Posted on 10/20/2021 9:28:29 AM PDT by Red Badger
Cross-section of the Earth’s interior: crust, upper- and lower-mantle, and outer- and inner-cores. Credit: Mikio Fukuhara, Alexander Yoshino, and Nobuhisa Fujima
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Rather than being created solely during supernova explosions, chemical elements could also be produced deep within the Earth’s lower mantle.
It has long been theorized that hydrogen, helium, and lithium were the only chemical elements in existence during the Big Bang when the universe formed, and that supernova explosions, stars exploding at the end of their lifetime, are responsible for transmuting these elements into heavier ones and distributing them throughout our universe.
Researchers in Japan and Canada are now challenging a piece of the Big Bang puzzle. Do all of the elements heavier than iron really originate from stars exploding, or are some created deep within the Earth’s mantle, thanks to convection dynamics driven by plate tectonics?
In AIP Advances, by AIP Publishing, the group proposes an alternative model for the formation of nitrogen, oxygen, and water based on the history of the Earth’s atmosphere.
They postulate that the 25 elements with atomic numbers smaller than iron (26) were created via an endothermic nuclear transmutation of two nuclei, carbon and oxygen. These nuclei could be confined within the natural aragonite lattice core of the Earth’s lower mantle at high temperatures and pressures during lithosphere subduction, which occurs when two tectonic plates converge.
The group describes the endothermic nuclear transformation process as being “aided by the physical catalysis of excited electrons generated by the stick-slipping movement of mineral compounds of geoneutrinos produced deep within the Earth’s mantle by nuclear fusion of deuterons or radioactive decay of elements.”
“Our study suggests that the Earth itself has been able to create lighter elements by nuclear transmutation,” said Mikio Fukuhara, a co-author from Tohoku University’s New Industry Creation Hatchery Center in Japan.
If accurate, this is a revolutionary discovery because “it was previously theorized that all of these elements were sourced from supernova explosions, whereas we postulate a supplementary theory,” Fukuhara said.
This work will have a considerable impact on the field of geophysics and may, as a result, “indicate possible research directions for the potential to create the elements required for future space development,” said Fukuhara.
Reference: “Earth factories: Creation of the elements from nuclear transmutation in Earth’s lower mantle” by Mikio Fukuhara, Alexander Yoshino and Nobuhisa Fujima, 12 October 2021, AIP Advances.
DOI: 10.1063/5.0061584
Supernova not necessary Ping!...................
Still no word on what role the Bossa Nova may play...
Good job earth! Create those elements.
Now we just need to stir the pot a litle.
Maybe cause a few volcanos to get access to more of those elements.
Or the Hokey Pokey......................
Following.
If you think about the interstellar transport times AFTER each supernova blows the newly-formed heavier emtals out of the exploding sun’s gravity trap, you’ll find there simply isn’t enough time for enough supernovas to build ebnough heavier atoms and isotopes between the formation of the universe some 13.8 billion year ago, and the isolation of the solar system’s dust and plasma cloud about 4.5 billion YA.
Let’s drill through the Mantle and see....................
You put your heavy element in, you pull your heavy element out...
LOL!......................
There were NO elements in the Big Bang, which makes me question the scientific literacy of the reporting. (It took 380,000 years after the Big Bang to cool enough to allow matter to cool enough for protons to capture electrons to become Hydrogen atoms.)
Don’t worry, some enterprising young physicist will generate a new multidimensional string theory wherein wormholes are generated to push heavy elements faster than the speed of light to their various dumping grounds in the universe, just in time.
You know Dutchsense claims that oil and gas drilling creates weak spots in the earth’s crust where earthquakes are more likely to happen. (He’s not opposed to drilling)
And he makes a strong case that the energy is radiating out from deep earthquakes along plate lines and known faults.
So I think we should purposely drill areas for the specific purpose of releasing earthquake energy so it doesn’t hit populated areas.
If we could gain access to more rare elements by doing so, it’s a win win.
Also the article swtiches between elements lighter than iron and heavier. If this were a significant producer of heavy elements I would expect it to happen inside stars in detectable quantities. Instead you get up to iron and stop.
That would be a profound thought for ol’ Joe.
That and “Where does air come from?”...........................
The bossa nova gets all the blame.
This boils down to a type of "cold fusion" (aka LENR).
>There were NO elements in the Big Bang
I saw the same thing. Meant from instead of in.
I take issue with what you said because elements are defined by nuclei and do not require electrons. Any electrically neutral plasma, such as most of the sun, is made up of nuclei and independent electrons. Protons (Hydrogen nuclei) and electrons, and their anti equivalents, formed within seconds of the Big Bang. After the matter-antimatter annihilation left a net trace of matter, fusion continued to make Helium and a little Lithium for about 3 minutes. As the universe was rapidly cooling, there was not enough energy or pressure for 3 Helium atom fusion to get past the Beryllium-8 instability to make Carbon-12.
>This boils down to a type of “cold fusion” (aka LENR).
And it still needs Carbon and Oxygen from supernovae because there was none from the Big Bang.
Pointless theory.
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