Considering it takes a few thousand years to find buried treasure and old artifacts relating to life on this planet, how is it we KNOW what the earth is made up from ?
The deepest drill was 12 kms in 1980s but according to science there are 6,371 kms to the centre of the earth ( in a straight line.) How do they know that ?
The centre of the earth is solid iron ! How do they know that ? Are they going on assumptions , because scientist do get things wrong, and if the earth should end, I wonder how would it end ? I can;t see it blowing up , but I can see humans destroying life in the not too distant future.
We seem to have come to a transition period atm from human activity to AI. This will surely be the beginning of the human senses, brain thought process and activity closing down. Is it fair on our gt grandchildren's children , if human birth is still available by then ?
We will come to an end as a human race, we have to , and will the scientist have handed over all their data to technology to decide who will be saved and who will not ? Will the sceintists regret their meddling into the future after the event , just like Robert Oppenheimer ?
What do you think ? How can we know the centre of the earth be solid iron ?
If members can't find something to discuss and expand on this , then I give up.
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle
Louis Armstrong What a Wonderful World Unfortunately not a scientist thoe watched a Movie in late 70s called Soylent Green and living through the decades believe this could be one reality thoe with China playing the 3rd Reich believe Armageddon will be hear before sea dies
That's a fascinating article about what is at the Earth's core; thanks for sharing it.
It might help if we step back from the Covid and Brexit worries and look at the big picture. I think the human race could well be likened to an unsightly rash on the skin of Gaia, really quite short-lived in the grand scheme of things. How the rash heals, and who survives, only time will tell. Some species will fail, some will thrive. Life in some sort will continue unless the environment becomes too hostile.
Modern technology is only as good as its weakest link, and is vulnerable to various outside influences. Solar storm = no internet, no satnav, no mobile communications etc etc. What price technological advances then? We already rely on it to an unhealthy extent.
I’m thinking on same lines as you Greenwood, think one day all this technology will collapse and humans will have to go right back to good old survival mode. God knows how the young ones would survive without their mobile phones but somehow they would have to.... That is as you say if the Earth survives in some form or another, I’ll be long gone but worry for future generations but I guess they’ll just get in with it. Mind Boggling eh!
Science is empirical. That is, it is about testing evidence and determining facts whether we like them or not.
The best thing about science is that it doesn't give a toss about idiot ideologies such as fascism, socialism, Christianity, or Islam.
Very interesting, and as it;s so late, I will read again in the morning because it's quite a lot to take in all at once, philmch. Science might not give a toss about ideologies etc, but science doesn''t have emotions either which are built in to the human race . However, science can strip that away if needed.
Relating to Greenwood and Cools, so much is now controlled by technology, we see what's happened over the last few months and how huge changes have been forced to control a bad situation. I wonder, in this world of globalisation what could happen if one major player had complete overiding control of our technology. I'm sure that could easily happen one day. Absolutely everything could be brought to a standstill, petrol pumps, traffic lights, emergency calls, hospital theatres , all data relating to individuals ..... everything . Quite scary , the whole system would break down and anarchy take over. That's how I see it. Could be wrong of course, but we seem to have reached a point of conflict in every continent and in most cases there doesnt seem to be much overall concern . We are killing each other on a masssive scale in various ways, whilst others are still living in caves and hunting their daily rations. I wonder who the winners will be ?
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle
Very interesting, and as it;s so late, I will read again in the morning because it's quite a lot to take in all at once, philmch. Science might not give a toss about ideologies etc, but science doesn''t have emotions either which are built in to the human race . However, science can strip that away if needed.
Science might come across as "cold" but that doesn't mean that it doesn't have ethics. For example, the gene editing tool CRISPR could conceivable be used to edit out sickle cell anaemia. It is generally agreed amongst geneticists that it shouldn't be used to create designer babies.
We've long been worried about apocalyptic visions of humanity. In the 1980s we were all sent the Protect And Survive booklet. We thought nuclear warfare was inevitable and imminent. It never happened, even under Thatcher, Reagan, and Brezhnev; a triumvirate of seeming idiots. Elon Musk's people have recently planted a working silicon chip into the brain of a pig. That doesn't mean that humanity will ultimately become Cybermen or Homo Sapiens 2.0.
Most of the things you are talking about are known because someone found a way of working it out.
The diameter of the earth was first accurately measured by one Eratothenes of Alexandria some 2,000 years ago using no more than a stick and his brain.The earth doesn't have a solid iron core, it has a liquid iron one. How do they know this? By analysing earthquakes the other side of the world Pressure waves pass through liquid, transverse waves don't. If you receive pressure waves only, then its passing through liquid.
How do they know its liquid iron rather than liquid custard? Because pressure waves move at a particular speed through liquids like iron, By timing how long the waves take to pass through the earth you can deduce what it is if you know the extent or the liquid. That can be deduced by studying refraction of pressure waves through it. There is also the factor of the earth's density which supports this conclusion.
Do not assume that because you don't know that nobody does.
As to destroying life on this planet, I doubt that. We may destroy ourselves, but as its recently been shown that pacteria can survive in space outside the ISS for three years, and other have been found that will survive boiling water, I suspect that life is a bit tougher than we give it credit for.
The earth doesn't have a solid iron core, it has a liquid iron one. How do they know this? By analysing earthquakes the other side of the world Pressure waves pass through liquid, transverse waves don't. If you receive pressure waves only, then its passing through liquid.
How do they know its liquid iron rather than liquid custard? Because pressure waves move at a particular speed through liquids like iron, By timing how long the waves take to pass through the earth you can deduce what it is if you know the extent or the liquid. That can be deduced by studying refraction of pressure waves through it. There is also the factor of the earth's density which supports this conclusion.
Do not assume that because you don't know that nobody does.
The scientific community has gone back to thinking the earth's core is solid. Its been an ongoing theory since 1938 from measurements taken then but two or three years ago new measurements confirmed a solid core which is also backed up by theoretical calculations.
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
Very interesting, and as it;s so late, I will read again in the morning because it's quite a lot to take in all at once, philmch. Science might not give a toss about ideologies etc, but science doesn''t have emotions either which are built in to the human race . However, science can strip that away if needed.
Science might come across as "cold" but that doesn't mean that it doesn't have ethics. For example, the gene editing tool CRISPR could conceivable be used to edit out sickle cell anaemia. It is generally agreed amongst geneticists that it shouldn't be used to create designer babies.
We've long been worried about apocalyptic visions of humanity. In the 1980s we were all sent the Protect And Survive booklet. We thought nuclear warfare was inevitable and imminent. It never happened, even under Thatcher, Reagan, and Brezhnev; a triumvirate of seeming idiots. Elon Musk's people have recently planted a working silicon chip into the brain of a pig. That doesn't mean that humanity will ultimately become Cybermen or Homo Sapiens 2.0.
We nearly did have a nuclear war, didn't we ? Now we have the same two sides who patched things up a bit, being created into enemies again. US wants supremacy and control over all things. They are riding rough shod throughout the world atm. When is another going to hit back. They all know the dangers of retaliation, which US also knows they know, giving US clear space to continue with their endeavours of divide and conquer .
We need to rethink our reliance upon nature for our survival. All we seem to do is breed more animals for food and laboratory testing/ experiments . Take them from the wild for human gain and medicines. Teaching monkeys to 'mind read ' ... what for ? Because they do, for no apparent reason. That's scientific experiment !! The tribes of yesteryear knew how to manage their wildlife, the north American Indians know how to manage their wildlife, Acceptible Amazon fires for clearing land and making profit is all above board, but Californian and Australian fires are considered to be disasters (which they are) . No difference, they all decimate our wild life and natural surroundings that our wildlife need for survival.
Worldwide, approx 68 % of wildlife populations have fallen in 50 yrs. Nature is so balanced, (or was) we are now beginning to tip the wrong way. Going to the moon won;t help, wars won't help, all that man created won't help.
We will die off as a species by disease or virus, probably coming out of Africa , due to the fact that the scavengers are dying off, leaving rotting carcasses and disease to spread . Bottom line is , too many people, not enough food, and disease... ..that paints a picture of desperation, which for 100's millions it is already.
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle
What would happen if one of our planets blew up or died in some way ? We won't experience, but if it should happen , what would the result be ? Would.suns gravity be altered, and would we find the earth drawn closer to the moon, or in a similar balancing act see other planets move closer to us ? Earth is said to be moving further away from the sun, due to the suns weakening gravity. (don;t know how they can judge that either from 5 billin years ago)
quote " The gravity from the sun causes our planet to move in a curved, elliptical path. Thankfully, the planets are moving fast enough so that they are not pulled into the sun, which would destroy Earth. On the other hand, we are also not moving quickly enough to escape the sun's pull."
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle
Although earth's orbit is primarily affected by the sun, its actually a crazy wobbly orbit affected by the planets, it is so crazy that they can't predict it accurately, there is a continual update of earths orbital parameters to try and keep some sense of reality.
The main influences are the Sun, Jupiter and Venus, but just as we a wobbled, all the other planets (and the Sun) are also wobbled which is what makes it so complex.
The most influence is when the planets are at their closest distance, most of the time their direct influence is negligible, every time there is a close pass there is a slingshot effect, even a small change to a slingshot makes a large change to the outcome (similar to chaos theory or lensing).
Having a large amount of fluid (not just water) complicates the issue even further similar to the sloshing of a liquid in a container.
Overall, if a planet disappeared it would probably make little difference to out average orbit but with a lot of caveats.
Back to cores .....
A bit of a trick question and something that is slightly difficult to correctly conceptualise, what you generally believe is correct, however under scrutiny it can cast some doubt .......
Maximum gravity is roughly at the outer edge of the outer core (about halfway to the centre of the earth), there is zero gravity at the centre of the earth and very little gravity near to the centre of the earth. Why is heavy iron attracted to the centre of the earth instead being attracted to where gravity is greatest?
This can be further complicated if you thing of a spherical shell (a hollow sphere), would an object somewhere inside the shell be attracted to the centre or to the shell?
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
Was all that off the top of your head D.D? It might be nice to give credit to your sources once in a while.
Ok, I'll credit myself then as you insist.
There is very little factual content there and what there is is pretty basic (mostly very basic), its about questions I have asked myself over the years.
To give you some background, I was playing with satellites and orbital predictions nearly 40 years ago, I have very little interest in astronomy, I can't name the planets in order or anything like that but I know some details of things that influence orbits.
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle
Did anyone watch BBC's 'Extinction, The Facts' Last night ? Oh my.... we are heading in a very bad direction. Devastating and dreadfully sad, what humans have accomplished in such a short period of time.
We really need to firstly change our outlook, and then see where we can each make changes. It''s not a good prognosis certainly not for our children and at the present rate, possiby most of us too . The natural earth is dying rapidly.
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle
I did , found it quite distressing. What upset me most was just two Northern white Rhinos left , mother and daughter..The poor pangalyns being hunted to extinction because Asians think the scales will cure all ills.. It just made me very depressed Granny what with this virus it seems this world is doomed but the facts had to be told . Us Humans taking too much!
I was even more distressed on realising that just about everything laid out for the benefit of humans, adds nails to the coffin. Even down to the destruction of the Amazon to grow Soy, which in turn is exported in massive quantities to UK (and others) for chicken food, only to have chicken served up on our dinner tables.
Is a chicken dinner worth the destruction of the Amazon rain forests ? Add to that, chickens only live for 30 days in these farms, so its a fast food mechanism that makes them chubby. If 68 million people have chicken once a week how many chickens ? How much grain ? There's one for our resident mathematician, DD.
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle
It really isn't clear cut, when people have to use statistical trickery to prove their point it worries me and there is a lot of that going on. Every time global warming is disproved, the warmists find a new way of measuring. I've just looked at two graphs for average UK temperature, neither are lies, one shows a two degree rise in temperature in the last 100 years, the other shows no change. They are measuring the same thing but differently.
How would you compare one day with a 20 degree day and 0 degree night with another day of 16 degree day and 6 degree night? Which is the hottest? One day has a temperature 4 degrees hotter than the other, but the other day is one degree higher on an average.
But then someone comes along with the hourly temperatures and gets a different result.
Someone else does the one minute temperatures and gets a different result again.
Someone else comes along and says there should be a bias towards daylight temperature and factors that in, producing yet another interpretation.
Etc.
Generally, I follow the money. Is there loads of money in climate change - yes!, is there loads of money in constant climate - no! Therefor the statistics will be skewed in the direction of climate change.
I'll try and put the two graphs up later, I'm on the wrong computer at the moment.
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
Whether or not the climate is warming, I don;t know, but evidence shows the ice caps melting in the arctic. Chunks falling away, and worldwide the climate and severe weather conditions have changed over the last 20yrs that I remember. Everything seems to be disintegrating. So what the reasons are , who knows, but there has to be reasons..
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle
2020 has seen a great reset - an opportunity for us all to reflect on where we are and how we can rebuild the global economy. RE:TV will champion the most inspiring innovations and ideas that point the way towards a sustainable future for all of us, curated by editor-in-chief, His Royal Highness The Prince Of Wales.
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle
I see Prince William is also being rolled out for a TV series as well, the Royal PR machine trying to do damage limitation before the next revelations.
Prince Charles can hardly claim to be a green activist with his shooting parties, fox hunting, big game hunting etc and the way he squanders money in the style of Kings from hundreds of years ago.
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
I see Prince William is also being rolled out for a TV series as well, the Royal PR machine trying to do damage limitation before the next revelations.
Prince Charles can hardly claim to be a green activist with his shooting parties, fox hunting, big game hunting etc and the way he squanders money in the style of Kings from hundreds of years ago.
Are you deliberatly trying to annoy me ? Not much differnt to swatting flies really. Just different sizes !
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle
Covid in India. During their 'lockdown' wildlife, moved into the inhabited areas . All sorts of animals including snakes. Now lockdown has been lifted, nothing has changed, so now they are having different problems with human/ animal conflict .
If man is exterminated on this planet, I believe the animal kingdom will survive and flourish .
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle
Over the last couple of days, 400 whales stranded and died off the coast of Australia. 88 pilot whales have been saved, and another 200 are being helped. A race against time. The rest are dead.
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle
Over the last couple of days, 400 whales stranded and died off the coast of Australia. 88 pilot whales have been saved, and another 200 are being helped. A race against time. The rest are dead.
Sorry another 20 (not 200) are being helped.
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle
It’s terrible ,saw this on the news yesterday , they don’t know why they do this. That’s all we seem to hear these days , bad news. Worlds a mess!
Because of their weight the longer they are beached the more likely they are to die because they slowly crush themselves so the ones they do get back to sea may have been injured too badly and then just beach themselves again or end up dying at sea prolonging their pain.
There has been a study saying the best thing to do is euthanise them instead of prolonging their agony by dragging them back along the shoreline into the water. Sad I know.
Originally Posted by James Barnett, a veterinary surgeon and director of British Divers Marine Life Rescue
“Large animals are very difficult to euthanise humanely and effectively due to their size,†said Barnett. “If a suitable, effective method is not available, then leaving the animal to die a natural death on the beach may be the most humane course of action as this is likely to be considerably quicker than if the animal is returned to sea. The best course of action in certain scenarios might, in fact, be to do nothing at all, no matter the public pressure or the instinct to return the animal to its natural habitat.
Having said that, the study was talking about very large whales so pilot whales may have longer before their bodies start collapsing in on themselves. Pilot whales weigh between 1.5t and 3t.
Interesting points, Mikeeb, although I'm sure there must be experts on hand , because as you say, this is nothing new to Australia. However, it was stated that they have never know so many to be beaching themselves all at once.
We know mankind has caused major problems for the earth, and I really hope that now we are exploring the deep for all sorts of reasons, including laying cables, that we are not in the process of causing more problems for the life within our oceans. Somehow, I have little faith in that hope.
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle
I really hope that now we are exploring the deep for all sorts of reasons, including laying cables, that we are not in the process of causing more problems for the life within our oceans. Somehow, I have little faith in that hope.
Me neither Granny. Wherever us humans turn up, we end up f**king it up for the native species.
Just read about someone who has today had a premonition about something major happening in the Pacific Ocean.
Thought I would mention it here, so I don't forget.......just in case !
I suppose it could be the Japanese who are about to dump radioactive water from Fukushima Plant, into the sea !
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle
As we approach New Year , and look at the stars in the sky we must realise we were never the first.....
Dating back 5,500 years ago the Sumariana and Babyloninas had mapped the sky.
A copy 650 BC is kept in the British Museum.
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle
Wow ! Another volcano erupted this morning. Mount Aso in Japan.
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle
I think I've mentioned this before, I remember taking one of my grandaughters around the museum. on one of the displays there was a box with instructions to raise the lid and see the worlds biggest predator, inside was a mirror.
Came across this last night, which I found quite absorbing. Earthquakes happening all over the world, constantly. Not big ones, but showed me that the earth movement just rumbles along 24/7 (OK, I watch odd things to keep me amused :D)
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle
I think I read a few months ago that the moon is either the furthest or nearest distance it has been for xx years or whatever, this will change the flexing of the earths crust. Its not just water that moves, the solids do as well.
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
Came across this last night, which I found quite absorbing. Earthquakes happening all over the world, constantly. Not big ones, but showed me that the earth movement just rumbles along 24/7 (OK, I watch odd things to keep me amused :D)
I have seen a documentary many years ago about a supervolcano in Yellowstone Park which would have the potential to cause a mini ice age and also make North America almost inhabitable.
"USGS, University of Utah and National Park Service scientists with the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory maintain that they "see no evidence that another such cataclysmic eruption will occur at Yellowstone in the foreseeable future. Recurrence intervals of these events are neither regular nor predictable.""
Yellowstone has been widely reported as the biggest potential super-volcano for many years but there are bigger ones that have been confirmed in recent times. I can't find a current list although any out of the historic super-volcanic explosions are obvious candidates as super volcanoes are unlikely to die because of the size of the faults.
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
A brilliant read although it was first published in 2003 explains a heck of a lot about our Earth,the Universe and beyond. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
Never read any of Bill Brysons books. I didn't know he ventured into that department. Thank you, Salmon.
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle
As thousands of dead crustaceans continue to wash up around the Teesside area in the north east of England, scientists are trying to establish the underlying cause of the mass die-off.
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle
