Catastrophic event from within: What’s going on in the earth’s core right now and why it could eventually explode?

In a certain sense, we can say that the Earth actually has two Suns: one in the sky, the second – inside the planet. The fact is that the earth’s core is also a thermonuclear reactor, like a star that gives us light and life. The temperature in the heart of the Earth is the same as on the surface of the Sun: about 6000 degrees °C.

According to modern scientific concepts, there are accumulations of heavy uranium oxides in the core and with their gradual decay, heat is released. But such an incredible amount of heat comes out of the Earth that scientists consider such amazing reserves of uranium in it impossible. 

In addition, the abundance of helium-3 in igneous rocks and on the ocean floor makes it very strongly suspect that the matter is not limited to the natural decay of radioactive elements: in addition, it seems that a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction is going on inside the Earth, as well as in the Sun. Synthesis occurs only in the Sun, and fission takes place in the Earth.

The radius of the Earth is 6371 kilometers (3958 miles) with more than half of this radius occupied by the core. In general, scientists form an idea about the internal structure of the planet on the basis of how shock waves pass through it during earthquakes: at least they go through materials with different densities in different ways. Some scientists are convinced that thanks to seismology, we have studied the crust and mantle of the Earth quite well, but the picture of what is happening in the core is very fuzzy for the simple reason that the core is very deep. 

One such scientist is the Australian geophysicist Tom J. Chalko. After what happened recently in Turkey and Syria, the world began to recall his publication written 20 years ago (in 2001) titled “No second chance? Could the Earth explode as a result of global warming?”.

It says that, in principle, three things can be said with sufficient certainty about the core of the Earth. First: the inner part of the core with a radius of 1220 kilometers (758 miles) is solid. Second, the rest of the nucleus surrounding is liquid. And thirdly, there is some kind of rotation in the solid inner core, and it goes 4% faster than the Earth itself rotates around its axis.

By the way, the author of the article offered an extremely curious explanation for this third fact. He believes that the earth’s core does not completely rotate but is slightly elongated towards the Moon and follows it all the time with this elongation. That is, it is not the core that rotates, but the “hump”, a hill on its surface, arising under the influence of lunar gravity in exactly the same way as our natural satellite, with its gravity, slightly lifting above the Earth’s surface and “pulling” the World Ocean behind it, which is why we have tides and ebbs. 

The geophysicist draws attention to the fact that the speed of the “rotation” of the earth’s core completely coincides with the speed of the moon’s rotation around the earth: one revolution in 27.3 days. It’s just interesting how this version fits in with a recent study that the nucleus regularly slows down and even begins to rotate in the opposite direction.

Why could the earth’s core explode?

As the scientist argues, as long as there is fuel in the inner planetary fusion reactor, it will continue to release heat, but the safe release of this heat from the planet into the surrounding space has recently been in question. Heat escapes through the surface of the planet, thanks to which it does not overheat, that is, the surface is a thermostat that maintains balance. Thus, in the context of global warming, a phenomenon called the greenhouse effect occurs. 

The essence of this effect is known to all: the heat from the surface of the planet does not go anywhere and, from the point of view of the researcher, this primarily means insufficient cooling for the planet’s thermonuclear reactor. 

“The slightest decrease in the cooling capacity of the spherical reactor, lasting for a long time, causes an extreme temperature increase in the center of the reactor,” writes the geophysicist.

According to him, as a result, the solid inner core of the Earth could melt. And if this happens, it will become one with its liquid outer part and will begin to rotate not independently, but together with it. Under the action of the centrifugal force from this rotation, the radioactive isotopes of the inner core now blocked in the solid structure will rush from the center in different directions to the outer core. At some point, as stated, they can accumulate there so much that this is enough to launch an avalanche-like chain reaction, that is, a nuclear explosion.

In this sense, mere suspicions of the elongation of a seemingly solid inner core already cause some discomfort. But that’s not all: the Australian scientist wrote that the melting of polar glaciers is causing concern for the state of the earth’s interior. He argued that since the polar regions are practically unresponsive even to radical seasonal changes in the weather on the rest of the planet, they can be considered quite indifferent to an increase in the average temperature on the planet by any fraction of a degree. 

Meanwhile, they are melting at an alarming rate and the geophysicist suspects that this is a consequence of overheating not on the surface of the planet, but inside.