Where Does Earth's 44 Trillion Watts Of Heat Come From?
Sunday, July 17, 2011 - 20:50
in Physics & Chemistry
44 trillion watts of heat continually flow from Earth's interior into space. Where does it come from?Researchers can say with 97 percent certainly that 50 percent of the heat is due to radioactive decay and other sources, like primordial heat left over from the planet's formation, must account for the rest. Knowing that radioactive decay of uranium, thorium, and potassium in Earth's crust and mantle is a principal source, in 2005 scientists in the Kamioka Liquid-scintillator Antineutrino Detector (KamLAND) collaboration first showed that there was a way to measure the contribution directly. read more