what happens if the Earth's inner liquid core cools down?

@stk40m (1119)
Koeln, Germany
March 1, 2011 2:30pm CST
I've wondered about this because I could imagine that all the water on Earth could sink deep into the ground if the hot iron core cools down and thus the oceans would vanish. So far every drop of water will boil down there and hence evaporate and rise towards the surface. But what will happen if the inner core cools down? Maybe this is what happened to Mars. Mars' core has not totally cooled down but there's no volcanic activity anymore like on Earth. Plus the Earth's crust is only 40 km thick compared to 50 km of the mantle of Mars, i.e. 'our' crust has a relative thickness of 1/3 of Mars's crust. What do you think - could our water slowly vanish this way over the course of possibly millions of years?
4 responses
@celticeagle (157593)
• Boise, Idaho
2 Mar 11
I wonder about this at times too. Like when I was reading one of those great ERB science fantasies when I was younger. During the cliff hanger, waiting for the next book, etc. Have to fill your time some how, right? I think it would make the EARTH curl up and DIE!! Yep, that's my opinion.
@celticeagle (157593)
• Boise, Idaho
2 Mar 11
Oh,ERB? He was Edgar Rice Burroughs one of the best science fiction writers of his day. Back when the cliff hanger comics were popular. He used to drive me nuts like no man before or since ever has. hehe He wrote the Mars Series and many others. Frank Farzetta did alot of the sexy art work for his book covers. He made women independant and adventurous and wrote with the most imagination. I was tranfixed. I remember going down to the park one Saturday afternoon and starting and finishing his Princess of Mars book all in one setting. Then the cliff hanger until I could get ahold of the next book. I was hooked!
@stk40m (1119)
• Koeln, Germany
2 Mar 11
thank you for for clearing that up! Sounds like some interesting stuff :-)
1 person likes this
@stk40m (1119)
• Koeln, Germany
2 Mar 11
yep, probably that won't be good for Earth... btw, who/ what is ERB? Cheers
1 person likes this
@Lore2009 (7378)
• United States
2 Mar 11
That's probably what will happen if that happened.. it will end up like Mars or the moon.
@stk40m (1119)
• Koeln, Germany
2 Mar 11
maybe it would happen like in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hGLEQozvt8
@xfahctor (14118)
• Lancaster, New Hampshire
2 Mar 11
Actually the oceans would not go anywhere, not right away at least (more on this in a minute). What this would do is eliminate the magnetic field that our earth currently has. The liquid churning iron core creates this field. Now, back to the oceans. With out a magnetic field shielding us from the solar wind, our atmosphere would slowly be stripped away. As the atmosphere disappears, the oceans would start to evaporate. This is exactly what happened to mars. Since Mars was much smaller and also had a much smaller core and less radioactive material in it, it cooled very quickly. Mars today has a totally cold core, no magnetic field, no liquid water on it's surface and very little atmosphere.
@stk40m (1119)
• Koeln, Germany
2 Mar 11
yes, I know about the fact that if there's no atmosphere (or atmospheric pressure) much of the water would evaporate and yes, the magnetic field would vanish as there won't be any electric currents anymore if the core would become rigid. However, even Mars contains water in the ground, I just read this on Wiki :D. They say that they found it at one of its poles. Plus it seems that it still has a hot core but they are not sure about its exact size. Anyway, Mars has become much colder. thanks for your comment :-) Cheers
@daeckardt (6237)
• United States
1 Mar 11
Actually, at one point, even the moon had a hot inner core. I don't know if it ever had water, but if it did it is obviously gone now. I remember reading in my astronomy class about what happens when the inner core cools down. While it was interesting to me at the time, I can't remember any of it now. I'm sure that the water would vanish in time if things were to change. I just don't know for sure.
@stk40m (1119)
• Koeln, Germany
2 Mar 11
I think that a Japanese satellite detected water (bound in rocks) on the Moon but you're right, most of the water has certainly 'gone' there. The question is where has it gone. Probably it has gone because the Moon has no atmosphere but maybe some water is still frozen in the ground as that Japanes mission, I think it was called the Kaguya mission. Here's a link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_water