Quote:
Originally Posted by papageno
The field should last as long as the Earth's core is hot enough.
|
...and...
Quote:
Originally Posted by cjameshuff
...Earth's core converts mechanical energy in the form of convection currents into electrical currents and a magnetic field. When the core freezes solid, the convection will stop and the dynamo will end. Joule heating likely returns some of the energy to the inner core as heat, but that would still only prolong the lifetime of the dynamo, it would not sustain it indefinitely...
|
Yes, these are the answers I would have given, and what I expected.
(
Sorry if it was unclear, but my post #77 was (kind of rhetorically) expecting these responses; in opposition to post #68 by rcglinsk.
I may be the only one, but I read post #68 as a claim (by rcglinsk) that the current view of the generation of the Earths magnetic field was
like a "perpetual motion machine" (i.e his/her comment on the violation of themodynamics laws...). The obvious (to my odd mind) rebuttal to that is simply that it isn't expected by anyone to last "forever" - the process
will "wind down".
)