Adonis Diaries

Consider a large inner core of iron of 2,200 km in diameter.  The heart of earth is swimming in a temperature around 5,000 degree celsius, and a pressure of 3 million atmosphere.   There are lighter elements in this magma of iron such as sulfur, silicium, and oxygen.

By convention, the west side of the core is situated under Latin America and the east side under Japan.  The overall core has a diameter of 2,900 km and is way down beneath a thin solid crust of less than 100 km, and the viscous mantel of 3,000 km.

On the west side of the core, iron crystals (of less than 700 meters in diameter) move eastward, a translational movement of 0.5 mm per year, they grow larger and reach the east side with diameters of less than 15 km.  On the east side, under Japan, the iron crystals are in a state of fusion and overflow on the surface of the core returning to the west side as the flow cools down, liberating on their way the lighter elements, which are directed inward to the core. Thus, the iron in fusion becoming heavier than the mixture of iron forming the inner core .

The entire cycle last 100 million years for the rejuvenation of the core.  Every rejuvenating cycle of the core adds a thickness of 0.5 mm to the outer layer of the core since less iron crystals go in fusion than what is formed.

Apparently, this flow of heavy iron returning to the west side generates the magnetic force or field on earth.  It is assumed that only gravity is powerful enough to getting iron crystals of such magnitude moving forward in the translation activity.

This theory explains three anomalies provided by seismograph data that need to be interpreted.  The first anomaly observed is the elastic anisotropic: the seismic waves travel faster from north to south than east to west.  The second anomaly is called asymmetric phenomenon: the irregularity experienced in seismic waves manifested in the western hemisphere where the speed is slower in the first 100 km of the outer layer of the core than in the east side.  The third anomaly is that the deeper layers (around 250 km) must be heavier than the upper iron layers because the seismic waves slow down in this layer:  In a mixture of two salted fluids with different densities, the denser fluid sinks in the bottom regardless of temperature or atmospheric pressure.

The questions that geophysicists need to resolve are: First, how rigid is the grain of the core? If the grain is deformable then, more headaches for validating this theory, if there is a way for such validation.  Second, are the iron crystal of cube shape or hexagonal.

What I understood is that:  the first layer of the core is 100 km, the second layer is 1,220 km thick, and the deepest and denser layer is 250 km. Second, it is that the 250 km layer is responsible of the movement from west to east and reaching the fusion stage and generating the magnetic field. Third, the iron crystals in fusion liberate the lighter elements as they cool down before arriving to the west side of the core.

My set of questions are many:

First, If the liberated lighter elements on the upper layer of the core do not reach the deeper layer then, after each rejuvenation cycle, it will become harder for the iron crystals to reach fusion and to cool down; thus, the return cycle will slow down and the magnetic field will diminish and the most inner 250 km layer of iron acquires heavier density with each cycle.  The middle iron mixture (with abundance of lighter elements) is squeezed between two denser layers.  To which layer would the lighter elements converge? It must be to the deeper layers, otherwise we are in trouble as the ratio of lighter elements to iron decreases with each rejuvenation cycle.

Second, how gravity functions in the lowest location on earth is not clear to me?  Since earth rotates, then what is described as translational movement must be understood as a tangential circulation; a normal centrifugal force exerted on the flowing iron in fusion attracts the lighter elements (does that make any difference in the theory with the snail pace of moving iron crystals?)

Third, the mixture of iron in the middle layer of the core does not rejuvenate quickly.

Fourth, does quantum mechanics play a role in such a hot environment with such a huge atmospheric pressure?

Note:  This article was inspired by the French monthly Science and Vie, number 1118.