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Earth's Core Spins Faster than Earth
Dreamwalkerofyore writes "The New York Times has an article on a recent affirmation that the earth's core rotates faster than the earth proper. From the article: 'Confirming assertions first made in 1996, a team of geophysicists are presenting data in the journal Science today showing that the earth's inner core... spins faster than the rest of the planet. Over a period of 700 to 1,200 years, the inner core appears to make one full extra spin.
That extra spin could give scientists information about how the earth generates its magnetic field.'"
So I'm just wondering: does this delta-omega have anything to do with the fact that the Earth's magnetic field reverses itself every 200,000 years or so? Please begin rampant conjecture and wild speculation. Extra credit to anyone who can credibly bring Roswell or right-wing conspiracies into the discussion. Fnord.
The core spins faster because the bodies of the US founding fathers are spinning in their graves at such high RPM.
Whoah, it looks like it's going to complete one full spin in the next decade, that's going to make Y2K look like a walk in the park.
Play Command HQ online
Given that the Earth's rotation is slowing down, isn't it immediately apparent that the liquid core must spin faster than the outside. It's just basic fluid dynamics. If apply a torque to the outside of a fluid filled region, the middle of that region will feel the effect last.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
We'll need to do core dump analysis.
If the core slows down due to friction with the mantle, will there be an effect on the magnetic field surrounding the Earth? Without the magnetic field, my understanding is that the Van Allen radiation belt will also not exist, and that in turn would expose the Earth to the full-on radiation of the Sun.
I'm no scientist, of course. But I wonder what the implications of the spinning core means. Also, how long would it take to stop spinning, or to develop a wobble?
There have been a slew of large earthquakes around the world lately. Could it be related?
Jesus saved me from my past. He can save you as well.
If we could cheaply generate fields that strong, we would not need nuclear power plants, we could generate all the energy we need using induction.
dragging on what? the vacuum surrounding the earth?
God overclocked the core, and saw that it was good.
Everyone head to the east with their car and go as fast as possible.
:)
And everyone around the world, press the breaks all at once, while riding to the east.
That may be enough to accelerate the Earth's rotation
Léa Gris
How about New Scirntist's coverage? Or LiveScience.com?
No bugmenot required, and they're science sites.
Slashdot gets more retarded every day, I swear.
(this post's mind-reading captcha="resorts")
I wonder what the rotation rate of Mars' core is. We know it's either liquid or solid and liquid (the latter being what Earth has), so it could have a difference, which would create a magnetic field. Only problem is, Mars doesn't have a magnetic field. However, Mars' field might also be hiding, as it does on Earth when changing the north and south poles which can take hundred to thousands of years. Now we've only been watching Mars with any sophistication for decades, which means Mars could have a field that's currently undergoing a reversal. If it isn't undergoing a reversal, and the two rotations are different, then it would prove enlightening on why that is the case.
The Earth's core also bounces from North to South. Not sure if it is a remnant of the colision that formed the Moon, or part of its conservation of momentum from the outer crust trying to change it's vector, the core being a giant defacto gyroscope.
Eventually I will post the math. =)
kulakovich
Great to see the timely Slashdot article. I need a reminder about these things every nine years or so.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
It's Superman's fault. All cuz that bitch, Lois Lane, went and died, so he flew real fast and sped up the crust, then switched it back, but now the inside is still all fucked up....
"All great things are simple & expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." --Churchill
There's a threshold where the fields around the rotor get disorganized (expect geomagnetic migrations to get all screwed up,) and then field lines reverse as the threshold is crossed.
Nothing actually happens to the rotor (it doesn't spin backwards all of a sudden) but the field lines generated are inverted.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
"homo erectus and their ancestors certainly survived many previous reversals. There is no uncontested evidence that a magnetic field reversal has ever caused any biological extinctions."
Homo erectus didn't have a society totally dependant on electronics for it's economics and machines to feed it's population. Of course we'll survive a reversal, but it won't be pleasant for those involved.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
Stop the world, I want to get off.
rewriting history since 2109
What you heard on Discovery is correct. It has been postulated that the flow of the fluid outer core, and subsequent motion of ions within that fluid is responsible for the generation of Earth's magnetic field and geomagnetic poles. It has also been shown that the polarity of the dominantly dipolar magnetic field reverses, seemingly randomly through Earth's history. I'm not sure of the statistics you mention, but if in fact the average pole reversal period is shorter than the time during which the current polarity has been maintained, you should also consider the standard deviation of the reversals, which is huge. For example, during the Cretaceous geologic time period, there was a long period of normal (or similar to today) polarity known as the Cretaceous long normal. Geologic records show no reversals over this 43 million year time period.
Some people doubt the existence of God, but I propose a doctrine of Intelligent Deogenesis. By postulating the existence of a creator who created God, we can account for the Intelligent Design in the characteristics of God Himself. Clearly, a being of God's infinite intelligence is the product of a being of intelligence. Theories that God evolved from monkeys or one-celled organisms fail the BS test, since God is clearly irreducible in his complexity. God simply sprang fully-formed from the mind of Man. Cogito ergo sum, lorem ipso dolor, quid pro quo, alea jacta est, et cetera.
As another poster pointed out, sarcasm is often insightful.
What Smidge has pointed out (quite nicely, I must say) is that pretty much EVERY scientific theory/explanation can be trivialized in this matter. Let's face it, here's what ID boils down to:
1. The world, and everything in it, are complex. No one would argue this.
2. In trying to understand complex things, we might miss some details, or in fact most of the detail. Again, no one would argue this.
3. Because we can't claim a perfect, 110% understanding of something, there's simply no way we can ever understand any of it. Logical fallacy. However, because of this:
4. Therefore everything was created by God. Everything is the way it is because of God. Otherwise how could things be this way?
Oh, and
5. My theory's as good as yours, because I say so, and yours is quite frankly far to complicated to understand whereas mine is simple and therefore correct.
#3 is WHY ID is not 100% laughed at by people, and #5 is why it's accepted so widely.
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
Always facing us? I always thought it was always facing AWAY from us. Hence the name "moon" which I believe is latin for "to show the backside".
Seriously, Don't take anything I say seriously.