Quote:
Originally Posted by ardeegee
Oh, if that's your question-- no. Most of the Earth's current core heat is from radioactive decay. The heat from the Earth's initial formation ran out literally billions of years ago. Earth would have been a dead lump long before the Cambrian. In fact, that was one of the major "thorns in the side" of evolutionary theory before the discovery of radioactivity in the 20th century. Without radioactive heating, the Earth just simply can't be old enough.
http://skepticwiki.org/index.php/Lor...in%27s_Blunder |
Link's not working. I'm still skeptical that it's all due to radiation. I'll read the link when/if it returns (as well as others which I'll be researching).
In fact in the article linked it says:
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Most of Earth's heat is stored in the mantle, Marone says, and there are four sources that keep it hot. First, there's the heat left over from when gravity first condensed a planet from the cloud of hot gases and particles in pre-Earth space. As the molten ball cooled, some 4 billion years ago, the outside hardened and formed a crust. The mantle is still cooling down.
"We don't think this original heat is a major part of the Earth's heat, though," Marone says. It only contributes 5 to 10 percent of the total, "about the same amount as gravitational heat."
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Link is working now. Doesn't seem very relevant as it is related to the Age of the Earth based on temp differential. (but somewhat associated)