Posted on 12/19/2011 9:25:52 AM PST by decimon
Washington, D.C. -- The crushing pressures and intense temperatures in Earth's deep interior squeeze atoms and electrons so closely together that they interact very differently. With depth materials change. New experiments and supercomputer computations discovered that iron oxide undergoes a new kind of transition under deep Earth conditions. Iron oxide, FeO, is a component of the second most abundant mineral at Earth's lower mantle, ferropericlase. The finding, published in an upcoming issue of Physical Review Letters, could alter our understanding of deep Earth dynamics and the behavior of the protective magnetic field, which shields our planet from harmful cosmic rays.
Ferropericlase contains both magnesium and iron oxide. To imitate the extreme conditions in the lab, the team including coauthor Ronald Cohen of Carnegie's Geophysical Laboratory, studied the electrical conductivity of iron oxide to pressures and temperatures up to 1.4 million times atmospheric pressure and 4000°F—on par with conditions at the core-mantle boundary. They also used a new computational method that uses only fundamental physics to model the complex many-body interactions among electrons. The theory and experiments both predict a new kind of metallization in FeO.
Compounds typically undergo structural, chemical, electronic, and other changes under these extremes. Contrary to previous thought, the iron oxide went from an insulating (non-electrical conducting) state to become a highly conducting metal at 690,000 atmospheres and 3000°F, but without a change to its structure. Previous studies had assumed that metallization in FeO was associated with a change in its crystal structure. This result means that iron oxide can be both an insulator and a metal depending on temperature and pressure conditions.
(Excerpt) Read more at eurekalert.org ...
Rustoleum ping.
“Deep Earth” sounds like a good name for a metal band.
I thought this thread was going to be about Rearden Metal.
No “Intelligent Design”, mind you ... it’s all random “Happen-stance”, right? < /s>
I would guess there are many materials we have not yet discovered
There is even that one that Bob Lazaar saw at Area 51 that is higher in the element table than anything we normally see here on earth. It was cool because they said it affected gravity because the material was so densly packed that the gravity field extended outside the electron shells (I love geeky stuff)
yes- I believe him- I went to college for physics too, and I have never heard anything he said that goes AGAINST anything I leanred- in fact, it proves to me that he does know what he is talking about
oh- and I believe in UFO’s and aliens too (seriously)
“They also used a new computational method that uses only fundamental physics to model the complex many-body interactions among electrons.”
Hydrocodes are a new idea?
Who knew.
I still want to know where these crushing pressures come from. If you're 1000 feet under water, the crushing pressure comes from the weight of the water column directly above you, and that weight comes from the attraction of that mass of that water column to the mass of the earth. But if you're in a cave 1000 feet deep there is no crushing pressure.
And when you get to the center of the earth there is no weight at all. Any mass there is surrounded by a uniform field of terrestrial mass and all the terrestrial gravitational forces cancel out. (Just as all the gravitational forces due to the mass of the earth to your left are canceled out by the gravitational forces of the mass of the earth to your right.)
ML/NJ
If there’s a cave the pressure is being routed around the opening to the rock on either side (hopefully, or the cave collapses.)
This isn’t talking about the center of the Earth; it’s the lower mantle, anyway.
Well let’s say you’re not quite at the center but maybe a few hundred or a thousand miles out and the metals there are all liquified. In that case you would expect great pressures, wouldn’t you?
Yeah, I guess we can go tell coal miners that when they dig out a big room of coal 400 feet deep that they don’t need to put up any roof supports or leave pillars of coal, because there’s no pressure in a cave.
Water is heavier than air. :)
I'm not really sure. I'm not at all sure that the metals there are all liquid. I don't see why they would be liquefied. But if you are 1000 miles from the center of the earth, you are surrounded by a more or less uniform mass field 3000 miles in diameter which cancels itself out gravitationally, and another shell of mass about half of the mass of the entire earth which would act gravitationally upon you from its center of mass which is about 4400 miles away from you. (which reduces the gravitational attraction by another 20% or so because surface gravitation acts from only 4000 miles away)
ML/NJ
Some deep underground oil/gas fields are at +10,000 psi pressure.
If UFO’s and aliens were not real Clintoon would not have made the big deal of unclassifying top secret alien info.
huh? try again without the double-negatives
Clinton made a big deal about wha? and why?
bflr
When Clinton was POTUS there were vague reports of him wanting to unclassify alien/Area51 documents.
I suppose it never happened.
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