Lifespan of the Earth?

In the beginning there was nothing and god said let there be hot molten iron inside the core of my new planet and it was so. He saw this was good and he said now lets put a thin layer of crust over all this molten rock and thou shalt have land! He saw this was good and then he said whoa its hot down here lets make this baby cool off.

Heat in the Earth's Core


It appears that the process of creating planets, by gravity drawing particles together, results in a lot of friction and collisions, which creates heat in the core. That heat dissipates out into space as infrared radiation. A crust then forms and holds the heat in. Heat moves slowly through the crust, but not fast enough to heat the air much. It's mostly the sun that heats the atmosphere. However, the earth's core does add significant heat to bodies of water including oceans and lakes.


It is not known why the earth's core is hot, but there are lines of evidence. The changing thickness of the earth's crust indicates a constant cooling, which indicates that the heat was created at the beginning of the earth's formation.

About a billion years ago, all of the continents had come together forming a large super continent called Pangea. There were no mountains at that time. An "ice age" caused the whole land mass to be covered with ice, which destroyed all terrestrial life. After the ice melted, terrestrial life reevolved from the sea creatures.

The absence of mountains means the tectonic plates were very thin and light. If they were as thick and heavy as modern plates, they would have buckled and slid over and under each other as they collided to form Pangea, and mountains would have been the result. Since the plates were thin and light, they just welded together as they collided.

For example, a significant earthquake occurred in central South Dakota in 1983. Earthquakes were supposed to be impossible in the area, because there is supposedly one continuous sheet of granite under the entire state. Earth quakes are caused by two plates sliding past each other. It means there are two plates which fit together so precisely that they look like one. This conclusion is reinforced by the fact that there are two very distinct soil types above each plate. Loam sits over the east river plate, and a heavy gumbo sits over the west river plate.

So the tectonic plates were thin and light in earlier times, and now they are getting thick and heavy. This means the earth is losing heat, and the heat in the earth's core must have been there at the beginning of the earth's creation. The heat apparently resulted from small particles gravitating toward a center, and the process of colliding and compressing created heat through friction.

Additional evidence is in the observation that planets which are farther away from the sun are losing heat faster than they are acquiring it from the sun. They apparently acquired their heat during their creation.

Heat in the core of planets cannot be entirely due to nuclear reactions, because that source would require a gradual build-up rather than a gradual loss of heat. However, nuclear reactions could be occurring in the core, because heat and pressure should promote them. But then they must be producing heat at a lower rate than it is being lost through radiation into space. Otherwise, there would not be the observed cool-down.

It seems likely that ice ages on earth are caused by a nuclear hot spot in the core rotating toward the surface and heating the Pacific Ocean. The primary evidence for this is that the past ten ice ages have been cycling at 100 thousand year intervals. Environmental changes are not apt to be so cyclic, but a convectional oscillation in the earth's core could be.

It's quite significant that a large number of coral reefs are dying from over-heating. Humans are not causing the oceans to over-heat; it appears to be caused by heat from the earth's core.

Source

When will the Earth die?

Whuf. Errr... there's some facts wrong at your source.

About a billion years ago, all of the continents had come together forming a large super continent called Pangea. There were no mountains at that time.

Actually, three mountain ranges formed during that time in the Americas alone: webspinners.com...

An "ice age" caused the whole land mass to be covered with ice, which destroyed all terrestrial life. After the ice melted, terrestrial life reevolved from the sea creatures.

Oh dear. This "scientist" didn't bother to look up how many ice ages there have been, nor the four Great Extinctions. And terrestrial life didn't re-evolve from the sea life after those.

The rest of the science is equally bad, I'm afraid.

For example, a significant earthquake occurred in central South Dakota in 1983. Earthquakes were supposed to be impossible in the area, because there is supposedly one continuous sheet of granite under the entire state.

This will come as a great surprise to geologists, who have been aware about earthquake activity in South Dakota for a very long time:
earthquake.usgs.gov...

They have lots of them there (most too small to notice):
earthquake.usgs.gov...

This means the earth is losing heat, and the heat in the earth's core must have been there at the beginning of the earth's creation.

Yes, given that the planet was created by hot space debris left over from the formation of the Sun, all smashing together. The iron in the Earth's core AND radiation keeps it all toasty.

Additional evidence is in the observation that planets which are farther away from the sun are losing heat faster than they are acquiring it from the sun. They apparently acquired their heat during their creation.

Ugh. That's... really really bad science, and it gets worse.

It seems likely that ice ages on earth are caused by a nuclear hot spot in the core rotating toward the surface and heating the Pacific Ocean. The primary evidence for this is that the past ten ice ages have been cycling at 100 thousand year intervals. Environmental changes are not apt to be so cyclic, but a convectional oscillation in the earth's core could be.

A good scientist researches things. Basic research would have turned up the Milankovich cycle and the effect of the position of continents on ocean currents (which change whether the climate stays warm or gets cool to some degree. More basic research would turn up information on the impact of the composition of the air (more CO2, less CO2) on the temperature of the planet.

When will the Earth die?

About 10 billion years from now, when the Sun goes nova.

reply to post by Byrd

About 10 billion years from now, when the Sun goes nova.

Eh? Our sun doesn't have the mass necessary to go Nova after it's Red Giant phase. It will most likely end up as a white dwarf. However, the Earth will likely not survive the Red Giant phase, as it's expansion will likely extend out over Earth's orbit.

I think our Sun is expected to go Red Giant in about 4.5 billion years. However, life as we know it on Earth only has about another 1 billion years, since as the sun's output is expected to increase roughly 10% in the next billion years - the extra heat will boil away the oceans and make life as we know it untenable.

1 billion years may sound like a short amount of time, compared to the 4 billion years left in our Sun's life span, but consider that it has been only about 530 million years since the Cambrian Explosion when multicellular life first started to dominate the Earth. We have plenty of time left.

Humanity will never live to see the end of our sun or earth. We will either go extinct, or evolve into a different species (or multiple different species) long, long, long, before that ever happens.

Originally posted by Lasheic
I think our Sun is expected to go Red Giant in about 4.5 billion years. However, life as we know it on Earth only has about another 1 billion years, since as the sun's output is expected to increase roughly 10% in the next billion years - the extra heat will boil away the oceans and make life as we know it untenable.

Good catch!! I should learn to Always Doublecheck Facts First! You're right -- the lifespan of the sun is about 10 billion years, and it goes red giant and not nova.