My title look damn crazy ?... Not so much I believe. NASA futuristic plans of "terraforming" Mars include - at a certain stage - to (re)activate Mars own ElectroMagnetic Field (EMF to be short). this is absolutely mandatory for any Martian life to be protected against cosmic rays and solar winds ! But on Planet Earth, we are told by a Canadian scientist that the Core of the planet is made of a nuclear reactor... going asleep within 100 years (worst scenario) ! Results ? a full stop of the Earth EMF = end of all life ! If this true (why not)... we are in great trouble, to say the least. Would it be wise to start thinking about ways : i. either to reactivate our own planet EMF ? - And how could this be done ? ii. or to "reignite" this dying "nuclear reactor" ? - Like in "THE CORE" movie ? JMB :m:
Where oh where do you get these stories from? Can you provide a link to this illustrious scientist that said that? The Earths core isn't going to stop for quite awhile from what most LEADING geologists are saying, over a million years..
The Canadian scientist is... Professor Marvin Herndon (Transdyne Corporation). He argue this (core of the Earth is nuclear) for about 10 years. There are many TV science documentaries about his theory going on in Europe at this time Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! JMB
More about Dr Herndon CosmicTraveller, Just type "Marvin Herndon" on the Net and you'll find readings about the theory of this well reputed scientist. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! JMB
Last I heard the magnetic field is very minute, and at teh rate at which we extract Iron ores it may also affect it
Yeah, I saw this on Discovery Channel last night. What was it we had to do to keep our nuclear reactor core going? Add uranium or plutonium or something? - N
Keep watching Discovery Channel and you'll become totally misinformed about science and the real world. Instead of switching the TV on get a good science book and read it. Or go bowling. Extracting iron at the present rates is merely scratching the surface. Besides, for altering the magnetic balance of Earth you should send all that iron to outer space! LOL!
Earth has no problem sustaining its magnetic field for at least many millions of years to come. Mars, errr, you'll need to uhh, heat it up 2000 miles below the surface and... uhh, start some toroidal convection ! Wow, isn't THAT EASY!
"Dr. Herndon is now working to narrow down a more specific date for this event currently estimated to happen anytime from the next century to a billion years in the future." Statistically it seems unlikely we have to worry much about this, even though the idea is plausible.
So, if that happens in deep future and people will still want to inhabit the Earth, we will have to live in domed cities with their own shielding or something? Would living underground help?
"Earth's going to end soon!" where have i heard this before... ah yes, the eve of 2000, then 2001. I mean nothing gets a better story than the egotistical idea that we, the current inhabitants of earth, will witness the apocalypse in our lifetime. And if the earth's shielding does cut out, there's nothing we can really do. We can't unload a hundred thousand tons of uranium down there, nor get down there to begin with, with a sleek ship with an ultrasound laser on the front and a handful of nukes in the hold. All made of unobtanium of course, the most unbelievable, laws-of-nature defying material ever crapped out of hollywood. We'd just have to accept our fate, and start living in lead-shielded houses and wearing sunblock 20,000 spf. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Let's make something clear. Earth's magnetic fields is not generated by the fusion reaction going in its core. The magnetic field is generated by the rotation of the molten mass of the core deep inside Earth. Stop worrying and go make something useful as taking a good productive job.
The earths Emf has reversed time and time again for billions of years, its not about to stop, only switch poles, like it has many times since it formed. Stop the panic and enjoy your life.
Edufer, I don't have needs for good productive jobs, thank you ! Why are you so sure about what you are saying ?... Because most scientists say that ?... Where are their proofs ?... Why Dr Herndon "fusion reaction" theory could not make sense and generate a magnetic field ? Please note : I am not a scientist, but what baffle me so often about some scientists are there radical inability to accept the eventuallity that their theory could just be wrong. I thought "scientific research" was meaning : keep mind wide open and never take into account that a discovery (especially the one you've make) is the good and the last one mankind will find on any subject. JMB Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Every single Atom has a electromagnetic fluctuation, when atoms are clusted in millions of molecular compositions to the mass of a planet it generates a unified electromagnetic fluctuation which has such consequences as "Gravity". The molten rock at the Earths superheated centre does shift, and this is caused by the earth's spin. However the Magnetic alignment of the poles isn't just deduced by the molten rock but also the hardened crust. The shifts in field from the molten rock and the solid rock can cause Tactonic shifts in the earths plates. Due to the nature of electromagnetics the polar alignment of molecular chains isn't just earthbound, since the atmosphere itself contains molecules. The greater the density of the molecules the greater the magnetic field, however usually for a higher density (High Pressure) it means low atmospheric temperatures (Like at the Poles in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere.) The thing is with the earth that while it spins, it doesn't just orbit the sun but also tilts while doing so. This means that different rotational axis's causes different areas of the planet to be subjected to different weather trends. (In fact thats the reason for the current "mad weather" patterns) tieing the tilting axis and the weather trends together, expresses that the electromagnetic fields that entangle each other also has to deal with the strains of those changes, which means that a measurement one year can be greatly different from a preceeding year. Personally I suggest that our Electromagnetic field isn't likely to disappear, especially if you would like to consider the rather abnormal Causality/Relativity theory that suggests it's existance is actually tied to modern RF transmittions.
Stryder is in the right path. But answering JMB comments, I am glad you have a job. I don't - I am self employed/unemployed. We must go down to the basic things here. In a certain sense, you are right: not I nor anyone else knows for sure what’s going down deep inside Earth. We suppose, assume, imagine –you name it- lots of things about Earth (not only about the inside but the outside too -the surface and the atmosphere). All these things we assume-suppose-imagine are called hypothesis, and from these hypothesis scientists build theories that try to explain the unknown-uncertainties-ignorance (you name it). Theories must be demonstrated by observations that can explain mechanisms that act on physical and chemical matters. The key word here is: observations. While things on the surface and in the air are easier to observe, the deeper we go, the tougher it gets to observe. We extract ice and earth cores from down to 3500 meters in ice and up to 8000 meters in the crust., but we can’t see (observe) what’s going on down there. We just infer by means of reasoning what we imagine, suppose, assume are causes, effects, etc. So, going now to the issue being discussed here, no one has seen what’s going on in Earth’s guts. We only have theories. While some theories are widely accepted, other are objected, other rejected, other are scorned at. As in any field in science, there is no consensus over almost anything, which is a very good thing because that foster research to seek the truth. To “prove” our theory and gain fame, honor and, why not, some money along the way. So let’s see what the most “accepted” or “popular” theory says about Earth’s magnetic field. (You cold have looked this in zillion webpages, though). The “mainstream theory” claims that Earth is surrounded by a magnetic field having its origin in the convective currents of molten iron in its core. The hotter iron is in the outer layers of the core, while the cooler iron descends to the center. As I see it, the existence of heat inside Earth means there is a fire going on, or huge masses of metals storing heat from the original birth of the planet when it separated from the Sun –if that was the real origin. (Another theory) I think that 4 billion years is a long enough time to have cooled down the entire planet, as it happened to Mars, that it is not much smaller than Earth. If there was a fire going on, it needed oxygen to burn, but it would have been depleted long time ago. So my guess is that the atomic reaction has a solid ground. The orientation of the terrestrial magnetic field does not quite follow Earth’s rotation axis, and this makes magnetic poles not correspond with the geographic poles. Furthermore, magnetic poles “travel” continuously, changing their geographic position. This way, the magnetic North pole has displaced some thousands of kilometers in the Arctic regions during the last two thousand years. It has been over Greenland, and now it has been over Canada for the last 300 years. No one knows where it will wander next. The geomagnetic field varied in direction and in intensity during the ages. At certain times in Earth’s history, the intensity gets close to zero, and while it recovers, polarity shifts to an inverse direction. It is the so called “magnetic field inversion”. Following one of those magnetic field inversions, the north pole polarity is located in the Southern hemisphere, and keeps that way for about 100.000 years (some say 500.000 years, others say 1 million years) until the next polarity inversion. The inversion rate is irregular and doesn’t seem to obey any rule. It is impossible to foresee when the next inversion will be. The last one, called the Brunhes-Matuyama, occurred about 780.000 years ago. Many say we are ripe for a new inversion and point to some signals that might give them the reason. But who really knows for sure? Theories abound but have not been demonstrated. Just “accepted for the time being”, because there are no better ones. Please take notice that I like a lot Dr. Herndon’s theory, but we need some more hard evidence to convince the “scientific establishment” about it. My opinion is Herndon could be heading in the right direction. However, although I believe Earth’s magnetic field can be created by this atomic reaction, there are some facts that the theory must overcome in order to gain credibility. Enough for now, the facts to overcome in my next post.
However, science demand that scientists play the “devil’s advocate” for proving a theory right. Some we must analyze what are other people saying, and they might be right. Analyze this: “Scientists were measuring the U-238 U-235 ratio as a way to calibrate a device since the ratio was well known and was constant throughout all natural sources in the solar system: U-238 (99.27%) U-235 (0.72%). Except, some one noted, in the case of the Uranium ore from Oklo mine in Gabon, Africa. Some scientists at the Pierrelatte Uranium enrichment plant in France were conducting mass spectrometry tests and noticed that the U-238, U-235 ratio in their samples was not what it should be. These measurements caused considerable consternation and after dismissing all the obvious causes; miss-calibration, contamination etc, they traced the exceptional samples back to Africa. At first they suspected that someone had exploded a nuclear bomb in Africa, without anyone noticing, as the only way to change the U-238, U-235 ratio is by nuclear reaction. This theory was dismissed when the unusual readings were found localized to ore from the Oklo mine. It gradually became apparent that a natural nuclear fission reaction had occurred at various sites within the ore body and that these reactions had been responsible for changing the U-238 U-235 ratio.” At least that's how they tell the story. The true Oklo detective story is considerably more elaborate. The main reason it was so difficult to make the leap to assuming a natural nuclear reaction is that today it is no longer possible. When the earth was formed natural uranium consisted of about 17% U-235. However, U-238 has a half life of approximately 4.5 billion years and U-235 has a half life of only 700 million years. Hence U-238 now accounts for 99.27% of all Uranium and U-235 for only 0.72 % (there are trace amounts of other isotopes). In today's proportions U-235 can only support a nuclear reaction in the presence of a heavy water moderator. So it can not react naturally since heavy water does not occur naturally. But, and this is the leap the scientists made, 1.7 billion years ago U-235 accounted for nearly 3% of uranium and in that quantity it could have been moderated by ordinary water. The Uranium ore body at Oklo is several kilometers long and contained pockets of highly enriched (up to 70% pure) uranium as UO2. The ore was buried underground and in places was thick enough to create a critical mass of uranium. Water percolating down from the surface through cracks in the rock was present in sufficient quantity to moderate the reaction, and finally there were no natural poisons like boron that could prevent the reaction. The reaction generated heat, which turned the water to steam, which escaped from the reactor and reduced the amount of water , which reduced the intensity of the reaction, until the rocks cooled enough for the water to return - and so on - until the reactor reached a state of equilibrium. This occurred in 15 separate places within the ore body and continued for hundreds of thousands of years. In all approximately 10 tons of Uranium ore was depleted in this way. The implication of the half time of U235 and U238 means that the amount and strength of uranium in Earth core is almost extinguished, so there couldn’t be a reaction in the core. But, again, who knows for sure? One of the most fascinating consequences of the Oklo Fossil Reactors discovery is the chain of follow-on hypotheses, discoveries, and implications that has spread into different fields of research. Some of these discoveries are hard science and some highly speculative hypotheses, while others are so extreme as to be worthy of note only because of their lunacy. The uniqueness of the Oklo phenomenon has provided a rich set of precedents that have fueled many claims, among them, Herndon’s theory.
Dear Edufer and Stryder, Thank you for long developing this subject. No doubt, you both know the subject ! Well, I would prefer Dr Herndon's theory is false because if it was a "nuclear reactor" "energizing" the magnetic field of the earth, this reactor could be more subject to slowing down sooner - or "die" sooner - than the immense volume of molten iron from the core, wouldn't it ? But this not a scientific opinion, just a hope for our grand-grand... children (or our own reincarnation, maybe) Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! JMB
