The Enigma 1,800 Miles Below Us

New York Times ^ | May 28, 2012 | Natalie Angier

[JerseyanExile]

As if the inside story of our planet weren’t already the ultimate potboiler, a host of new findings has just turned the heat up past Stygian.

Geologists have long known that Earth’s core, some 1,800 miles beneath our feet, is a dense, chemically doped ball of iron roughly the size of Mars and every bit as alien. It’s a place where pressures bear down with the weight of 3.5 million atmospheres, like 3.5 million skies falling at once on your head, and where temperatures reach 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit — as hot as the surface of the Sun. It’s a place where the term “ironclad agreement” has no meaning, since iron can’t even agree with itself on what form to take. It’s a fluid, it’s a solid, it’s twisting and spiraling like liquid confetti.

Now it turns out that existing models of the core, for all their drama, may not be dramatic enough. Reporting recently in the journal Nature, Dario Alfè of University College London and his colleagues presented evidence that iron in the outer layers of the core is frittering away heat through the wasteful process called conduction at two to three times the rate of previous estimates.

The theoretical consequences of this discrepancy are far-reaching. The scientists say something else must be going on in Earth’s depths to account for the missing thermal energy in their calculations. They and others offer these possibilities:

¶ The core holds a much bigger stash of radioactive material than anyone had suspected, and its decay is giving off heat.

¶ The iron of the innermost core is solidifying at a startlingly fast clip and releasing the latent heat of crystallization in the process.

[ShadowAce]

...where temperatures reach 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit — as hot as the surface of the Sun.

Since they haven't actually measured this, how do they know?

[sodpoodle]

Stop the World...........I wanna get off;)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Twotone]

We’re doomed?

[Pollster1]

"Geologists have long known that Earth’s core, some 1,800 miles beneath our feet, is . . . 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit — as hot as the surface of the Sun."

But a Nobel Prize winning scientist assured us three years ago that the earth's Interior is 'Extremely Hot, Several Million Degrees'. How did our planet manage to cool so much despite global warming?

[evets]

Since they haven't actually measured this, how do they know? Algore told them...

[Lonely Bull]

But a Nobel Prize winning scientist assured us three years ago that the earth's Interior is 'Extremely Hot, Several Million Degrees'. How did our planet manage to cool so much despite global warming?

Well, we now have another Winner as our president! This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.

[rightwingextremist1776]

Everyone into their SUVs...we need to heat this puppy up!

[relictele]

3.5 million atmospheres, like 3.5 million skies falling at once on your head,

Gee thanks, Nat. Us yokels didn't know what the unit known as an atmosphere was. Except your analogy is flawed, since we're talking about mostly static pressure, not dynamic pressure i.e. the kind that would result from motion, falling, a collision, etc.

No wonder the Times' corrections page is so active.

[Gamecock]

Balderdash!

The earth is hollow!

Read it here on FR!

Here's what it looks like:

[NonValueAdded]

In that pic, he looks like he’s half-way morphed into Rodney Dangerfield

[Nervous Tick]

Is that “small entrance” at the bottom of the illustration the hole through which they give the Earth its Enigma?

[ArrogantBustard]

OK ... that makes more sense than 0bmamcare, and has vastly more factual basis to support it than does the idea that 0bamacare will make our lives better.

[bigbob]

Double balderdash! Everyone knows that Pelucidar, where Emperor David Innes rules, lies at the Earths Core:

http://www.pellucidar.org/

[aruanan]

The theoretical consequences of this discrepancy are far-reaching. The scientists say something else must be going on in Earth’s depths to account for the missing thermal energy in their calculations. They and others offer these possibilities:

The other possibility is that their calculations are crap.

[ArrogantBustard]

Don’t tell Bawney Fwank about that small entrance at the bottom ...

[Sequoyah101]

Where is the, “We’re all gonna die!” cartoon.

Other things are much more important and we maybe able to actually DO something about them.

This is probably balderdash and certainly a waste of time.

Maybe interesting but a waste of time.

[nitzy]

Bush’s fault.

[fella]

Why can't they just admit that they just don't know anything for sure and all they can do is make wild guesses . . . I mean . . . theories

[The Cajun]

AlGore, *Why learn anything, they believe any fact I pull out of my ass, life is great, well except for Tipper's alimony*.