Theoretically we know a lot about our planet. There are millions of books and scientific articles about the origin of Earth, its construction, geological layers, mountains uplift and oceans creation, volcanism, etc. But in real we know only a little. The most there are only suppositions and pure speculations. Even we do not know seabeds of the oceans. And almost nothing what is dozens and more kilometers under our feet. The deepest hole in the world was drilled by Russians. And what they found? The website mentalfloss informs us:
"So what did scientists find at the bottom of the hole? First, there's lots of water down there—though it may be formed from stray oxygen and hydrogen atoms squeezed out of rock minerals. Second, there are plankton fossils as deep as 6700 meters. Third, it's incredibly hot—more than 350 °F. For all the effort and decades of work, this hole only went 0.2% of the way to the center of the Earth!"
Wikipedia adds a supplement:
"To scientists, one of the more fascinating findings to emerge from this well is that no transition from granite to basalt was found at the depth of about 7 km (4.3 mi), where the velocity of seismic waves has a discontinuity. Instead the change in the seismic wave velocity is caused by a metamorphic transition in the granite rock. In addition, the rock at that depth had been thoroughly fractured and was saturated with water, which was surprising. This water, unlike surface water, must have come from deep-crust minerals and had been unable to reach the surface because of a layer of impermeable rock.Microscopic plankton fossils were found 6 kilometers (4 mi) below the surface.
Another unexpected discovery was a large quantity of hydrogen gas. The mud that flowed out of the hole was described as "boiling" with hydroge."
A question is how it was happened that plankton fossils were in a six kilometers depth? Maybe according to the tectonic plates theory one oceanic plate slid over the other and plankton was trapped on that depth under the first plate. The tectonic plates theory says that ocean plates thickness varies from about 6 km so the above hypothesis could be correct.
The study of deeper layers of Earth consists mainly in seismic surveys. The schematic method of measurements is presented in the picture below (website goodrichscience).
"So what did scientists find at the bottom of the hole? First, there's lots of water down there—though it may be formed from stray oxygen and hydrogen atoms squeezed out of rock minerals. Second, there are plankton fossils as deep as 6700 meters. Third, it's incredibly hot—more than 350 °F. For all the effort and decades of work, this hole only went 0.2% of the way to the center of the Earth!"
Wikipedia adds a supplement:
"To scientists, one of the more fascinating findings to emerge from this well is that no transition from granite to basalt was found at the depth of about 7 km (4.3 mi), where the velocity of seismic waves has a discontinuity. Instead the change in the seismic wave velocity is caused by a metamorphic transition in the granite rock. In addition, the rock at that depth had been thoroughly fractured and was saturated with water, which was surprising. This water, unlike surface water, must have come from deep-crust minerals and had been unable to reach the surface because of a layer of impermeable rock.Microscopic plankton fossils were found 6 kilometers (4 mi) below the surface.
Another unexpected discovery was a large quantity of hydrogen gas. The mud that flowed out of the hole was described as "boiling" with hydroge."
A question is how it was happened that plankton fossils were in a six kilometers depth? Maybe according to the tectonic plates theory one oceanic plate slid over the other and plankton was trapped on that depth under the first plate. The tectonic plates theory says that ocean plates thickness varies from about 6 km so the above hypothesis could be correct.
The study of deeper layers of Earth consists mainly in seismic surveys. The schematic method of measurements is presented in the picture below (website goodrichscience).
Basing on this research method Earth's inner structure was determined. The cross section of Earth is presented in the picture below (website of Indiana University).
According to contemporary views Eath's core consists mainly of iron and nickel with admixtures of certain light elements such as silicon.
Russian geologist Vladimir N. Larin in his book "Hydridic Earth" suggests that enormous amounts of hydrogen are dissolved in the core.
James Marvin Herndon, an American interdisciplinary scientist, suggested a georeactor in Earth's core.
For us the most important is not Earth's core or mantle but lithosphere because it is just under our feet. There are many theories about lithosphere shaping. Theory which currently dominates is Plate Tectonics and Continental Drift. Wikipedia describes the concept in this way:
"The lithosphere, which is the rigid outermost shell of a planet (the crust and upper mantle), is broken into tectonic plates. The Earth's lithosphere is composed of seven or eight major plates (depending on how they are defined) and many minor plates. Where the plates meet, their relative motion determines the type of boundary, convergent, divergent or transform. Earthquakes, volcanic activity, mountain - building, and oceanic rench formation occur along these plate boundaries (or faults). The relative movement of the plates typically ranges from zero to 100 mm annually".
Another hypothesis is a concept of expanding Earth. Earth was much smaller in the past than today and swelled.
Third hypothesis is Contracting Globe. It says that Earth is shrinking:
"In the early 20th century the prevailing wisdom regarding how mountain belts were formed and why the sea is deep was that the Earth started out as a molten blob and gradually cooled. When it cooled, heavier metals such as iron sank down and formed the core, while lighter metals such as aluminum stayed up in the crust. The cooling also caused contraction and the pressure produced by contraction caused some parts of the crust to buckle upwards, forming mountains. Other parts of the crust buckled downwards, creating ocean basins."
Japanese scientists Taku Tsuchiya, Kenji Kawai and Shigenori Maruyama invented expanding - contracting Earth hypothesis which tells that on beginning Earth expanded and next contracted.
My hypothesis which I want to present here, tells about pulsating Earth. It means our globe periodically swells and shrinks.
To explain this concept let's start with the theory of stars formation. After big bang gravitation created clouds from hydrogen. Because of some cosmic fluctuations and gravity the hydrogen cloud becomes denser and denser and at the end thermonuclear reactions start in its center and a new star occurs. Hydrogen "burns" to helium, helium to beryllium. Beryllium forms oxygen. Carbon is formed from beryllium and helium. In the next phase of the star's life, the carbon burns to neon, oxygen to silicon and various reactions of synthesis lead to stable iron in star's core. Iron is the last step of synthesis chain. Nuclear fuel in the star was burned out. Heavier elements can be created only by providing energy to nuclei in process of explosion of a supernova for example. During the outburst new heavier elements are synthesized. The star's outer shell is discarded, taking the synthesized elements. Our solar system arose from the nebula, which was within the range of the supernova that exploded near around. The supernova has provided heavy elements like uranium or thorium. Heavier elements gathered closer to the new sun creating internal planets. Lighter ones - flew into more distant regions of the newly forming solar system. The key point is the high temperature in the vicinity of the new sun - about 2000 Kelvin. In further regions it was cooler, for example near Pluto it was about 20 Kelvin. The young earth was in the high temperature zone and was probably in the liquid phase. Because of gravitational segregation of elements heavy elements fell down to the center of Earth. Probably in the core of the young earth was not iron or nickel but uranium, plutonium, neptunium and other heavy elements captured from the supernova.
I will try to prove it.
Looking at the graph below showing dependence density on depth taken from Wikipedia we can see that the density increases rapidly at the border between the outer core and the mantle . Smaller growth of density we can observe on a border of inner and outer core.
Russian geologist Vladimir N. Larin in his book "Hydridic Earth" suggests that enormous amounts of hydrogen are dissolved in the core.
James Marvin Herndon, an American interdisciplinary scientist, suggested a georeactor in Earth's core.
For us the most important is not Earth's core or mantle but lithosphere because it is just under our feet. There are many theories about lithosphere shaping. Theory which currently dominates is Plate Tectonics and Continental Drift. Wikipedia describes the concept in this way:
"The lithosphere, which is the rigid outermost shell of a planet (the crust and upper mantle), is broken into tectonic plates. The Earth's lithosphere is composed of seven or eight major plates (depending on how they are defined) and many minor plates. Where the plates meet, their relative motion determines the type of boundary, convergent, divergent or transform. Earthquakes, volcanic activity, mountain - building, and oceanic rench formation occur along these plate boundaries (or faults). The relative movement of the plates typically ranges from zero to 100 mm annually".
Another hypothesis is a concept of expanding Earth. Earth was much smaller in the past than today and swelled.
Third hypothesis is Contracting Globe. It says that Earth is shrinking:
"In the early 20th century the prevailing wisdom regarding how mountain belts were formed and why the sea is deep was that the Earth started out as a molten blob and gradually cooled. When it cooled, heavier metals such as iron sank down and formed the core, while lighter metals such as aluminum stayed up in the crust. The cooling also caused contraction and the pressure produced by contraction caused some parts of the crust to buckle upwards, forming mountains. Other parts of the crust buckled downwards, creating ocean basins."
Japanese scientists Taku Tsuchiya, Kenji Kawai and Shigenori Maruyama invented expanding - contracting Earth hypothesis which tells that on beginning Earth expanded and next contracted.
My hypothesis which I want to present here, tells about pulsating Earth. It means our globe periodically swells and shrinks.
To explain this concept let's start with the theory of stars formation. After big bang gravitation created clouds from hydrogen. Because of some cosmic fluctuations and gravity the hydrogen cloud becomes denser and denser and at the end thermonuclear reactions start in its center and a new star occurs. Hydrogen "burns" to helium, helium to beryllium. Beryllium forms oxygen. Carbon is formed from beryllium and helium. In the next phase of the star's life, the carbon burns to neon, oxygen to silicon and various reactions of synthesis lead to stable iron in star's core. Iron is the last step of synthesis chain. Nuclear fuel in the star was burned out. Heavier elements can be created only by providing energy to nuclei in process of explosion of a supernova for example. During the outburst new heavier elements are synthesized. The star's outer shell is discarded, taking the synthesized elements. Our solar system arose from the nebula, which was within the range of the supernova that exploded near around. The supernova has provided heavy elements like uranium or thorium. Heavier elements gathered closer to the new sun creating internal planets. Lighter ones - flew into more distant regions of the newly forming solar system. The key point is the high temperature in the vicinity of the new sun - about 2000 Kelvin. In further regions it was cooler, for example near Pluto it was about 20 Kelvin. The young earth was in the high temperature zone and was probably in the liquid phase. Because of gravitational segregation of elements heavy elements fell down to the center of Earth. Probably in the core of the young earth was not iron or nickel but uranium, plutonium, neptunium and other heavy elements captured from the supernova.
I will try to prove it.
Looking at the graph below showing dependence density on depth taken from Wikipedia we can see that the density increases rapidly at the border between the outer core and the mantle . Smaller growth of density we can observe on a border of inner and outer core.
Dependence of temperature and density on depth shown in below charts which I took from the website davidpratt.info
A chart of all three parameters depending on depth I took from Polish version of my website. I used them to my rough calculations. Gęstość - density, temperatura - temperature, ciśnienie - pressure, głębokość - depth, jądro wewnętrzne - inner core, jądro zewnętrzne - outer core, mezosfera - mesosphere.
Density increases rapidly at the border of the outer core and mesospheres from 6 g/cm3 to about 11 g / cm3, and at the border of outer and inner core grows rapidly and reaches 14 g / cm3 at the center of inner core.
Density of iron is 7,9 g/cm3 in standard conditions for temperature and pressure. We also know that the inner core is a solid and temperature is around 6,000 degrees of Celsius. We know that iron in the solid phase expands with temperature, i.e. its density decreases. According to the figure above, the density of iron in the inner core should be two times higher than on the surface of Earth. In a volume unit should be two times more atoms than normaly. It means that distances between atoms should decrease the cube root of two times [2^(1/3)], i.e.1.26 times. The pressure in the center of Earth is huge and amounts to about 400 GPa, which is 4 million times greater than on the surface of the planet. But the electrostatic forces that keep atoms at certain distances from each other are also extremely strong. There are 2.3 * 10 ^ 39 larger than gravitational forces. It means 39 orders of magnitude larger. Perhaps this pressure is too small to compress iron atoms to reach twice density than normal.
Let's make a rough estimate. I do not use units, because all calculations are carried out in the SI system. The diameter of the atom is 10 ^ (- 10) of order of magnitude. So the atomic cross-sectional area is (3/4) * 10 ^ (- 20). The pressure acting on the atom is the product of pressure times the cross-sectional area: 4 * 10^ 11 * (3/4) * 10^(-20). It follows that the pressure force acting on the atom is 3 * 10 ^ (- 9) of order of magnitude.
Now let's count the Coulomb force keeping the atom rigidly in the right position in the crystal lattice. The distance between the nuclei of atoms in the crystal lattice is about 10 ^ (- 10). The square of the distance is 10 ^ (- 20). The elementary charge of proton and electron is 1.6 * 10 ^ (- 19). The square is 2.6 * 10 ^ (- 38). The Coulomb constant is approximately 10 ^ 10. From Coulomb's law we count the force 10 ^ 10 * 2.6 * 10 ^ (- 38) / [10 ^ (- 20)], ie 2.6 * 10 ^ (- 28) * 10 ^ 20. On the end we get 2.6 * 10 ^ (- 8). So the pressure force is an order of magnitude less than the Coulomb force and the atom does not get squashed.
Of course, this is a very coarse approximation, because it presupposes pressure action as in the macro scale. It does not take into account the behavior of atoms at the micro level, i.e. how a group of atoms works on another atom, how electron shells of these atoms interact with each other, what about the Pauli exclusion principle, etc.
A simple conclusion is that the Earth core does not contain mainly iron and nickel, but it has much heavier elements than iron, such as uranium or thorium.
The density of uranium is 19.1 g / cm3, thorium - about 12 g / cm3, thallium - 11.85 g / cm3, rhenium - 21 g / cm3, caesium - 18.79 g / cm3.
On Earth, we have four known decay chains, i.e. four natural cascades of decays of radioactive nuclei starting from an unstable nucleus which decays to form further unstable nuclei. The decay proces finishes on a stable nucleus that is not subject to further decay.
The first decay chain is called Thorium series. Wikipedia describes it:
"The 4n chain of Th-232 is commonly called the "thorium series" or "thorium cascade". Beginning with naturally occurring thorium-232, this series includes the following elements: actinium, bismuth, lead, polonium, radium, radon and thallium. All are present, at least transiently, in any natural thorium-containing sample, whether metal, compound, or mineral. The series terminates with lead-208."
Density of iron is 7,9 g/cm3 in standard conditions for temperature and pressure. We also know that the inner core is a solid and temperature is around 6,000 degrees of Celsius. We know that iron in the solid phase expands with temperature, i.e. its density decreases. According to the figure above, the density of iron in the inner core should be two times higher than on the surface of Earth. In a volume unit should be two times more atoms than normaly. It means that distances between atoms should decrease the cube root of two times [2^(1/3)], i.e.1.26 times. The pressure in the center of Earth is huge and amounts to about 400 GPa, which is 4 million times greater than on the surface of the planet. But the electrostatic forces that keep atoms at certain distances from each other are also extremely strong. There are 2.3 * 10 ^ 39 larger than gravitational forces. It means 39 orders of magnitude larger. Perhaps this pressure is too small to compress iron atoms to reach twice density than normal.
Let's make a rough estimate. I do not use units, because all calculations are carried out in the SI system. The diameter of the atom is 10 ^ (- 10) of order of magnitude. So the atomic cross-sectional area is (3/4) * 10 ^ (- 20). The pressure acting on the atom is the product of pressure times the cross-sectional area: 4 * 10^ 11 * (3/4) * 10^(-20). It follows that the pressure force acting on the atom is 3 * 10 ^ (- 9) of order of magnitude.
Now let's count the Coulomb force keeping the atom rigidly in the right position in the crystal lattice. The distance between the nuclei of atoms in the crystal lattice is about 10 ^ (- 10). The square of the distance is 10 ^ (- 20). The elementary charge of proton and electron is 1.6 * 10 ^ (- 19). The square is 2.6 * 10 ^ (- 38). The Coulomb constant is approximately 10 ^ 10. From Coulomb's law we count the force 10 ^ 10 * 2.6 * 10 ^ (- 38) / [10 ^ (- 20)], ie 2.6 * 10 ^ (- 28) * 10 ^ 20. On the end we get 2.6 * 10 ^ (- 8). So the pressure force is an order of magnitude less than the Coulomb force and the atom does not get squashed.
Of course, this is a very coarse approximation, because it presupposes pressure action as in the macro scale. It does not take into account the behavior of atoms at the micro level, i.e. how a group of atoms works on another atom, how electron shells of these atoms interact with each other, what about the Pauli exclusion principle, etc.
A simple conclusion is that the Earth core does not contain mainly iron and nickel, but it has much heavier elements than iron, such as uranium or thorium.
The density of uranium is 19.1 g / cm3, thorium - about 12 g / cm3, thallium - 11.85 g / cm3, rhenium - 21 g / cm3, caesium - 18.79 g / cm3.
On Earth, we have four known decay chains, i.e. four natural cascades of decays of radioactive nuclei starting from an unstable nucleus which decays to form further unstable nuclei. The decay proces finishes on a stable nucleus that is not subject to further decay.
The first decay chain is called Thorium series. Wikipedia describes it:
"The 4n chain of Th-232 is commonly called the "thorium series" or "thorium cascade". Beginning with naturally occurring thorium-232, this series includes the following elements: actinium, bismuth, lead, polonium, radium, radon and thallium. All are present, at least transiently, in any natural thorium-containing sample, whether metal, compound, or mineral. The series terminates with lead-208."
The second one is Neptunium series:
"The 4n + 1 chain of 237Np is commonly called the "neptunium series" or "neptunium cascade". In this series, only two of the isotopes involved are found naturally in significant quantities, namely the final two: bismuth-209 and thallium-205."
"The 4n + 1 chain of 237Np is commonly called the "neptunium series" or "neptunium cascade". In this series, only two of the isotopes involved are found naturally in significant quantities, namely the final two: bismuth-209 and thallium-205."
Third one - Uranium series:
"The 4n+2 chain of U-238 is called the "uranium series" or "radium series".
Beginning with naturally occurring uranium-238, this series includes the following elements: astatine, bismuth, lead, polonium, protactinium, radium, radon, thallium, and thorium. All are present, at least transiently, in any natural uranium-containing sample, whether metal, compound, or mineral. The series terminates with lead-206."
"The 4n+2 chain of U-238 is called the "uranium series" or "radium series".
Beginning with naturally occurring uranium-238, this series includes the following elements: astatine, bismuth, lead, polonium, protactinium, radium, radon, thallium, and thorium. All are present, at least transiently, in any natural uranium-containing sample, whether metal, compound, or mineral. The series terminates with lead-206."
The last one is Actinium series:
The 4n+3 chain of uranium-235 is commonly called the "actinium series" or "actinium cascade". Beginning with the naturally-occurring isotope U-235, this decay series includes the following elements: actinium, astatine, bismuth, francium, lead, polonium, protactinium, radium, radon, thallium, and thorium. All are present, at least transiently, in any sample containing uranium-235, whether metal, compound, ore, or mineral. This series terminates with the stable isotope lead-207."
The 4n+3 chain of uranium-235 is commonly called the "actinium series" or "actinium cascade". Beginning with the naturally-occurring isotope U-235, this decay series includes the following elements: actinium, astatine, bismuth, francium, lead, polonium, protactinium, radium, radon, thallium, and thorium. All are present, at least transiently, in any sample containing uranium-235, whether metal, compound, ore, or mineral. This series terminates with the stable isotope lead-207."
In addition to the above decays we observe spontaneous nuclear fission may occur to two lighter nuclei with similar masses combined with the simultaneous emission of several neutrons.
Light nuclei like Be-13, H-4, He-5 decay with the emission of a single neutron. Neutrons can be produced also in the nuclear reaction of Be-9 with He-4, which produces C-12 and neutron, or by interaction of Be-9 with the gamma-ray quanta where Be - 8 and neutron are created. Additionally heavier nuclei, like Br - 94, can decays with neutron emission in a process called beta-delayed neutron emission.
Nuclei can decay with emission of protons, for example Li - 5 decays to He - 4. Also Co - 53 can decay in this way and Eu-131, Ho-141, Tm-145 and Cs-112.
Also it is known a process of decay with the simultaneous emission of two protons in Fe - 45 discovered by the group of prof. Marek Pfützner.
Besides the spontaneous nuclear fission, there is induced fission where, for example, a neutron hit a nucleus which decays to two or more new nuclei.
Light nuclei like Be-13, H-4, He-5 decay with the emission of a single neutron. Neutrons can be produced also in the nuclear reaction of Be-9 with He-4, which produces C-12 and neutron, or by interaction of Be-9 with the gamma-ray quanta where Be - 8 and neutron are created. Additionally heavier nuclei, like Br - 94, can decays with neutron emission in a process called beta-delayed neutron emission.
Nuclei can decay with emission of protons, for example Li - 5 decays to He - 4. Also Co - 53 can decay in this way and Eu-131, Ho-141, Tm-145 and Cs-112.
Also it is known a process of decay with the simultaneous emission of two protons in Fe - 45 discovered by the group of prof. Marek Pfützner.
Besides the spontaneous nuclear fission, there is induced fission where, for example, a neutron hit a nucleus which decays to two or more new nuclei.
Why have I written everything above?
Let's take, for example, fission of the nucleus U - 235 to Kr - 95 and Ba - 140 (picture above taken from my Polish website). The uranium atom radius is a 175 μm, i.e. 1.75 * 10 ^ (- 10) m, krypton atom - 88 pm, i.e. 0.88 * 10 ^ (- 10) m, barium atom - 215 pm, i.e. 2, 15 * 10 ^ (- 10) meters. The volume occupied by the atom is proportional to the radius in the third power. Let's calculate the ratio of the volume occupied by the atoms after decay to the volume of the atom before fission:
(88^3 + 215^3)/(175^3) = 1,9815
The volume occupied by atoms after fission is almost twice as large as the volume of the atom before the nuclear reaction.
Let's take the uranium series. Uranium 238 decays by emitting 8 alpha particles to lead 206. Immediately after decay alpha particles capture electrons and change into helium nuclei. After the entire process a lead nucleus and eight helium nuclei are created from one uranium nucleus. We will calculate the atomic volumes ratio according to the previously used formula. We will sum the radius of lead and eight atoms of helium and divide the result by the radius of the atom of uranium. The radius of lead atom is 180 pm, helium - 31 pm.
(180^3 + 8 * 31^3)/(175^3) = 1,13266
After this cascade of decays, we obtain atoms with a total volume of 13% bigger than the volume of the starting atom.
If such a process occurs in the core of the Earth, the core begins to swell for at least two reasons. Products of nuclear decay take up more space and the reaction is exothermic and heats the surroundings. Most substances under the influence of heat expand. Helium has a small atomic radius, is a noble gas and diffuses easily through matter. Helium and hydrogen created during nuclear decays occurring in the Earth's core migrate upward. If they migrate in bigger groups of atoms, volume of gas bubbles could increase according to Clapeyron's law. Of course, the ideal gas law is not good for this range of pressures but it could be an approximation of gas behaviour. We can estimate how to increase the volume of hydrogen and helium bubbles at the transition from the center of the inner core to the outside of the outer core. At the center of the inner core the estimated pressure is about 400 GPa and decreases at outside of the outer core to 150 GPa. Temperature drops down from 6000 K to 4500 K. Let's assume that the volume of helium in the inner core is 1. The ideal gas law states that the product of pressure and volume divided by temperature is constant. So we get:
(400 * 1)/6000 = (150 * x)/4500
2/30 = x/30
x = 2
After rough counting we see that bubbles of hydrogen or helium, leaving the outer core will have twice as large volume as in the center of the Earth.
Of course, such calculations can be carried out after the assumption that helium and hydrogen atoms form larger clusters that move upward. If atoms of the gases move up one by one among other atoms of the Earth's core (diffusion), then such calculations do not make sense at all.
Hydrogen wandering through the earth's oxide-containing layers can form water, displacing metals with positive electronegativity from these oxides. Hydrogen can also displace some nonmetals from oxides and catch oxygen.
The fact that water can be formed at great depths in the Earth's mantle is described in, for example, Quanta Magazine website:
"This hydrous mineral isn’t wet. But when it melts, out spills water. The discovery was the first direct proof that water-rich minerals exist this deep, between 410 and 660 kilometers down, in a region called the transition zone, sandwiched between the upper and lower mantles."
Hydrogen will encounter carbon and its compounds on its way of its upward journey. By capturing carbon, it will create methane and other hydrocarbons.
The outer core is liquid and, according to Henry's law, gases should dissolve in it. For a certain temperature, the amount of dissolved gas is proportional to the pressure. For ideal gases there is an inverse dependence on temperature. It means that more gas dissolves if the pressure is higher and the temperature is lower. So calculations are not easy.
Looking at the chart illustrating the dependence of temperature on the depth and pressure on the depth, we see that the temperature in the outer core does not fall as fast as the pressure with the rising to the upper border of the outer core. It may turn out that more gases are dissolved in the upper zone of the outer core than in the lower one. The upper part of the outer core could be a storage of gases produced by the inner core. But of course, only for a certain time. After crossing the solubility limit, bubbles of gases will start to appear, wanting to get higher into the Earth's mantle. About Earth's mantle we do not know so much. It should be rigid but we assume some plasticity of it. For sure asthenosphere is plastic. It could store dissolved helium, hydrogen and methane. But also by a certain period.
And what model of Earth does it emerge from this?
In Earth's core hydrogen, helium, krypton and other atoms are produced in the process of nuclear reactions. These atoms, having a larger volume than the starting atoms, expand the inner core. When the core increases its volume, all the layers above will stretch. Then these atoms diffuse into the outer core, where they can dissolve, initially without increasing core's volume. After exceeding the solubility limit, dissolved atoms may create gas bubbles (like in boiling water) which extend the outer core. The layers above will stretch again. Then the atoms will move through the Earth's mantle on diffusion way. Next, the atoms will reach the liquid asthenosphere, where they will be able to dissolve in it without increasing its volume. After crossing the solubility limit situation from mantle could repeat. But it will be just near lithosphere which could be torn. Gases will move to atmosphere extremely rapid.
And now we can consider two cases:
If the process of gas production in the core, their upward movement and emission into the atmosphere is continuous and monotonous, then the loss of gases through their release into the atmosphere are compensated by their production in the core and Earth have a constant size.
If the processes of radioactive decay in the core accelerate and slow down, or the displacement of nuclear reaction products towards the lithosphere is uneven, then the volume of the Earth fluctuates. It means our planet pulsates.
We already know how Earth can expand. Now let's follow the situation when it shrinks.
After crossing the critical point for the planet's expansion, the Earth crust cracks and hydrogen, methane and water vapor rapidly flow out to atmosphere. And now there may be two cases.
If these gases erupt to atmosphere in accompany of hot lava, according to the Joule-Thomson effect, they warm up even more and they heat up the atmosphere.
If they squirt out relatively cold, according to the above effect, they can cool the atmosphere leading to sudden rainfall, snowfall and hail.
During this eruption, clouds of water vapor are created, in which electric charges are accumulated. Atmospheric discharges can ignite the hydrogen and methane released from Earth, which makes fires on the ground and a sudden decrease of the oxygen content in atmosphere. When the gases begin to escape through the lithosphere, the pressure in the asthenosphere will drop down. It leads to create bubbles of gases in asthenosphere which move to the Earth's surface. This entails the degassing of the Earth's mantle and then the core. The volume of the core and the mantle will decreased, which will result in wrinkling of the Earth's crust. And of course, gas eruptions are accompanied by earthquakes, volcanoes and geysers, climate change, etc.
These phenomena can occur cyclically enlarging and decreasing the volume of Earth.
Do we have any premises confirming this hypothesis?
The first indication may be a mass extinction of species. Five such extinction events have been recorded in the history of life.
Another premise may be the large size of dinosaurs. We know that in calculating the gravitational force of a sphere which interacts with other body, we can reduce the ball to a point and concentrate there all its mass. The force of gravity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the bodies. If, for example, dinosaurs walked on Earth, whose radius was 1.5 times larger than the current Earth, then the gravity force on the surface was 1.5 ^ 2 times smaller, ie 2.25 times smaller. In this case, their large sizes are not surprising. It was only example. I doubt that Earth could inflate so much.
Other premise may be the hypothesis of cyclical disasters, which says that from time to time global disasters occur, like floods (gush of water from the depths), sudden freezing of animals with untested food in ther stomaches (Joule-Thomson effect) and hot flashes from sky (volumetric ignition of gases in the atmosphere).
Sea fossils on the tops of the mountains - in the swollen Earth phase - that place could be a shallow sea, when the contraction of the planet's volume began, the bottom of the sea wrinkled and the mountains rose up.
Probably there was much less water on the surface of Earth in the past. This is commemorated in the South American myths described by Cornellia Petratu and Bernard Roidinger in the book "Die Steine von Ica: Protokoll einer anderen Menschheit", as well as in African myths popularized by Credo Mutwa and to David Icke. It seems that probably water flows from the inside of the Earth every now and then.
Summarizing:
The hypothesis of the pulsating Earth says that the Earth's core consists of radioactive elements decay into atoms whose total size is greater than the atom before the fission. These atoms are usually atoms of light gases, which, wandering to the surface, extending the next higher layers. Nuclear reactions, flow of gases to the surface and their release into the atmosphere are not steady, which causes fluctuations in the planet's volume, expansion and wrinkling of the lithosphere.
Conclusion:
If the above hypothesis is true, then people have unlimited resources of hydrogen and hydrocarbons as fuels (including fuel cells and thermonuclear power plants), raw materials for the chemical industry and others.
Helium, because of its abundance, can be used for air transport.Giant airships in the sky can replace, at least partially, deep sea ships. Helium can be used to build super high-rise skyscrapers (as a wall fulfillment ) helping to lift the structure, to build high-altitude launch platforms for space rockets and many other applications.
And one more:
According to this hypothesis, the level of oceans does not rise due to global warming, only from the inflow of water from the depths.
Let's take, for example, fission of the nucleus U - 235 to Kr - 95 and Ba - 140 (picture above taken from my Polish website). The uranium atom radius is a 175 μm, i.e. 1.75 * 10 ^ (- 10) m, krypton atom - 88 pm, i.e. 0.88 * 10 ^ (- 10) m, barium atom - 215 pm, i.e. 2, 15 * 10 ^ (- 10) meters. The volume occupied by the atom is proportional to the radius in the third power. Let's calculate the ratio of the volume occupied by the atoms after decay to the volume of the atom before fission:
(88^3 + 215^3)/(175^3) = 1,9815
The volume occupied by atoms after fission is almost twice as large as the volume of the atom before the nuclear reaction.
Let's take the uranium series. Uranium 238 decays by emitting 8 alpha particles to lead 206. Immediately after decay alpha particles capture electrons and change into helium nuclei. After the entire process a lead nucleus and eight helium nuclei are created from one uranium nucleus. We will calculate the atomic volumes ratio according to the previously used formula. We will sum the radius of lead and eight atoms of helium and divide the result by the radius of the atom of uranium. The radius of lead atom is 180 pm, helium - 31 pm.
(180^3 + 8 * 31^3)/(175^3) = 1,13266
After this cascade of decays, we obtain atoms with a total volume of 13% bigger than the volume of the starting atom.
If such a process occurs in the core of the Earth, the core begins to swell for at least two reasons. Products of nuclear decay take up more space and the reaction is exothermic and heats the surroundings. Most substances under the influence of heat expand. Helium has a small atomic radius, is a noble gas and diffuses easily through matter. Helium and hydrogen created during nuclear decays occurring in the Earth's core migrate upward. If they migrate in bigger groups of atoms, volume of gas bubbles could increase according to Clapeyron's law. Of course, the ideal gas law is not good for this range of pressures but it could be an approximation of gas behaviour. We can estimate how to increase the volume of hydrogen and helium bubbles at the transition from the center of the inner core to the outside of the outer core. At the center of the inner core the estimated pressure is about 400 GPa and decreases at outside of the outer core to 150 GPa. Temperature drops down from 6000 K to 4500 K. Let's assume that the volume of helium in the inner core is 1. The ideal gas law states that the product of pressure and volume divided by temperature is constant. So we get:
(400 * 1)/6000 = (150 * x)/4500
2/30 = x/30
x = 2
After rough counting we see that bubbles of hydrogen or helium, leaving the outer core will have twice as large volume as in the center of the Earth.
Of course, such calculations can be carried out after the assumption that helium and hydrogen atoms form larger clusters that move upward. If atoms of the gases move up one by one among other atoms of the Earth's core (diffusion), then such calculations do not make sense at all.
Hydrogen wandering through the earth's oxide-containing layers can form water, displacing metals with positive electronegativity from these oxides. Hydrogen can also displace some nonmetals from oxides and catch oxygen.
The fact that water can be formed at great depths in the Earth's mantle is described in, for example, Quanta Magazine website:
"This hydrous mineral isn’t wet. But when it melts, out spills water. The discovery was the first direct proof that water-rich minerals exist this deep, between 410 and 660 kilometers down, in a region called the transition zone, sandwiched between the upper and lower mantles."
Hydrogen will encounter carbon and its compounds on its way of its upward journey. By capturing carbon, it will create methane and other hydrocarbons.
The outer core is liquid and, according to Henry's law, gases should dissolve in it. For a certain temperature, the amount of dissolved gas is proportional to the pressure. For ideal gases there is an inverse dependence on temperature. It means that more gas dissolves if the pressure is higher and the temperature is lower. So calculations are not easy.
Looking at the chart illustrating the dependence of temperature on the depth and pressure on the depth, we see that the temperature in the outer core does not fall as fast as the pressure with the rising to the upper border of the outer core. It may turn out that more gases are dissolved in the upper zone of the outer core than in the lower one. The upper part of the outer core could be a storage of gases produced by the inner core. But of course, only for a certain time. After crossing the solubility limit, bubbles of gases will start to appear, wanting to get higher into the Earth's mantle. About Earth's mantle we do not know so much. It should be rigid but we assume some plasticity of it. For sure asthenosphere is plastic. It could store dissolved helium, hydrogen and methane. But also by a certain period.
And what model of Earth does it emerge from this?
In Earth's core hydrogen, helium, krypton and other atoms are produced in the process of nuclear reactions. These atoms, having a larger volume than the starting atoms, expand the inner core. When the core increases its volume, all the layers above will stretch. Then these atoms diffuse into the outer core, where they can dissolve, initially without increasing core's volume. After exceeding the solubility limit, dissolved atoms may create gas bubbles (like in boiling water) which extend the outer core. The layers above will stretch again. Then the atoms will move through the Earth's mantle on diffusion way. Next, the atoms will reach the liquid asthenosphere, where they will be able to dissolve in it without increasing its volume. After crossing the solubility limit situation from mantle could repeat. But it will be just near lithosphere which could be torn. Gases will move to atmosphere extremely rapid.
And now we can consider two cases:
If the process of gas production in the core, their upward movement and emission into the atmosphere is continuous and monotonous, then the loss of gases through their release into the atmosphere are compensated by their production in the core and Earth have a constant size.
If the processes of radioactive decay in the core accelerate and slow down, or the displacement of nuclear reaction products towards the lithosphere is uneven, then the volume of the Earth fluctuates. It means our planet pulsates.
We already know how Earth can expand. Now let's follow the situation when it shrinks.
After crossing the critical point for the planet's expansion, the Earth crust cracks and hydrogen, methane and water vapor rapidly flow out to atmosphere. And now there may be two cases.
If these gases erupt to atmosphere in accompany of hot lava, according to the Joule-Thomson effect, they warm up even more and they heat up the atmosphere.
If they squirt out relatively cold, according to the above effect, they can cool the atmosphere leading to sudden rainfall, snowfall and hail.
During this eruption, clouds of water vapor are created, in which electric charges are accumulated. Atmospheric discharges can ignite the hydrogen and methane released from Earth, which makes fires on the ground and a sudden decrease of the oxygen content in atmosphere. When the gases begin to escape through the lithosphere, the pressure in the asthenosphere will drop down. It leads to create bubbles of gases in asthenosphere which move to the Earth's surface. This entails the degassing of the Earth's mantle and then the core. The volume of the core and the mantle will decreased, which will result in wrinkling of the Earth's crust. And of course, gas eruptions are accompanied by earthquakes, volcanoes and geysers, climate change, etc.
These phenomena can occur cyclically enlarging and decreasing the volume of Earth.
Do we have any premises confirming this hypothesis?
The first indication may be a mass extinction of species. Five such extinction events have been recorded in the history of life.
Another premise may be the large size of dinosaurs. We know that in calculating the gravitational force of a sphere which interacts with other body, we can reduce the ball to a point and concentrate there all its mass. The force of gravity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the bodies. If, for example, dinosaurs walked on Earth, whose radius was 1.5 times larger than the current Earth, then the gravity force on the surface was 1.5 ^ 2 times smaller, ie 2.25 times smaller. In this case, their large sizes are not surprising. It was only example. I doubt that Earth could inflate so much.
Other premise may be the hypothesis of cyclical disasters, which says that from time to time global disasters occur, like floods (gush of water from the depths), sudden freezing of animals with untested food in ther stomaches (Joule-Thomson effect) and hot flashes from sky (volumetric ignition of gases in the atmosphere).
Sea fossils on the tops of the mountains - in the swollen Earth phase - that place could be a shallow sea, when the contraction of the planet's volume began, the bottom of the sea wrinkled and the mountains rose up.
Probably there was much less water on the surface of Earth in the past. This is commemorated in the South American myths described by Cornellia Petratu and Bernard Roidinger in the book "Die Steine von Ica: Protokoll einer anderen Menschheit", as well as in African myths popularized by Credo Mutwa and to David Icke. It seems that probably water flows from the inside of the Earth every now and then.
Summarizing:
The hypothesis of the pulsating Earth says that the Earth's core consists of radioactive elements decay into atoms whose total size is greater than the atom before the fission. These atoms are usually atoms of light gases, which, wandering to the surface, extending the next higher layers. Nuclear reactions, flow of gases to the surface and their release into the atmosphere are not steady, which causes fluctuations in the planet's volume, expansion and wrinkling of the lithosphere.
Conclusion:
If the above hypothesis is true, then people have unlimited resources of hydrogen and hydrocarbons as fuels (including fuel cells and thermonuclear power plants), raw materials for the chemical industry and others.
Helium, because of its abundance, can be used for air transport.Giant airships in the sky can replace, at least partially, deep sea ships. Helium can be used to build super high-rise skyscrapers (as a wall fulfillment ) helping to lift the structure, to build high-altitude launch platforms for space rockets and many other applications.
And one more:
According to this hypothesis, the level of oceans does not rise due to global warming, only from the inflow of water from the depths.