Apparently the Earth's core is slowing down?

Question

This came up on a programme the other night, and has been determined because the planet's magnetic fields are shifting and weakening. Scientists involved in the research believe that this is what happened to Mars and is the reason that there is very little atmosphere and no water there. They think the core could "freeze" in as little as 100 years or maybe many thousands of years from now. Sorry - I don't know what the prog was; I switched in about a quarter of the way through. It was on UKTV Docs.

There are a couple of theories as to why the core is slowing, one being that the uranium and plutonium which is known to sink to the centre of a forming planet may be depleting, thus removing the "nuclear reactor" that the theory postulates would be providing enormous heat at the very centre of the core itself and keeping it molten and mobile.

Q: How does the removal of planetary magnetic fields determine that atmosphere and water would evaporate? The prog didn't go into this.

Answer 1

"Because the inner core is not rigidly connected to Earth's solid mantle, the possibility that it rotates slightly faster or slower than the rest of Earth has long been entertained. In the 1990s, seismologists made various claims about detecting this kind of super-rotation by observing changes in the characteristics of seismic waves passing through the inner core over several decades, using the aforementioned property that it transmits waves faster in some directions. Estimates of this super-rotation are around one degree of extra rotation per year, although others have concluded it is rotating more slowly than the rest of Earth by a similar amount."

"Inner core : Dynamics" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_core

Answer 2

well as far as I know (and I certainly don't know much lol)

the earth has an iron core and this helps the earth have the strong magnetic field it has, mars doesn't have a largely iron core it has something else so it's field is weaker.
a magnetic field bends solar flares away from the core of the planet, (the northern and southern lights being solar flares bent north and south by the earth's magnetic field [as far as I recall lol]) and everytime a solar flare hits an atmosphere it tears off a batch of particles, earth's atmosphere is pretty strong so solar flares don't tear of much worth noting, while mar's field is wearer and they tear off a bit more.
now an iceage in 100 years due purely to more particles being removed by solar flares caused by a weakened magnetic field is... well... (how do I put this...) far far too short a time frame, by any sane human's reaconing.
so if you completely removed the earth's magnetic field we would have more atmosphere torn off by each solar flare that incidently hits the earth.

now seeing as us humans live on the surface of the planet, just on that pissant little bit of outer shell, if by some strange accurance the centre of the earth "froze" we'd still get most of our temprature from the star we revolve around...

but what it's saying is that forget that the earth is spinning like everything else because it's revolvine around a massive nuclear furnace which is blasting out radiation and "flares" of incredibly super heated gases, forget that we spin because we're a ball moving at an insane speed, just purely forget all that, and say the earth stopped moving, (oops there goes gravity lol) and that it revolves around itself (middle ages anyone?) and say that there's a magical mystical collection of uranium and plutonium playing ring a round the rosy in the centre of the core and that makes the core spin, which makes us spin which is why everything revolves around the earth. in that scenareo (which might happen in some other reality just not this one) the documentry is 100% right... but um... in this reality? um... <_<... >_>... no.

Answer 3

there is a film out called "The Core" that is exactly what happens in this film and a few specalists have to go inside the earth to set expolsions off to start the core off again.
This is a very interesting I suggest you get a copy of it on dvd or video or look out for it on tv

Answer 4

Haven't you seen the Film, The Core.

Answer 5

What with global warming,the weather today and now your happy news i feel really depressed.Cheers