What Sort of Solid is the Earth's Core?

[Syntho-sis]

that was a very silly film. i don't think it tells us anything useful about the core of the earth except that you need to go down to get to it.

 

I hated that movie...So many inaccuracies.

[Baby Astronaut]

I would speculate that even though the core is probably a solid, it might exhibit some kind of "flow" that would permit it to move similar to liquids. But this is pure speculation on my part.

 

If only we could send a probe down there to take measurements and retrieve a sample for us.

It's funny that as probe development improves to reach any of the planets, it could still be unable to reach areas on this one.

[insane_alien]

thats because the environment of space is quite gentle compared to some of the environments of earth.

 

for instance, in space you only have to worry about a maximum of 1 atmopsphere pressure difference(unless you're going to venus or a gas giant). to get to the core of the earth you need to withstand pressure that make solids seem not so solid.

 

also in space you have plenty of paths to dump excess heat. none when you're a few hundred kilometers down.

 

again this all boils down to space is easy once your up there. going into the earth is hard to get down there, even harder to stay there and even harder again to get back up.

[Geo]

The earth's core is a visco-elastic solid like sillyputty, when you say it's solid you have to relate this to time. Think of a glacier - it is solid, but flows with a 2 week time-scale, or salt underground - 100 years. So the earth's core will behave as a solid or a liquid depending on your time frame.

[D H]

You are thinking of the mantle. The core is solid.

[Geo]

Rocks are Rheid materials.

 

Solids flow over different time-scales depending on their properties.

 

An old warped bookshelf bent by the weight of books, which is a solid, under time lapse film appears to flow as a liquid.

 

A solid is a solid only under certain time-frames, rocks flow over time.

[D H]

That's very nice, but the Earth's core is not rock.