Also see our website, www.logwell.com for info on the independent
"poor boy" relatives of Schlumberger and Halliburton.
From a practical standpoint, anything over 350F is
a nightmare for electronics if you have to stay there for a prolonged period
(short stints at higher temps are done with vacuum flasks and other
tricks).
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2003 12:07
AM
Subject: 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.
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