About Earth's Planetary Core?

Question

How did the scientist explore the planet Earth's core?Explain.

Answer 1

They havent. They theorize...

Answer 2

Interesting question... A variety of ways.
--------
Basic Ideas: Depending on the substance, solids transmit vibrations, like earthquates or artificially produced vibrations (produced maybe with explosives) at different rates. Iron-based solids and liquids which comprise our earth's interior transfer those vibrations, differently than say if it were made of aluminum. With detectors, scientists/geologists can interpret those signals and tell, for example, how deep a layer is.

Earthquakes produced, say in Japan or South America, can be detected here in the U.S. if it is strong enough. But, sometimes the signal might be blocked or redirected (a type of echo effect) or changed in the frequency as it passes into a portion of the core, off of it, or through the layers in the earth.

The science isn't exact of course, the study is only a couple hundred years old, but theories suggest that at certain depths, the solid core, is more like mushy on the surface but solid inside and possibly slightly irregular in shape - after all, the earth isn't exactly a perfect sphere. The heat generated by the radioactivity in the core, too, generates enormous columns of hot lava that flows up to the mantle - 5-40 kilometer (roughly) - which sometimes erupts onto the Earth's surface. Hawaii is the stereotypical example of this phenomenon... several miles, I hear, of lava that flows out of a long crack. The Rim of Fire along the western coast of the Pacific is another likely effect. Read up on Gondwanaland, and the Great Rift Valley for some really interesting stuff.

Obviously, they can't send probes into the core, but they have decades of earthquake-related information to analyze and think about... It's a great question you've asked!
---------------
Extra for you... There's a huge open pit coal-mining operation in Montana. They have to remove a thick layer of hard soil and layers of rock to get to the several-yard-thick coal layer. To do that, they drill many holes, put in ground up explosives in and when all is set they explode it - What a sight...!! However, before they explode it, they notify through official contacts the Soviet, Chinese and other governments the exact time of the detonation so that they won't think it is an underground nuclear explosion. You can bet many countries have detectors so that if the "shadow" caused by the core prohibits detection of an unannounced nuclear explosion at one locale, it would be detected at another. They know, for example the "signature" of a detonation in Utah.

I studied geology for two years at N.C.State University, so some of this infor might be sort of out of date, but I do like the subject and try to read up on geology. I think that the science of planetery cores will greatly advance when we explore other planets, but that's way, way into the future.

Best of luck to you, and searching for answers for questions like this can easily become a career.

Answer 3

It is not how did it is how do the explore the earths core. The main part of the exploration is done theoretically by utilizing 3-D computer models compiled by utilizing data from geophycist analyzing waves from earth quakes etc. By comparing seismic waves in different regions and analyzing the differences we learn about_the_core.We also examine our near surface crust by drilling. Visit this web sihttp://geology.about.com/od/core/a/about_the_core.htmte for mor complete information.

Answer 4

They haven't.
The theories about the composition of the core come from our knowledge of the surface of the Earth, and the composition of the mantle (the layer after the surface, where volcanic lava originates from).

Answer 5

Scientists explore it by closely examining seismic waves from earthquakes. That tells them about the relative densities of the materials.

Answer 6

They went there and brought back a sample.

Answer 7

they studied the volcanoes