Re:What keeps earth from collapsing in on itself? (2010)
by bell-cot on Saturday April 30, 2022 @08:28AM
(#31215513)
"Liquid" does not describe the Earth's mantle - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structure_of_Earth#Mantle It is more like cold pitch - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_drop_experiment
Re:What keeps earth from collapsing in on itself? (2010)
by jethkl on Saturday April 30, 2022 @11:57AM
(#31216963)
Agree that "rock made weak and ductile under intense heat and pressure" would probably be better than "liquid", but common language and daily experience do not apply. Whatever the dynamic processes are doing, they must have symmetry and be stable -- hot plumes of stuff don't punch through the contents in random locations.
Re:What keeps earth from collapsing in on itself? (2010)
by adgjlsfhk1 on Saturday April 30, 2022 @08:25AM
(#31215501)
something that is counter intuitive is that although the mantle is often described as liquid, that description is only valid on large scales (both space and time). for comparison, the mantle is significantly less liquid than cold asfault. it's just subject to huge pressures.
Re:What keeps earth from collapsing in on itself? (2010)
by MrYellowP on Saturday April 30, 2022 @09:51AM
(#31216076)
> asfault
asphalt?
Re:What keeps earth from collapsing in on itself? (2010)
by qbonnard on Saturday April 30, 2022 @08:22AM
(#31215490)
N. K. Jemisin wrote a triple Hugo winning trilogy[1] about what could happen to humanity with a sliiightly less stable crust, if you want some more unnerving ;)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._K._Jemisin#Broken_Earth_ser...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structure_of_Earth