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Earth's internal heat budget is fundamental to the thermal history of the Earth. The flow of heat from Earth's interior to the surface is estimated at 47±2 terawatts (TW) [1] and comes from two main sources in roughly equal amounts: the radiogenic heat produced by the radioactive decay of isotopes in the mantle and crust, and the primordial ...
The Hadley cell is a closed circulation loop which begins at the equator. There, moist air is warmed by the Earth's surface, decreases in density and rises. A similar air mass rising on the other side of the equator forces those rising air masses to move poleward. The rising air creates a low pressure zone near the equator.
Decay heat is the heat released as a result of radioactive decay. This heat is produced as an effect of radiation on materials: the energy of the alpha, beta or gamma radiation is converted into the thermal movement of atoms. Decay heat occurs naturally from decay of long-lived radioisotopes that are primordially present from the Earth's formation.
Mantle convection is the very slow creep of Earth's solid silicate mantle as convection currents carry heat from the interior to the planet's surface. [2] [3] Mantle convection causes tectonic plates to move around the Earth's surface. [4] The Earth's lithosphere rides atop the asthenosphere, and the two form the components of the upper mantle ...
Atmospheric thermodynamics is the study of heat-to-work transformations (and their reverse) that take place in the Earth's atmosphere and manifest as weather or climate. . Atmospheric thermodynamics use the laws of classical thermodynamics, to describe and explain such phenomena as the properties of moist air, the formation of clouds, atmospheric convection, boundary layer meteorology, and ...
Eventually, the additional heat sources within the Earth were discovered, allowing for a much older age. This section is about a similar paradox in current geology, called the thermal catastrophe . The thermal catastrophe of the Earth can be demonstrated by solving the above equations for the evolution of the mantle with Q cmb = 0 ...
The major heat-producing isotopes within Earth are potassium-40, uranium-238, and thorium-232. [137] At the center, the temperature may be up to 6,000 °C (10,830 °F), [138] and the pressure could reach 360 GPa (52 million psi). [139] Because much of the heat is provided by radioactive decay, scientists postulate that early in Earth's history ...
Earth's overall heat flow. Heat (net energy) always flows from warmer to cooler, honoring the second law of thermodynamics. [75] (This heat flow diagram is equivalent to NASA's earth energy budget diagram. Data is from 2009.) There are sometimes misunderstandings about how the greenhouse effect functions and raises temperatures.