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Earth's Core Has Another Layer, Scientists Claim
LiveScience.com ^ | 12/8/10 | Charles Q. Choi

Posted on 12/08/2010 12:01:06 PM PST by NormsRevenge

What may be a new outermost layer of the Earth's core has been found, geoscientists have revealed.

This discovery could help solve mysteries of the planet's magnetic field, researchers say.

The Earth's core is composed mainly of iron, divided into a solid inner center roughly 1,500 miles (2,440 kilometers) wide covered by a liquid outer layer about 1,400 miles (2,250 km) thick. Even though the bulk of the core is iron, researchers also knew it contained a small amount of lighter elements such as oxygen and sulfur. As the inner core crystallized over time, scientists think this process forced out most of these light elements, which then migrated through the liquid outer core.

Now geoscientists think they have detected all these light elements concentrated in the outermost parts of the core.

"Ever since core structure started to be studied, there were hints of structure there — that's why we looked for it," said researcher George Helffrich, a geologist and seismologist at the University of Bristol in England.

Seismic speed changes

To investigate the core, researchers monitored seismic waves that traveled through its outer layer. The waves were generated by earthquakes in South America and the southwestern Pacific Ocean, and were recorded using arrays of seismometers in Japan and northern Europe.

The speeds at which seismic waves traveled through the outer core at different depths suggest that its composition does not remain the same all the way through. Instead, the uppermost 185 miles (300 km) or so is a distinct structure, with the section nearest the boundary consisting up to 5 percent by weight of light elements.

"The seismic structure we found is hard to deny — the signal is obvious to the eye in the data that we used," Helffrich told OurAmazingPlanet.

(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: catastrophism; core; earth; geoscience; gps; jmarvinherndon; layer; magneticfield; magnetism; poleshift; scientists
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To: ml/nj
Hmmm ~ "pretend to know" ~ all of this comes to me in dreams. I draw on the Overmind ~ don't you?

(I also read books and study, and the whole idea seems to have something to do with gravity and melting temperatures )

41 posted on 12/08/2010 1:21:06 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: mnehring
What has science done for us in the last 100 years?

"But apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?"

42 posted on 12/08/2010 1:22:46 PM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: SeeSac
"Actually it is because airplane wings deflect particles of the air in a downward motion. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction."

Well, that blows my theory of the wings creating a low pressure bubble that creates lift...
43 posted on 12/08/2010 1:28:30 PM PST by jaydubya2
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To: muawiyah
I also read books and study

Gee. Wow. You read books and study.

Have you ever been asked by any scholars to write papers about this stuff? I have, and it's not my field.

ML/NJ

44 posted on 12/08/2010 1:30:48 PM PST by ml/nj
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To: jaydubya2

I used to believe that too. But winged-flight comes from air displacement, not because of the Bernoulli effect on a shaped wing. This is e.g. why planes can fly upside down.


45 posted on 12/08/2010 1:34:09 PM PST by agere_contra (...what if we won't eat the dog food?)
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To: ml/nj

That was answered about a hundred years ago: from decay of radio active elements in the earth’s core. There’s very little of them, but the core is exceptionally well insulated.


46 posted on 12/08/2010 1:35:07 PM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (Socialists are to economics what circle squarers are to math; undaunted by reason or derision.)
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To: NormsRevenge

The outer gore where temperatures reach 10 gazillion degrees.


47 posted on 12/08/2010 1:35:38 PM PST by Gene Eric (Your Hope has been redistributed. Here's your Change.)
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To: SeeSac
Actually it is because airplane wings deflect particles of the air in a downward motion.

Some of the lift comes from the air having to run a farther distance over the top of the wing, than the bottom. This creates a low pressure area above the wing, while a higher pressure area is below the wing.

At least in theory, and according to MOST wing design.

I have flown Piper Cherokee's and the wing is symmetrical. So... it's kind of like the Bee can't fly theory.

48 posted on 12/08/2010 1:36:18 PM PST by UCANSEE2 (Lame and ill-informed post)
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To: ml/nj
Hmm ~ and your credentials for wiseacre are....., and .......!

My word ~ a veritable Genius.

We are blinded by your shining brilliance, and say hi to your mom for me ~ tell her NO MORE NOONERS ~

49 posted on 12/08/2010 1:38:14 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: SeeSac
Actually it is because airplane wings deflect particles of the air in a downward motion. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Well, ...that'll just have to be your little secret. And to think you were bad mouthing others about the missle.

50 posted on 12/08/2010 1:39:35 PM PST by ResearchMonkey (Holding Conservative Country in California.)
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To: agere_contra

I suppose it depends on the type of wing it is (asymetrical or other) and the angle of attack.


51 posted on 12/08/2010 1:39:55 PM PST by jaydubya2
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To: ResearchMonkey; SeeSac
Weren't most of the early design formulas still useful irrespective of the force models imagined in the mind?

Like, they could build successful airplanes ignorant of how they actually worked ~ right?

52 posted on 12/08/2010 1:43:17 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: muawiyah
Hmm ~ and your credentials for wiseacre are....., and .......!

I have science degrees.

ML/NJ

53 posted on 12/08/2010 1:43:36 PM PST by ml/nj
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To: agere_contra
But winged-flight comes from air displacement, not because of the Bernoulli effect on a shaped wing.

Actually, it comes from a combination of both.

The 'kite effect' and the Bernoulli effect BOTH provide lift.

Airliners have Flaps on the rear and Slats on the front. The flaps generate most of their lift from air displacement, and the Slats provide most of their lift by changing and adding to the curve of the wing to increase the Bernoulli effect.

54 posted on 12/08/2010 1:44:58 PM PST by UCANSEE2 (Lame and ill-informed post)
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To: ml/nj

Amazing ~ and I suppose you think a degree of some sort in mere science qualifies you to talk back to someone with substantial studies in statistical analysis techniques, systems analysis, Calculus, etc ad infinitum ~ who ALSO has degrees that required knowledge of a foreign language (most of those “science degrees” don’t).


55 posted on 12/08/2010 1:46:06 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: jaydubya2
Well, that blows my theory of the wings creating a low pressure bubble that creates lift...

Somewhat. But remember, vacuums do not suck. In order for a force to be created on the wing by the gas molecules, a change in the momentum of the gas molecules is required. The wing creates a pressure difference and that 'pressure difference' model is still taught.

56 posted on 12/08/2010 1:52:37 PM PST by SeeSac
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To: NormsRevenge

I thought the earth was flat?


57 posted on 12/08/2010 1:53:11 PM PST by Skeez (O)
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To: NormsRevenge
Remember that wild idea for sending a probe to the center of the earth? Basically, you would pour a large quantity of molten iron into a crack in the earth. The theory is, the extreme mass of the molten iron would cause the crack to propagate downward, and the iron blob would descend to the center of the earth over a period of several days. Embedded in the iron would be a probe that would send information back to the surface acoustically.

http://web.gps.caltech.edu/faculty/stevenson/coremission/index.html

58 posted on 12/08/2010 1:55:31 PM PST by cynwoody
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To: muawiyah
And "worked" for the Post Office! Give me a break!

Ooooo. Calculus. People like me took that in high school. And BTW, for my BS I was required to take four useless semesters of German.

ML/NJ

59 posted on 12/08/2010 1:55:31 PM PST by ml/nj
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To: ml/nj
Hmm, and you imagine America's second largest employer doesn't have room for mathematicians, statisticians, economists, engineers, and so on?

What you don't know is that every large organization has a class of people who do the heavy duty thinking and design the systems and processes that make the organization far more efficient than local centers of activity could make it.

That way only a few need to have the higher degrees ~ others, like you, who imagined that 4 semesters of German was wasted get to deliver the mail. Plenty of guys on the street have degrees comparable to yours.

60 posted on 12/08/2010 1:59:40 PM PST by muawiyah
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