Scientific maverick's theory on Earth's core up for a test

SF Chronicle ^ | Monday, November 29, 2004 | Keay Davidson

[SunkenCiv]

Researchers are preparing to test the highly controversial theory of a San Diego scientist, J. Marvin Herndon, who thinks a huge, natural nuclear reactor or "georeactor" -- a vast deposit of uranium several miles wide -- exists at Earth's core, thousands of miles beneath our feet... [I]t might help to explain otherwise puzzling phenomena of planetary science, such as fluctuations in the intensity of Earth's magnetic field... If Herndon's theoretical nuclear reactor really exists, then it should be gushing out antineutrinos that would fly through the roughly 4,000 miles of solid rock and emerge at the Earth's surface.

[SunkenCiv]

• Earth's Core Spins Faster Than the Rest of the Planet
• Earth's Core Spinning Faster Than Crust
• Scientists find Earth's center is outspinning the surface

-and-

• Sun's rays to roast Earth as poles flip
• Earth's magnetic poles on verge of flipping