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The temperature of the inner core can be estimated from the melting temperature of impure iron at the pressure which iron is under at the boundary of the inner core (about 330 GPa). From these considerations, in 2002, D. Alfè and others estimated its temperature as between 5,400 K (5,100 °C; 9,300 °F) and 5,700 K (5,400 °C; 9,800 °F). [ 5 ]
Earth cutaway from core to exosphere Geothermal drill machine in Wisconsin, USA. Temperature within Earth increases with depth. Highly viscous or partially molten rock at temperatures between 650 and 1,200 °C (1,200 and 2,200 °F) are found at the margins of tectonic plates, increasing the geothermal gradient in the vicinity, but only the outer core is postulated to exist in a molten or fluid ...
The solid inner core is too hot to hold a permanent magnetic field (see Curie temperature) but probably acts to stabilize the magnetic field generated by the liquid outer core. The average magnetic field in Earth's outer core is estimated to measure 2.5 milliteslas (25 gauss), 50 times stronger than the magnetic field at the surface. [44]
The Earth core's heat flow—heat leaving the core and flowing into the overlying mantle—is thought to be due to primordial heat, and is estimated at 5–15 TW. [23] Estimates of mantle primordial heat loss range between 7 and 15 TW, which is calculated as the remainder of heat after removal of core heat flow and bulk-Earth radiogenic heat ...
Earth's inner core, a super-hot and super-compressed ball of iron smaller than the moon, helps generate the Earth's magnetic field and, by extension, the aurora borealis -- or Northern Lights.
The potential temperature of the mantle is estimated to be about 1350 C today. There is an analogous potential temperature of the core but since there are no samples from the core its present-day temperature relies on extrapolating the temperature along an adiabat from the inner core boundary, where the iron solidus is somewhat constrained.
Earth’s inner core, a red-hot ball of iron 1,800 miles below our feet, stopped spinning recently, and it may now be reversing directions, according to an analysis of seismic activity.
This "innermost inner core" is an iron-nickel alloy ball that, as professor Hrvoje Tkalčić explains, is a "fossilized record" of Earth's ancient history. Until now, science had only recognized ...