Earth's Core spins faster than Surface

[Saluki]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The giant iron ball at the center of the Earth appears to be spinning a bit faster than the rest of the planet.

The solid core that measures about 1,500 miles (2,414 kilometers) in diameter is spinning about 1/4 to 1/2 degree faster, per year, than the rest of the world, scientists from Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign report in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science....ap/index.html

[crazy4space]

This would account for our magnetic personalities 8-[

[nutant gene 71]

In a similar article on BBC Science news: Earth's core runs ahead of crust, it says the rate of spin for the inner core vs. outer planet is about one revolution per 900 years. This does not make a strong case for the dynamo effect, IMO.

When I read the article, if the Earth's core is really spinning ahead of the planet, three possibilities came to mind as to why it is so:

• 1. the core is denser and heavier, so gravitational centripetal force is greater;
  2. drag from the outside in, starting with atmospheric drag, slows the outer portion of the planet;
  3. Earth's core sports a mini-micro-black-hole, so more gravity concentrated there, causing slightly accelerated spin.

The first two may be cause, but they are not strong arguments. The last may be possible, but outside current scientific knowledge. The last would imply that this rate of spin, and heat, should be progressively greater towards the center. A dynamo effect for Earth's magnetic field seems a weak argument if the spin for interior is so slow. So the idea of a micro-black-hole might not be so far fetched if it also creates a magnetic field. We know large macro-black-holes of the kind at galactic centers do create strong magnetic fields. But this is truly speculation on the edge, a kind luni idea at this point.

[nutant gene 71]

EARTH'S MAGNETIC FIELD REVERSAL

This is a followup to above post

When I read the article, if the Earth's core is really spinning ahead of the planet, three possibilities came to mind as to why it is so:

1. the core is denser and heavier, so gravitational centripetal force is greater;
2. drag from the outside in, starting with atmospheric drag, slows the outer portion of the planet;
3. Earth's core sports a mini-micro-black-hole, so more gravity concentrated there, causing slightly accelerated spin.

The first two may be cause, but they are not strong arguments. The last may be possible, but outside current scientific knowledge.

If #3 were to prove right, that Earth's core has a micro-black-hole at its center which generates a magnetic field for the planet (and is not due to so called dynamo effect), then periodic magnetic pole reversals make sense. This would be guided by convections of hot magma within the planet's interior mantle, dependent upon the direction of the overall convections in the aggregate (in the same way aggregate atmospheric cells give us overall wind directions). This same process would be at work inside the Sun, Sun's magnetic field reversals, except being hotter and more dynamic, it would do so more frequently. This would likewise imply the Sun has a mini-black-hole at its core (at one time speculated by Stephen Hawking).

The reason for magnetic polar periodic reversals is due to the aggregate direction of the convecting flow in the interior. If you took a cross section of the Earth's, or Sun's, equator looking down from the pole, it would appear as if the convection currents are all aligned in the aggregate in one direction. This would be analogous to how liquids convect when at a boil, so individual cells of liquid convect, but in some aggregate overall direction. Let's say, seen as a cross section looking down from the pole, they're convecting clockwise. But over time these currents slowly migrate, in the aggregate, so that their direction shifts gradually. Now looking down from the poles, they would appear directionless. In fact, they would be convecting top over end, so only appear directionless from the poles. This would be the time the magnetic field would be at its ebb, at perhaps only 10 percent of its normal force. Then as this convection slowly migrates further, again looking down from the poles, the aggregate would appear to be convection counter-clockwise. In this case, the magnetic field would have reversed.

This effect, which happens about every 11 years in the Sun, and about every 10,000 years on Earth, is a natural phenomenon, and not chaotic, if the magnetic field is independent of the so called dynamo effect. Conversely, if it were the dynamo effect, then there should never be any change in the magnetic field's direction. So in this case, a micro-black-hole at the planet's, or star's, center makes more sense. It would also explain why these bodies spin continuously, and also why the Sun's equator spins faster than at higher latitudes, if powered by a mini-black-hole.

The question that follows naturally, if this is so, is: by what process do these aggregate convections change direction? Does the whole body act in some sort of "capacitor" effect, so when the charge builds up too much in one direction, it gradually shifts it back? Unknowns for now... :-?

[hhEb09'1]

In a similar article on BBC Science news: Earth's core runs ahead of crust, it says the rate of spin for the inner core vs. outer planet is about one revolution per 900 years. This does not make a strong case for the dynamo effect, IMO.

I think you're completely misunderstanding the dynamo effect. The dynamo, in the theory, is not produced by a whole-core motion relative to the crust.

[nutant gene 71]

In a similar article on BBC Science news: Earth's core runs ahead of crust, it says the rate of spin for the inner core vs. outer planet is about one revolution per 900 years. This does not make a strong case for the dynamo effect, IMO.

I think you're completely misunderstanding the dynamo effect. The dynamo, in the theory, is not produced by a whole-core motion relative to the crust.

I'm taking my cue from this version of the "dynamo effect". I hope I got it right, but maybe I didn't.

[hhEb09'1]

That website is kind of sketchy, but notice that it refers to "cells". Just as magnetic materials are made up of domains, which can align to produce a magnet, the cells can also be independent.

Also, the article in the OP is talking about the (solid) inner core, whereas that website (and the dynamo theory) is about the (fluid) outer core.