Well, it may look something like this (above). This is a crystal cave in Mexico. The red specks are people. I think the Mexican crystals are made of gypsum, unlike the Core's crystals which would be made of an iron/potassium alloy. That combination that would be impossible up here on the crust, but it's recently been proven possible in the high pressure, radioactive Core.
Oh, I forgot to mention the size of the Core crystals. They'd be 10 kilometers long, all aligned North and South.
The Earth's Core is getting a lot more media attention than it used to because recent studies show that the Earth's magnetic field, which is driven by the rotating Core, is quickly weakening. It's already weakened to the point where the dip at the poles (above) is threatening to come down to the height of commercial aviation. Those places will receive less protection from solar radiation.
Not only is the magnetic field weakening, but it appears to be shifting. There's a concern that Earth's magnetic poles might reverse sometime in the next two hundred years. One estimate puts the date as early as 20 years. They've been moving around a lot lately. I've read that in the past ten years the magnetic pole has shifted nearly half the total distance of the last 50 years. The effect of this on the Earth's weather is unknown.
Last but not least are the traveling "hot spots." Although the main magnetic forces run North and South, smaller lines of magnetic forces erupt in travelling "islands" around the globe. One such hot spot started in Africa and is now moving over the Atlantic in the direction of Brazil. That means planes flying in that region will have to fly lower than normal to be safe.
What causes these deviations? I'm not sure...nobody is. The Outer Core is a rotating ocean of liquid metal, which is only a little more dense than water. I think...though I'm not sure... that this layer rotates faster than the Inner Core, and is influenced by big, fluctuating irregularities on the surface of the Inner Core. Don't quote me on that, I might have misheard it. I saw this on a Science Channel documentary, and was distracted by X#@%&X phone salesmen throughout.
Gosh Eddie. I love the way you censor really dirty language on the blog especially when talking about fascinating topics like this. I've been a Science Channel fan for many years now but I haven't watched it in a long time.
ReplyDeleteI want it to look like it does in "Journey to the Center of the Earth." The 1959 James Mason one. That had giant crystals, too, but also dinosaurs and sunken cities. And Bernard Herrmann music, too. Yeah, especially the Bernard Herrmann music.
ReplyDeleteIf it's a just world there'd better be dinosaurs and glowing forest of fungus, mabye even barbarian pre-humans and reptile men punching it out.
ReplyDeleteSigh, well one can dream.
Among the wilder aspects of magnetic reversal theory is that the earth itself will reverse the direction of its spin; gradually slowing and stopping altogether while doing so.
ReplyDeleteA neighbour of mine in Ireland sussed it out a few years back.
As wacky as it sounds, he came eerily close to proving it.
Charles: Yikes! I haven't heard that one. Let's hope your neighbor was wrong.
ReplyDelete