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Geophysics Heresy |
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A stochastic model of the earth's interior
A stochastic model of the earth's interior is proposed in
which the number of assumptions is kept to a minimum. Despite
this simplicity, complex behaviour occurs as a consequence of further
assumptions: that convection cells form spontaneously
and at random in the outer liquid core as heat builds up from radioactive
sources, that each of these cells spontaneously generates its own magnetic
field, that each cell melts the solid mantle
immediately above it because of the extra heat being convected outward
from the hot core and that in this way each convection cell propagates
upwards through the otherwise solid mantle.
The upward-moving,
liquid-in-solid convection cells formed in this way are proposed as the primary
mechanism by which the core is cooled. The totality of convection cell
dynamo fields is proposed as the origin of the geomagnetic field.
Because
cooling is a stochastic process, there will be times when the earth is
heating faster than it is cooling and vice versa. Hence there will be times
when the volume and surface of the earth are expanding and new crust is
formed and there will be other times when the surface is contracting and
the crust, being too large for the smaller surface, is forced to ramp up,
wrinkle and subduct in order to be accommodated by the smaller area.
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