Re: A big whack that made the moon may have also created continents that move

On 6/21/24 13:47, Jim Wilkins wrote:
> "a425couple"  wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> 
> A big whack that made the moon may have also created continents that move
> 
> ------------------------------
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Wegener
> 
> In 1912 he presented his theory that continents drift around and were 
> once assembled. After his death the Nazis picked up on and promoted it, 
> which tainted the concept so much that it was buried, and only 
> resurrected when a grad student independently noticed and popularized 
> the proposal and thus freed it from its political stigma.
> 
> When I studied Earth Science in the 1950's the standard explanation of 
> mountains made no sense. There was a lot of material on Louis Agassiz 
> but no mention of Wegener.

OK.
Frustrating, that the name connected to a theory has so much weight
on the consideration given to that theory.

The current talk, that because it is so much smaller, Mars interior
cooled so many Billions of years before ours (and thus lost
tectonic movement and magnetism, and thus water,,,) seems
kind of lacking to me.

I read:

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The Earth's core has remained hot for billions of years due to a 
combination of factors, including:

Radioactive decay
Isotopes like potassium-40, uranium-235, uranium-238, and thorium-232 
are unstable and release energy that converts to heat, contributing up 
to 90% of the Earth's internal heat.

Heat from formation
When the Earth formed around 4.5 billion years ago, it accreted from a 
disk of hot, spinning material, generating a lot of heat through 
collisions. This heat accounts for 5–10% of the Earth's core heat.

Frictional heating
Denser core material sinking to the center of the planet creates 
friction, which also generates heat.

Solidifying outer core
As the liquid outer core solidifies near its boundary with the inner 
core, it releases heat.

Latent heat
As the Earth cools, the core expands and releases heat into the mantle.

National Geographic Education
Core - National Geographic Education
The primary contributors to heat in the core are the decay of 
radioactive elements, leftov...

Space.com
How has Earth's core stayed as hot as the sun's surface for billions of 
years?
Jan 24, 2023 — Radioactive isotopes are not stable. They release a 
steady stream of energy th...

Scientific American
Why is the earth's core so hot? And how do scientists measure ...
Oct 6, 1997 — Getty Images. EARTH. There are three main sources of heat 
in the deep earth: (1...

Earth Observatory of Singapore
Why is the interior of the Earth hot
Earth Science FAQs - Geology and Tectonics. Why is the interior of the 
Earth hot? The inte...

Phys.org
Probing Question: What heats the earth's core?
Mar 30, 2006 — ...

Mashable
Earth's core is wilder than you can imagine | Mashable
Jul 8, 2023 — A primary reason the core is profoundly hot is because 
remnant heat from Earth'...
Heat moves out of the Earth slowly through convection and conduction. 
Convection is the transport of heat within the liquid outer core and 
solid mantle, while conduction is the transport of heat through 
nonconvecting boundary layers, like the Earth's plates at the surface. 
Without the Earth's internal heat, the tectonic plates would stop 
moving, and the Earth would likely cool down and become uninhabitable.
The Earth's core can reach temperatures of over 5,000°C, and the inner 
core is estimated to be around 9,800°C. However, the extreme pressure 
the iron in the core is exposed to, as well as other elements, may lower 
the temperature by around 400°C.