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link(faculty.wwu.edu...
TextApproximate the Earth as a spherical shell with some excess charge –Q surrounded by another spherical shell with and equal but opposite charge +Q.
link(www.nature.com...
TextNuclear reactors could be burning deep beneath the ground, two scientists have claimed. They say that uranium could become sufficiently concentrated at the base of Earth’s mantle to ignite self-sustained nuclear fission, as in a human-made reactor. This is not the first time that natural ‘georeactors’ deep inside Earth have been proposed, and the idea has previously been greeted with scepticism by geoscientists. But physicist Rob de Meijer of the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa, and geochemist Wim van Westrenen of the Free University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, believe that their new proposal1 is more plausible. Radioactive decay of unstable isotopes of heavy elements such as uranium happens all the time beneath Earth's surface. The energy released contributes significantly to the heat of Earth’s mantle, which is also warmed by the planet's molten iron core. This combined heating creates convection currents in the sluggish mantle rock that ultimately power the drift of tectonic plates at the surface, giving rise to mountain ranges and earthquakes. But the intense ‘burning’ of radioactive fuel in nuclear reactors relies on a chain reaction in which nuclear decay of some atoms releases subatomic particles that stimulate the decay of others. This is possible only if the decaying atoms are much more concentrated than they generally are in rocks and minerals. “In the normal mantle, there is no way you could get a high enough concentration”, says van Westrenen.
link(www.nature.com...
TextYet it is clear that natural nuclear reactors can occur. Crustal rocks at Oklo in Gabon, Africa, bear unambiguous evidence of spontaneous ignition of uranium fission in mineral deposits 1.7 billion years ago. That is thought to be a very unusual case. But some researchers have previously suggested, although it's not a widely held view, that gravity could cause a concentration of radioactive ultra-heavy elements such as uranium. These elements might sink down into Earth’s core, where they are enriched enough to ignite georeactors. Such proposals don’t, however, seem to fit with what is known about how elements are distributed between the mantle and the core. De Meijer and van Westrenen now have a different idea, which draws on recent discoveries about the distribution of an isotope of the rare element neodymium in rocks2,3. Those observations suggested that there is a ‘reservoir’ of material deep inside Earth, which formed soon after the birth of the planet, about 4.5 billion years ago, and has not mixed with the rest of the mantle. The only place where such a reservoir could easily exist is at the very bottom of the mantle, at the boundary with the core, where convection currents don’t really reach to cause much stirring.
link(www.nature.com...
TextSuch a reactor would probably function as a 'breeder' reactor, generating plutonium fuel as it burns the original uranium. This means that such reactors could still be running today. What's more, because the other decay products include helium and xenon, this could help to explain the confusing ratios of these elements in volcanic magma, van Westrenen suggests.
Yes I think is true because some scientist theoreticaly proof so but in practice no one look inside the earth with all they're satellites they have!
Originally posted by Hawking
Lol - JesusIsSavior.com is where I get all my scientific information from too
But really it's a pretty interesting theory, if I knew more about geology and capacitors I'd have more input, but it's always nice to see an alternative perspective on our world and our lives
BTW I think Gaia theory (in which the Earth is a living organism) is also pretty fascinating