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Heat from Earth’s core could be underlying force in plate tectonics
University of Chicago ^ | 17 Jan, 2017 | Greg Borzo

Posted on 01/19/2017 7:30:36 AM PST by MtnClimber

For decades, scientists have theorized that the movement of Earth’s tectonic plates is driven largely by negative buoyancy created as they cool. New research, however, shows plate dynamics are driven significantly by the additional force of heat drawn from the Earth’s core.

The new findings also challenge the theory that underwater mountain ranges known as mid-ocean ridges are passive boundaries between moving plates. The findings show the East Pacific Rise, the Earth’s dominant mid-ocean ridge, is dynamic as heat is transferred.

David B. Rowley, professor of geophysical sciences at the University of Chicago, and fellow researchers came to the conclusions by combining observations of the East Pacific Rise with insights from modeling of the mantle flow there. The findings were published Dec. 23 in Science Advances.

“We see strong support for significant deep mantle contributions of heat-to-plate dynamics in the Pacific hemisphere,” said Rowley, lead author of the paper. “Heat from the base of the mantle contributes significantly to the strength of the flow of heat in the mantle and to the resultant plate tectonics.”

The researchers estimate up to approximately 50 percent of plate dynamics are driven by heat from the Earth’s core and as much as 20 terawatts of heat flow between the core and the mantle.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.uchicago.edu ...


TOPICS: Science
KEYWORDS: earth; earthscore; platetectonics; tectonics
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To: MtnClimber

For decades, scientists have theorized

They can’t prove gullible warming either.


21 posted on 01/19/2017 8:04:08 AM PST by mountainlion (Live well for those that did not make it back.)
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To: Skybird
Gee...maybe some of that heat contained in the molten core just might migrate to the surface...and to the surrounding atmosphere. Maybe some of that molten heat might account for changes to seawater acidity or chemical composition.

O, my gosh. You and your tinfoil hat thinking. And just how is that heat going to migrate to the surface? Through "volcanoes"? Mountains are just going to open up and spew molten rock into the air and pollute the atmosphere with dust and ash and who knows what-all?

22 posted on 01/19/2017 8:07:23 AM PST by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals w.ould have no standtairds at all -- Texas Eagle)
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To: MtnClimber

Duh


23 posted on 01/19/2017 8:08:45 AM PST by BigEdLB (To Dimwitocrats: We won. You lost. Get used to it.)
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To: gr8eman

But-but-but all this heat pushing the tectonic plates to the side and bursting up through the seams makes all the snow pack on volcanoes and the ice pack on the Arctic Ocean melt, as the hot magma warms the local accumulation.

And the drilling and fracking simply make the tectonic plates easier to fracture.

(Hair on fire, dashing back and forth, “OMG! OMG!)


24 posted on 01/19/2017 8:10:31 AM PST by alloysteel (John Galt has chosen to take the job. This time, Atlas did NOT shrug.)
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To: MtnClimber
Why don't they mention radioactive decay as the source of the heat? Only stored heat? Really?
25 posted on 01/19/2017 8:32:53 AM PST by 103198 (It's the metadata stupid...)
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To: 103198

.
>> “Heat from Earth’s core could be underlying force in plate tectonics” <<

Vaporware and circular reasoning combine to release brain farts as “science.”

The heat of the Earth’s core has to be the result of friction. There isn’t a nuclear reactor buried down there.


26 posted on 01/19/2017 8:39:06 AM PST by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: 103198
Why don't they mention radioactive decay as the source of the heat?

That is a quandary for them. It is easier to explain residual heat and the less inquisitive will accept that. If they allow that the heat might be produced by fission, then they have to explain what becomes of the material by-products of that fission, namely hydrogen.

27 posted on 01/19/2017 8:44:40 AM PST by webheart (All comments are considered to be sarcasm unless otherwise noted)
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To: MtnClimber

Imagine that.

Who’da thunk.

No shiite, Sherlock.


28 posted on 01/19/2017 8:46:22 AM PST by bgill (From the CDC site, "We don't know how people are infected with Ebola")
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To: editor-surveyor
There isn’t a nuclear reactor buried down there.

There is U-238, U-235 and Thorium.

29 posted on 01/19/2017 8:46:28 AM PST by dirtboy
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To: 103198

.
Radioactive material is up in the crust, not down in the core.

Volcanic ejecta is not measurably radioactive.
.


30 posted on 01/19/2017 8:46:56 AM PST by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: dirtboy

.
How much was discovered in project Moho?


31 posted on 01/19/2017 8:50:06 AM PST by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: editor-surveyor

That only went about 600 feet into the crust. The main location of the radioactive elements is in the mantle and deeper.


32 posted on 01/19/2017 8:54:12 AM PST by dirtboy
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To: MtnClimber

They can’t make a thermos that can keep my soup hot for a day, but the earth can go for billions of years and the core doesn’t cool down?

Dirt.

That’s the answer.

A dirt thermos.


33 posted on 01/19/2017 8:59:21 AM PST by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: dirtboy

Moho went way deeper than that.

It went deeper into the mantle than the mantle was believed to be at the time. (they had picked what was thought to be a thin area) It only stopped because there was no more support in congress.


34 posted on 01/19/2017 9:01:40 AM PST by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: MtnClimber

Tectonic bump.


35 posted on 01/19/2017 9:32:14 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o (Ever notice that everyone going slower than you is an idiot, but everyone going faster is a maniac?)
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To: MtnClimber

Congressman Hank Johnson (Dim-GA) could not be reached for comment regarding how this techtonic theory squares with his theory about the danger of Guam capsizing if too many people go to one side of the island.


36 posted on 01/19/2017 9:56:59 AM PST by spiderpig (does whatever a SpiderPig does)
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To: editor-surveyor

The American moho project stopped at 600 feet. The Soviets drilled to 12 kilometers or 40,000 feet, but since they were drilling on land, they never made it past continental crust.


37 posted on 01/19/2017 10:24:16 AM PST by dirtboy
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To: MtnClimber
Very interesting. The "push vs. pull" arguement will be around for a while. Evidence falls into place for once and future supercontinents is a generally related article you may like.
38 posted on 01/19/2017 10:32:47 AM PST by JimSEA
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To: editor-surveyor
There isn’t a nuclear reactor buried down there.
There are, however - I presume - massive quantities of radioactive isotopes of long half-life. Heavy elements, molten and blended together, the heaviest of them predominating 4000 miles down.

No doubt assumptions could be made that would allow the development of a model of conditions there . . .


39 posted on 01/19/2017 11:51:15 AM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion
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