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Earth's Core Far Hotter Than Thought

Posted by timothy on from the might-as-well-be-walking-on-the-earth dept.

hessian writes "New measurements suggest the Earth's inner core is far hotter than prior experiments suggested, putting it at 6,000C — as hot as the Sun's surface. The solid iron core is actually crystalline, surrounded by liquid. But the temperature at which that crystal can form had been a subject of long-running debate. Experiments outlined in Science used X-rays to probe tiny samples of iron at extraordinary pressures to examine how the iron crystals form and melt."

9 of 189 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Oh noes! by Feyshtey · · Score: 4, Informative

    But Al Gore said it was "several million degress".... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMrxC-qEHb8 I'm so confused.

    --
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  2. Far hotter? by omnichad · · Score: 5, Informative

    I may have misread, but I think this article is saying that 20% hotter is "far" hotter. Not the adjective I would use for 20%.

    1. Re:Far hotter? by omnichad · · Score: 4, Informative

      Well, since it's Celsius and not Kelvin, it's not a 20% absolute increase. At thousands of degrees, the difference between Celsius and Kelvin is more of a rounding error so I didn't mention it.

      5 to 6 degrees would be a 1/278th increase.

  3. hardly "much hotter" by iggymanz · · Score: 2, Informative

    this new model suggests 6000 +/- 500 degrees C, the old model was 6000 +/- 1000 degrees to some sources, but up to 9000 degrees by others

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,262762,00.html

    the point is 6000 degrees C has long, long been in the possible range, and the earth's core may well be much hotter

    1. Re:hardly "much hotter" by jomama717 · · Score: 3, Informative
      You're way off base here:
      1. 1. The linked article is talking about a temperature measurement made 1000 miles below the earth's surface, not the core
      2. 2. The measurement made is reported as 6,650 degrees FAHRENHEIT

      Come on mods, RTFLAs (L=linked)

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  4. 5C to 6C is not +20% temperature by DragonWriter · · Score: 3, Informative

    Not all "20%"'s are created equal. For instance, if the temperature outside increases from 5C to 6C

    5C to 6C is less than a 1% increase in temperature.

    (Celsius isn't a ratio scale where 0 of the quantity measured is 0 on the scale; Kelvin is -- 5C to 6C is 278K to 279K; at the range of 5000C to 6000C, the difference between C and K is small and doesn't effect ratios much, but at 5-6C that's not true.)

  5. Re:Iron vs. sulfur by smooth+wombat · · Score: 4, Informative

    Since when did Creationists ever let facts get in the way of a good myth?

    --
    We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
  6. Re:Oh noes! by roc97007 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Oh man, don't say that. Someone will believe it.

    --
    Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
  7. Re:We are the grays. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    No, the core is not hot enough to sustain fusion. 6000 degrees is not enough for fusion. Not in the earth's core, not on the surface of the sun either. The sun doesn't do fusion on the surface. It does fusion deep inside, where the temperature is millions of degrees. The earth and the sun have one thing in common - both are much hotter inside than on the surface. . .