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Geologists Claim Earth May Be Softer Around The Middle Than Previously Thought
A new geological study is suggesting that what we know about the lower mantle of the Earth may have to be reevaluated. Since we are unable to actually sample the Earth at those depths, scientists rely on the use of seismic waves to study the lower reaches of the Earth. This new study suggests that material in the lower mantle has unusual characteristics that make sound move more slowly, suggesting a softer makeup than previously thought. "What's most important for seismology is the acoustic properties--the propagation of sound. We determined the elasticity of ferropericlase through the pressure-induced high-spin to low-spin transition. We did this by measuring the velocity of acoustic waves propagating in different directions in a single crystal of the material and found that over an extended pressure range (from about 395,000 to 590,000 atmospheres) the material became 'softer'--that is, the waves slowed down more than expected from previous work. Thus, at high temperature corresponding distributions will become very broad, which will result in a wide range of depth having subtly anomalous properties that perhaps extend through most of the lower mantle."
Jenny Craig. It worked for Pluto.
From Genesis (the book, not the band): 'God creates light; the "firmament" separating "the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament;'.
'The waters which were under the firmament' are obviously what is now being discovered by these scientists and there instruments of Satan.
Makes sense - it gets older - it gets fatter - softer in the middle :-)
And chewy too!
Seven Days with Ubuntu Unity
Waiting patiently for all of the self proclaimed geologists on this site to start spouting BS. You're all experts on everything else... Don't let me down.
Well duh! As I get older I get softer around the middle too!
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
Softer around the middle, thinning ice sheets - sounds like somebody's getting older...
If a baby duck is a "duckling," why would anyone want to eat "dumplings?"
Earth!
Now with delicious soft filling and an irresistably crunchy core!
So is that why our nights are so long?
More on topic, I wonder what difference this will make to the study of seismology? Don't different densities refract the pressure waves from seismic events? Perhaps this new model will improve the ability to measure the location of earthquakes?
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure dome decree
I said it before and I'll say it again, the Earth is a giant micro-waved jawbreaker, and it's warming up! Y'all laughed at me, just wait until you get licked to death by the giant tongue from outer space, or burnt to death once it explodes.
You just got troll'd!
I get softer in the middle the more I sit at my desk and surf /. at work.
Softer around the middle? Funny, my wife has been saying the same thing about me. :)
It has a softer heart after all
Having said that
I am with Bjarne on this one.
Bjarne Stroustrup, creator of the C++ programming language, claims that C++ is experiencing a revival and
that there is a backlash against newer programming languages such as Java and C#. "C++ is bigger than ever.
There are more than three million C++ programmers. Everywhere I look there has been an uprising
- more and more projects are using C++. A lot of teaching was going to Java, but more are teaching C++ again.
There has been a backlash.", said Stroustrup.
To middle-age, Earth. Wait until things begin to get saggy and noisy all over.
There are no loopholes. It's either legal or it's not.
Perhaps everything slows down because at its core the Earth is just stupid.
The Russians made 6.7km before giving up drilling not only because of the heat (180c), which could have been worked around, but mainly because any further drilling beyond that point the hole had a tendency to close up like molten soft plastic upon retraction of the drill bit.
http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=567
Efforts to restrict industrial pollution have lowered the average particulate size created by man. These tiny pollution particles work their way into the earth's mantle, causing it to become more plastic, like a jar of marbles. Left to continue, the earth will become a giant wobbly mush, and we will be flung into space as the earth shakes violently, like a pizza dough spinning and warping. The only thing we can do is begin polluting more immediately, burning as much coal as possible and ripping off all of these pollution control filters.
This is my sig.
We're all softer around the middle than we would like to think.
I wonder whether this observation gives any more credibility to the theory that the center of the Earth might have a nuclear reactor. The following article describes the theory:
http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/jan252002/126.pdf
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
they'll have to remake "The Core"? I mean I like Hilary Swank and all, but not again!!!
Well, the Earth's primary intelligence (humans) is going soft in the head, so I guess it's just old age.
There is a chipmunk
At the center of the earth
And in his big oven
He bakes his own desserts
He warms the ocean
And from that, life springs forth
Little organisms building trash around the clock
Compost heaps
Or melting pots
For Farmer John's
Smoked Sausage stocks
Worms make the dirt
And the dirt makes the earth
And all of the roots have a place to sleep now
All the chanuks have squash to eat now
Worms make the dirt
And the dirt makes the earth
And people hold hands and feel terrific
Food comes from dirt
It's scientific
Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country did to you
Everybody knows that the earth is really hollow and is filled with Reptilians who were banished there for being mean. Just wait til these goofy scientists find a way into it in 2012. Then we will all be doomed.
Until then, I will keep wearing my tinfoil hat with pride.
There has been an error in the reporting
Apparently the Geologists recently upgraded (read downgraded) their computers to Windows Vista
Upon processing the results, the OS sensed they didnt not have a full license, and there for sent back only what they had paid for, leading to the premature conclusion of a softer core
that I got out of Geology as a career. I mean talk about boring.......
Vote Quimby!
It's not an ozone hole. It's a solar panel for a sex machine.
Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
That makes sense, the Earth is only 6000 years old.. which is equivalent to 60 man years. .. people might see dinosaurs appear and disappear at intervals.
At age 7000 the Earth will start spewing noxious fumes and it will need a giant catheter to pipe all fluids to outer space.
At age 8000 it will become extremely wobbly, driving off from it's orbit.. some biblical historians also speculate it might smash into mars at this time..
At 9000 light will become extremely dim and the Earth will only see daylight for 2 hrs in a day, the rotation and revolution speeds will slow down to a crawl.. At certain periods of time, it might start hallucinating that it's still 20
At 10,000, the Earth will stop moving.. it will need pipes from other planets in outer space to keep it moving, albeit very very slowly..
It's during the 10,000 - 11,000 age that the Earth will simply collapse and only leave behind a few remnants of it's internals.. these remnants will then be used by God to create the next earth..
I wonder if there is a boynton beach for planets to retire to???
nuff said...
sig sig sig siggy sig
Well your test is unfair, not to mention arrogant. You're using specialized jargon vocabulary and concluding from the 'duh' reaction that the person tested wouldn't have a cogent opinion if you phrased it in terms he understood. That's illogical.
Your car mechanic could do the same trick to you by making use of jargon, slang acronyms and whatnot, so that you'd respond with a 'duh' when asked (in jargonspeak) whether you think your car would get better gas mileage under hard or gentle acceleration.
Stripped of its intellectual arrogance, however, you do have a point: it's difficult for someone without substantial background to critically evaluate climatology research on its own merits. This creates a dilemma: as far as the Higgs boson is concerned, it doesn't matter whether only specialists understand the science, because there's no decision needing to be taken about the Higgs boson that affects anyone other than the specialists. With climatology, this is not so. Decisions that must be taken affect everybody. Is it reasonable to leave them entirely in the hands of the few who thoroughly understand the science? Most people say no. They insist on their democratic right to participate in the decision, since it will affect them and their descendants. Not to mention the fact that putting decisions with society-wide consequences into the hands of a small number of people with zero public oversight does not have a very good track record (thalidomide, Chernobyl).
Part of the answer will have to be the elimination of snobbish counterproductive attitudes such as yours ("trust me, I'm a doctor!"), and urgent efforts by people who do understand the science to educate those who don't.
Clearly we do not understand the properties of our inner earth as well as we would like. Where or how does physics describe this acoustic 'softness' given the circumstances? What of earths gravity? Does gravity truly intensify the closer towards to the center you are? Are there any mathematics that accurately describes all this? Lastly, how does the movement of the earth's magnetic dynamo play into all this. I'm no expert in physics, but I certainly hope we see answers to these questions in time.
NASA scientists are pumped because now they can just use a large ground pounding machine to effectively stop the birth of a smaller, more annoying baby Earth.
I can imagine that earth's "core" may be soft. My reasoning tells me that the "core" is not subject to much gravity. A micro-gravity environment, if you will, due to the relative equal mass in all directions pulling in all directions that balance. Once I think that, I have trouble wrapping my brain around the question: "How great is the pressure?"
If the answer is (relatively speaking) low pressure, then with the estimated high temperature I can imagine a liquid like center.
At the center of the earth is a singularity.
;^)
Hell, it'd explain the red-shift and why no one can travel faster than the speed of light.
--
Toro
This fellow says Hell is 3700 miles down, speaking from a first hand account. Go 23:00 minutes into the video for the figure.
Damned Global Warming is causing the earth to melt!!
I've been saying this for years! Those sissy elves made Middle-Earth too soft! Their overly-peaceful ways made Sauron's rise to power almost inevitable!
Oh, wait...
- Francis Ocoma
Please wait while Sig Request is being processed...
Remember that the size of their fleet is based on the current level of technology in the galaxy. So even if we got attacked, it would just be by a single frigate - can't kill more than a few million & blow up a few factories.
Have you been touched by his noodly appendage?
A softer than expected inner layer was the base of the crustal shifting theory of Charles Hapgood in his Path of the Pole book.
The book and theories were prefaced/backed by Einstein, but it was rejected by geologists.
Maybe there was a seed of truth in Hapgood's work?
What's in a sig?
Welcome our winged, writhing-tentacled green overlord.
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah' nagl fhtagn...
"Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer." -Adolf Hitler
"We are one Nation, we are one People." -The One 'leader'
funny, what we don't know, there is a giant city of crazy rock people who live down there, they are related to rosie od'nal, and Carlos mencia
"I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss