Utah's hottest new power source is 15k feet below the ground

Re:Utah's hottest new power source is 15k feet below the ground by hollerith on Saturday September 06, 2025 @07:10PM (#45153751)

I've seen a confident estimate in the form of a calculation. They know what kind of compounds (term?) are in the outer core and they know the minimum temperature those compounds need to be at to be free-flowing enough to sustain the field. And I'm pretty sure we know the current temperature of the outer core.

My memory is that the calculation found that if humanity switched to geothermal for all its energy needs, then in only about 1000 years, the core cools enough for the magnetic field to stop, but I am not sure.

(We should definitely deploy geothermal in the Yellowstone caldera though long enough to cool it down enough so that it will not erupt again.)

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Re:Utah's hottest new power source is 15k feet below the ground by hexpeek on Saturday September 06, 2025 @07:55PM (#45153977)

Whoa, this is a bit scary. As mentioned earlier, it should basically be used in a way where other energy sources are tapped first, and only the shortfall is covered.

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Re:Utah's hottest new power source is 15k feet below the ground by lazide on Saturday September 06, 2025 @09:14PM (#45154405)

That is definitely not true hahaha. The outer core is several thousand km down, and the crust is only 30km thick. And we have the entire mantle below us.

Humanity could max out geothermal for a million years and never make a dent.

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