ugc_banner

Earth's interior cooling faster than expected, says research. What will happen next?

WION Web Team
ZurichUpdated: Jan 15, 2022, 04:18 PM IST
main img
Photograph:(Reuters)

Story highlights

If a research is to be believed, the Earth’s interior seems to be cooling down faster than expected. It may follow the footsteps of rocky planets Mercury and Mars. The study, which has been carried out by ETH Professor Motohiko Murakami and his colleagues from Carnegie Institution for Science, has been published in the 'Earth and Planetary Science Letters Journal'

If a research is to be believed, the Earth’s interior seems to be cooling down faster than expected. It may follow the footsteps of rocky planets Mercury and Mars.  

The study, which has been carried out by ETH Professor Motohiko Murakami and his colleagues from Carnegie Institution for Science, has been published in the 'Earth and Planetary Science Letters Journal'.  

These experts have developed a measurement system, which enables to measure the thermal conductivity of bridgmanite in the laboratory. It is done under the pressure and temperature conditions that prevail inside the Earth.  

It suggested that the heat flow from the core into the mantle is also more than what was thought previously. The greater heat flow increases mantle convection and spikes the cooling of the Earth.   

It also causes plate tectonics to decelerate faster than expected based on previous heat conduction values. The tectonics are responsible for the convective motions of the mantle.  

These changes seem to be leading to the cooling down of the planet, said the researchers.  

"Our results could give us a new perspective on the evolution of the Earth's dynamics. They suggest that Earth, like the other rocky planets Mercury and Mars, is cooling and becoming inactive much faster than expected," Murakami explained.  

"We still don't know enough about these kinds of events to pin down their timing," he said.  

(With inputs from agencies)