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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."

18 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. Perhaps it should try by Lucas123 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Jenny Craig. It worked for Pluto.

    1. Re:Perhaps it should try by pilgrim23 · · Score: 2, Funny

      BAH! and you call yourself Scientists! Global Warming only happens to keep the Earth Egg properly nurtured until it cracks open vomiting the spawn of the Old Ones into the chaos. Don't worry though; it will only happen when the middle of the Earth starts thinning measurably and... oh dear...

      --
      - Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
  2. It gets older - it gets fatter! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Makes sense - it gets older - it gets fatter - softer in the middle :-)

  3. Soft in the middle. by AndGodSed · · Score: 2, Funny

    And chewy too!

  4. Well duh! by Brandybuck · · Score: 3, Funny

    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!
  5. Middleaged earth by butterwise · · Score: 5, Funny

    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?"
  6. Earth! by Daishiman · · Score: 2, Funny

    Earth!
    Now with delicious soft filling and an irresistably crunchy core!

  7. Going a little bit soft in the middle now? by KublaiKhan · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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
  8. Jawbreaker by 4D6963 · · Score: 2, Funny

    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!
  9. Re:Creation +1, Evolution -1 by Knuckles · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I didn't know that creationists think that planet earth developed through evolution. This might explain some of their confusion, then.
    As for the quote from Genesis: you might be better off reading a version that was not mangled by hundreds of years of wrong translations and political machinations.

    --
    "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
  10. Welcome by Capt+James+McCarthy · · Score: 3, Funny

    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.
  11. Re:Creation +1, Evolution -1 by wximagery95 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Before you go trolling, at least get your there, their, and they're down. Basic grammar goes a lot way to helping your "argument".

    Ouch, that's embarrassing.

  12. The Kola Superdeep Borehole by RipTides9x · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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

    1. Re:The Kola Superdeep Borehole by RipTides9x · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Damn I stepped on my dick, they made 12Km before calling it quits, 6.7Km is the depth they were finding fossils where they didn't expect it.

  13. Go Aquabats! by techpawn · · Score: 2, Informative

    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
  14. Re:Here it comes by macbeth66 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I like doing this to creationists, too.

    Why do you like picking on the mentally challenged?

  15. Re:Creation +1, Evolution -1 by night_flyer · · Score: 4, Informative

    firmament
    c.1250, from L. firmamentum "firmament," lit. "a support or strengthening," from firmus "firm" (see firm (adj.)), used in Vulgate to translate Gk. stereoma "firm or solid structure," which translated Heb. raqia, a word used of both the vault of the sky and the floor of the earth in the O.T., probably lit. "expanse," from raqa "to spread out," but in Syriac meaning "to make firm or solid," hence the erroneous translation.

    --


    Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
    Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
  16. Re:Creation +1, Evolution -1 by Eternauta3k · · Score: 2, Funny

    Isn't it like someone had intelligently designed grammar nazis so they embarrass themselves every time they make a correction?
    :P

    --
    Yeah. Would you choose a neurosurgeon who pokes around people's brains in his spare time? I wouldn't.