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It was later postulated that hotspots are fed by streams of hot mantle rising from the Earth's core–mantle boundary in a structure called a mantle plume. [6] Whether or not such mantle plumes exist has been the subject of a major controversy in Earth science, [ 4 ] [ 7 ] but seismic images consistent with evolving theory now exist.
Earth's magnetic field, also known as the geomagnetic field, is the magnetic field that extends from Earth's interior out into space, where it interacts with the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emanating from the Sun.
Study of Earth's magnetosphere began in 1600, when William Gilbert discovered that the magnetic field on the surface of Earth resembled that of a terrella, a small, magnetized sphere. In the 1940s, Walter M. Elsasser proposed the model of dynamo theory , which attributes Earth's magnetic field to the motion of Earth's iron outer core .
Earth’s magnetic field has behaved even more dramatically in the past, with the magnetosphere weakening so much that its polarity reversed. This flips the magnetic north and south poles, and the ...
The Bangui magnetic anomaly in central Africa and the Kursk magnetic anomaly in eastern Europe (both in red) In geophysics, a magnetic anomaly is a local variation in the Earth's magnetic field resulting from variations in the chemistry or magnetism of the rocks. Mapping of variation over an area is valuable in detecting structures obscured by ...
Like the North Magnetic Pole, the North Geomagnetic Pole attracts the north pole of a bar magnet and so is in a physical sense actually a magnetic south pole. It is the center of the 'open' magnetic field lines which connect to the interplanetary magnetic field and provide a direct route for the solar wind to reach the ionosphere.
Incredibly old human-made rocks have exposed an important event in Earth’s magnetic history. Ancient bricks baked when Nebuchadnezzar II was king absorbed a power surge in Earth’s magnetic ...
A hot mantle plume is predicted to have lower seismic wave speeds compared with similar material at a lower temperature. Mantle material containing a trace of partial melt (e.g., as a result of it having a lower melting point), or being richer in Fe, also has a lower seismic wave speed and those effects are stronger than temperature.