New idea tackles Earth core puzzle

BBC ^ | 9 July 2013 Last updated at 08:27 ET Share this pageEmail Print | Simon Redfern

[BenLurkin]

Scientists have proposed a radical new model for the make-up of the Earth's core.

The study may explain a longstanding puzzle about the most inaccessible part of our planet.

It suggests that differences between the east and west hemispheres of the core are explained by the way iron atoms pack together.

...

Lying more than 5,000km beneath our feet, at the centre of the Earth, the core is beyond the reach of direct investigation. Broadly speaking, it consists of a solid sphere of metal sitting within a liquid outer core.

The inner core started to solidify more than a billion years ago. It has a radius of about 1,220km, but is growing by about 0.5mm each year.

But the stuff that the core is made from remains a longstanding unresolved problem.

[BenLurkin]

Lying more than 5,000km beneath our feet, at the centre of the Earth, the core is beyond the reach of direct investigation.

Nonsense. Just send this crew:

[The Cajun]

but is growing by about 0.5mm each year.

Must have caught hell getting the micrometer down there.

[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

What film is that from? Looks like it might be interesting to see.

[Army Air Corps]

Everyone knows that the core is made of Queso dip.

[BenLurkin]

A movie I enjoyed, but widely ridiculed and universally condemned as being scientifically ludicrous. It was called “The Core” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0298814/

I particularly enjoyed Stanley Tucci’s performance in a supporting role.

[BenLurkin]

It's hollow:

[Revolting cat!]

[BraveMan]

Chewy Nugget . . .

[BenLurkin]

That’s how it always looked on the maps when I was growing up, except it was kinda zig zaggy at the top and bottom.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

Seems like it would cool from the outside in not vice versa.

[Army Air Corps]

Gimmie a few million bucks in grant money and I’ll develop a “consensus” on the Queso model...

[BenLurkin]

I think its solid because of the high pressures on it, but hopefully some edumacated FReeper can clarify that.

[Errant]

It has a radius of about 1,220km, but is growing by about 0.5mm each year.

LOL, One would think the actual radius would be known if annual growth was determined to the sub millimeter.

[Army Air Corps]

Bingo! “Our guesswork is accurate to a fraction of a millimeter!”

[The Cajun]

The inner core started to solidify more than a billion years ago. It has a radius of about 1,220km, but is growing by about 0.5mm each year.

The entire sentence kind of gave me one of those *Yeah right* moments :)

[Bratch]

[kitchen]

Is that a map of Pellucidar? Where's the Lural Az?

[weston]

Genesis 1:2 NKJV The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Since water came before anything else, I've always wondered if water could be at the earths core.

[Errant]

Yep, lol... Probably some formula based on their billion year start date and taking into consideration the current estimated size, so growth works out to .5mm a year or something along those lines to get to current size. And now it’s scientific fact!

[OldNavyVet]

You’re might be right. From a website called “LiveScience” I have ... “Under the liquid-metal outer layer of the Earth’s core is a solid ball of superhot iron and nickel alloy about 760 miles (1,220 kilometers) in diameter. Scientists recently discovered the inner core is, at 10,800 degrees Fahrenheit (6,000 degrees Celsius), as hot as the surface of the sun.”