)

Originally posted by buni11687
Article

Earth's solid inner core may be continually inching eastward relative to its liquid outer core, renewing itself by shedding its front while solidifying its back, a team of French scientists suggests.

Now, for the part about shedding the frontal while solidifying its back.

Depending on where the core's "front is" relative to the Sun's gravitational
pull, It could be one of two cases.

1. The side away from the sun liquifies, the side towards the sun solidifies. As the core moves towards the sun, It would generate additional pressure in the surrounding area, simply forcing the liquid around that area of the core to solidify under additional pressure. While the part away from the sun would liquify because there would be decrease in pressure as the core moves away from the area. Liquifying the surrounding inner core area by decreasing the pressure.

2. The side towards the sun liquifies, the side away from the sun solidifies. As the core moves, The energy in the system is increased in the form of additional heat causing a layer of the core to liquifiy as the force of pressure cannot overcome the heat energy entered into the system. This
would create a current in the liquid outer core that would cause substantial
back pressure towards the side facing away from the sun. This back pressure would cause that area of the outer core to solidify, adding to the "back" of the core.

It seems to me that this sort of system would work and could be easily justified by expermentation. The earth is pretty amazing when you get down to it.

I think that this theory makes some sense, but what do I know, Im just a
college kid.

reply to post by LeeTheDestroyer


Wow, After reading all the way through my posts I noticed a whole bunch of errors. For some reason I am unable to edit my post, and I just want to say that I am sorry for the fast typing.

This is exactly what was recently described on a show I watched, only they were talking about Mars. I am becoming convinced that we and Mars are the same type of planet, only years and years apart. This is our interest in Mars, it is what earth will one day become. Are we living in that time? Is that what the Mayans knew?