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Earth's Internal Heat Keeps Continents Afloat
The Associated Press ^ | June 27, 2007 | Derrick Hasterok

Posted on 06/27/2007 6:52:00 AM PDT by george76

If it weren't for the hot rocks down below Earth's crust, most of North America would be below sea level, report researchers who say the significance of Earth's internal heat has been overlooked.

Without it, mile-high Denver would be 727 feet below sea level, the scientists calculate, and New York City, more than a quarter-mile below. Los Angeles would be almost three-quarters of a mile beneath the Pacific.

In fact most of the United States would disappear, except for some major Western mountain ranges...

In what they said was the first calculation of its kind, the researchers said heat inside the planet accounts for half the reason land rises above sea level or higher to form mountains.

Scientists previously gave other factors greater weight in explaining elevation differences, such as the density and makeup of rocks and tectonic forces.

The Utah team calculated how much of North America would sink if the engine of heat was taken away, leaving regions as relatively cold as the bottom of the vast Canadian shield — bedrock that hasn't changed for billions of years.

Hasterok said heat from Earth's deep interior and from radioactive decay of uranium, thorium and potassium in Earth's crust will stay around for a long time to come.

Even if the planet's interior cooled, it would take billions of years for continents to sink...

(Excerpt) Read more at thedenverchannel.com ...


TOPICS: Canada; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; US: Wyoming
KEYWORDS: globalwarming
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To: george76

Hmmmmmmmmm........

I wondering if this has some kind of connection to the Flood.


21 posted on 06/27/2007 2:57:16 PM PDT by Grig
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To: expatpat
Even if we prevent that, they could just go get it from the Sun......

Please don't publicized this fact on an open forum. You will give them ideas!

22 posted on 06/27/2007 5:30:10 PM PDT by 17th Miss Regt
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To: george76

23 posted on 06/28/2007 12:15:50 AM PDT by honolulugal
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To: honolulugal

Good work.

Thanks.


24 posted on 06/28/2007 6:04:02 AM PDT by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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Record snow fall buries Anchorage ( Global Warming )

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1762426/posts


25 posted on 07/09/2007 8:02:19 PM PDT by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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