Earth's Natural Nuclear Reactor

It would not just be Uranium, but Gold, Lead, and other dense elements that would be concentrated in the core. There are articles written about that, which you can find with a little googling.

The fact that earth [and other inner planets] experienced heavy bombardment in its early history [and we had an interesting thread about that a few months ago] raises the question as to whether earth's crust was 'seeded' with heavy elements [such as gold and uranium]. If an outer planet [in the asteroid belt region] shattered or exploded, forming lots of debris to cause bombardments of the inner planets [and this apparently happened several different times in earth's early history, implying several distinct events of planets being shattered], some of that debris would be the cores of those planets/planetoids, with chunks of heavy elements. That's why I suggested that we might someday find a gold meteorite, and not just iron/nickel ones [which are the shattered remnants of the iron/nickel zone of such planet/planetoid].

As to moderation, distance moderation would slow down neutrons also [5 miles of Uranium is a lot of bouncing around of neutrons to slow them down], and a large bolus of uranium should have some slight nuclear fission to add to the energy release from alpha emission.
 
Actually, I'm surprised the idea of nuclear reactions within the planet, hasn't come up more. But I think the OP is off the mark a bit.

Yes, the planet is a nuclear reactor, but I think it's mostly just ordinary nuclear decay of various unstable elements like uranium, wherever it be found. Unlike a star, the earth just isn't dense and heavy enough to set off a regular nuclear fireball. The heat stirs up and disperses the reactants, before that can happen.

However, the core may not be 100% iron. There could be uranium floating around in there as well, as uranium is denser than iron. But containment isn't sufficient to set up a "critical mass" situation, well unless our planet was to grow significantly bigger and heavier, gaining more mass than even the gas giants, towards becoming a igniting star collapsing in upon itself until heat and pressure are sufficient.

But isn't it awfully strange, that so much of the core of the planet, is MOLTEN? Sounds like some sort of "nuclear meltdown" to me. Sounds a lot more plausible than that all that heat is the distant remnants of some bizarre evolution-theory-based formation of the earth "millions and billions" of years ago.

The planet is far too deep and thick, to efficiently disperse the heat from deep within. So it slowly and relentlessly builds up. That's my theory. And is occasionally relieved a bit by geologic activity, like the rumbles of hopefully minor earthquake tremors, and the sometimes volcanic eruptions. Probably not much for nuclear reactions going on, just too much trapped heat. Imagine putting an electric blanket on your bed, turning it on, then covering it with 100 blankets spread on top. I wouldn't recommend it, as I doubt that electric blankets have much for limiting heat build up, other than merely their low heat output. Okay for the first few minutes, but after a while, things start to overheat, because the heat can't disperse or escape.

Another alternate source of heat, would be tidal forces from mainly the moon. Those force slightly stress the planet, causing not only oceans to "bulge," but distorting land formations as well, although more slightly? Don't they say that we are slowly losing the moon? How is that? I would think it more intuitive, that a decaying orbit should be approaching closer to the planet? Unless closer to the planet, is the higher energy state? Tidal forces could be causing the moon to trail behind where it would otherwise be, and stray further and further out from the planet, as kinectic energy is lost, and converted naturally into heat.
 
kmguru, I used to think Herndon was right. Fission certainly does take place. But as the 20th century fundamentalist Trippy is constantly spitting all over the monitor, fission does not produce iron and it seems that iron is the mechanism for stress and growth.
 
I do not have enough data to come up with any strong opinion here. But one aspect is that, I think, the center ball somehow rotates and creates the magnetic field that protects Earth...
 
OilIsMastery said:
It's a cold fusion reactor which explains why the iron-rich rocks, like basalt and gabbro, are on the bottom and the iron-poor rocks, like granites, are on the top, when it is well known that the iron-rich rocks were the last to form.

http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Launchpad/8098/Excess-mass-stress.htm
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The cold fusion model requires subduction, which you deny exists.

Starvross's model uses degeneracy pressure to aritificially elevate the pressure to the point where a controlled 'form' of conventional fusion can take place.
 
OilIsMastery said:
kmguru, I used to think Herndon was right. Fission certainly does take place. But as the 20th century fundamentalist Trippy is constantly spitting all over the monitor, fission does not produce iron and it seems that iron is the mechanism for stress and growth.
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Be polite.

It's not my fault i've shown you to be dishonest, self contradicting, fallicous, and using badly written factually inaccurate articles.

You're in control of the quality of your arguments, not me.

But still, it's nice to see you're actually aknowledging the flaws in them for once, but try to do so without the blatant flame attacks.
 
Pine_net said:
Discover Magazine

Is there a five-mile-wide ball of hellaciously hot uranium seething at the center of the Earth? If so, how is this Natural Nuclear reaction set off? Could dark matter actually be huge spheres of matter that just couldn't get that fire started?

Click here to find out what I found.
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I believe that the more Uranium we remove from the Earth, the worse off the planet will be. There is no telling the effects of this.

Here in Utah there are over 100 hot springs scattered about the land. This heat comes from the core. I believe that the temperature of the planet is effected by inner reactions more than most people think.

People need to be more aware of what they are doing to the Earth, especially corporate fatties. Keep those filthy fingers out of the planetary balance!
 
Do you mean to suggest that mining uranium rich ore is going to lower the temperature of planet's core?!
 
No, it will not likely lower the core temp.... a great deal anyway.

But I do think that it adversely affects the Earths magnetic/electric fields. By depleting Uranium at a high rate like we do, we are accelerating the destruction of the Earths magnetic field, which in turn, weakens the Earths ability to block out the suns powerful solar-flares. The flares are loaded with energy: heat, momentum, and of course electricity. Without sufficient shielding, shit hits the fan and the Earth-Life-Cell Dies.

The depletion of Uranium that we are doing is speeding up the natural process by millions and millions of years. I think it is unwise of the human race to mess around with Uranium like we are. I think this also effects weather phenomena a great deal.

Beware Uranium mining and enrichment, it must be stopped!

earths_magnetic_field.jpg
 
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Awesome image of the magnetic field.

And I agree that uranium is terrible (obviously if France is doing it). Hydrocarbons are so much better.
 
Diode-Man said:
No, it will not likely lower the core temp.... a great deal anyway.

But I do think that it adversely affects the Earths magnetic/electric fields. By depleting Uranium at a high rate like we do, we are accelerating the destruction of the Earths magnetic field, which in turn, weakens the Earths ability to block out the suns powerful solar-flares. The flares are loaded with energy: heat, momentum, and of course electricity. Without sufficient shielding, shit hits the fan and the Earth-Life-Cell Dies.

The depletion of Uranium that we are doing is speeding up the natural process by millions and millions of years. I think it is unwise of the human race to mess around with Uranium like we are. I think this also effects weather phenomena a great deal.

Beware Uranium mining and enrichment, it must be stopped!

earths_magnetic_field.jpg
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Nonsense. Even IF there were some relationship between uranium in the crust and the Earth's magnetic field, our puny efforts at mining it at the shallow depths we can attain would have no measurable effect during the entire lifetime of the Earth.

Show some evidence of your silly claim that it affects the magnetic field in ANY way!!:bugeye:
 
Hello all
The melting and vaporization point/temperature have a lot to do with the location of various metals within the Earth. This does not even consider the ease at which some metals form compounds. Just looking at the density (of solid metal) will not give an accurate estimate of that metal's location within the Earth.

:)
 
Mining uranium isn't going to have much any effect upon the planet. The heat build-up is near the core, while mining is very close to the surface where the heat can already disipate and escape.

As much as man like to pretend is be "god" and can create or destroy the planet, much of what we do, makes very little difference, other than the intended benefit, of benefiting humans.

The energy humans tap, humans need, but there's energy all around. What we don't use, nature wastes.
 
I thought Man is God, since we built God in our image and we built a Multi-Billion dollar enterprise around that product....:D
 
kmguru said:
I thought Man is God
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Spoken like a true hubristic scientist...:D

Man is omniscient and knows all. We are never mistaken or in error about any issue. Man is infallible...:D

Philosophy, epistemology, and science are pointless because man has perfect wisdom: just ask Trippy.
 
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