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Earth heat production and radioisotopes, etc.



Hmmmm,

      This is from:     jpreisig@aol.com   .

      Dear Radsafers,

            Hope all is well where you live and work.  It is hot and humid here
      in New Jersey.

            A while back, the John Jacobus fellow was asking about Earth
      heat flow and the various radioisotopes/radionuclides contributing
      to the Earth's heat flow.  A good book on this is Frank Stacey's
      "Physics of the Earth".  An appendix in the version I have describes
      which radioisotopes/radionuclides contribute principally to the Earth's heat
      flow.  Possible Journals describing more recent thermal geophysics
      include Geophysical Journal International and Journal of Geophysical
      Research (which has various versions each addressing various fields
      of geophysics).

           As for fission driving Earth heat flow --- I don't know much about
      this.  I always thought the heat flow was simply due to radioactive decay.

           The Earth has an inner core, which is solid,  and an outer core, which
      is fluid.  Then there is the Earth's Mantle and crust (aesthenosphere,
      lithosphere, etc.).  Most of this is described somewhat in Stacey's book.
      The existence of the inner and outer core was discovered by looking
      at the paths taken by seismic waves through the Earth --- no need to
      use neutrinos unless you really want to.

           As for having some "Inner Earth Vehicle" tunneling down into the
      Earth, Good Luck!!!!  The Earth Pressures grow fairly quickly.  And as for having
      an experimental probe go into the Earth, it may get to a fair depth, but
      I believe any measurement electronics will fail miserably once the
      temperature and pressure get high enough.

           Our current oil drilling efforts only extend about 5 or 10 miles (down)
     into the Earth.  Maybe more, for scientific drilling???  As these oil wells
     are drilled, sometimes well-logging is done to determine the properties
     of the wells as a function of depth.  Will there be oil, Will there be gas,
     etc.???  Well-logging is done with photomultiplier tubes (and other devices;
     neutron generators, etc.) which are specifically designed to withstand
     the thermal and shock (as well as pressure) environment of an oil well.
     See Schlumberger's web-site (Halliburton too???).  Some of their
     technology is proprietary, and some is not.

          Anyway, I hope this is helpful, John Jacobus.

      Regards,                J.R. Preisig,  Ph.D.