Hole in the Earth Spreads

June is the 5th birthday of this little blog! There was a big increase in traffic this month. This article by Terrence Aym appeared June 6 on the website beforeitsnews.com:

Scientist: Black Hole Has Breached Earth's Core

"A brilliant scientist suggests a black hole may be responsible for recent Earth changes.

"What is causing the geomagnetic field flux? Why have regions of the field ripped and collapsed exposing Earth to the solar max fury rapidly approaching in 2012? Why is the Earth's core seemingly spinning crazily out of control and behaving in a way never before seen? L. Riofrio, who has worked with NASA, believes a black hole is in Earth's core."

Aym's article has been seen by over 17,500 readers worldwide. It has been picked up and repeated on Xenophilia , Mists of Avalon , and countless other websites. Somewhere the name Riofrio was confused with French geophysicist Arnaud Chulliat, leading to a series of nearly identical posts using his name. This blog pointed to Arnaud's work back in February, Magnetic Pole Flipping? , though his work does not consider Black Holes.

Since the scientist was not involved with writing the article, there are a few inaccuracies. The scientist only learned about this article while backstage on June 24! A Black Hole "breach" in Earth's core sounds a bit sensationalized, but journalists have their priorities. The "brilliant" writing is most welcome. Remember, the press heard it from Terrence Aym first!

Best comment:

"I mean, the photo used in the blog talking about the Earth eating black hole looks like a pic jacked off a Russian dating site..."

Magnetic Pole Flipping?

The near-simultaneous occurrence of two huge storms on opposite ends of Earth reminds one of this old photo from the POLAR satellite. The satellite image is here superimposed upon Earth. Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis, the Northern and Southern Lights occur simultaneously! They are part of a huge electric circuit powered by Earth's internal dynamo. Positive and negative, dancing in unison like Ying and Yang. How beautiful, wonderful and little-understood this planet is.

At Tampa (Florida) International airport, runways are being renamed because of shifts in Earth's field. Runway 18 will be Runway 19, from 180 degrees magnetic North to 190 degrees. The magnetic North pole, presently located near Ellesmere Island in Northern Canada, was first located in 1831. Its location was nearly constant until 1904, when it started shifting at about 15 kilometres per year. In the late 1980's it sped up, and is now moving at nearly 60 kilometres per year.

The South Atlantic Anomaly is a weak spot in Earth's magnetic field. The area beneath the SAA has much less shielding from cosmic radiation. International Space Station operations are planned to avoid this region. The anomaly is known to be growing and spreading westwards into the Atlantic. Some suspect that magnetic field changes could have unknown effects on Earth's climate, possibly affecting the appearance of very large storms.

Geophysicist Arnaud Chulliat of the Institut de Physique du Globe in Paris believes that a rapidly changing region of magnetism exists at the boundary of Earth's core. Furthermore, Chulliat believes this region is powered by a "plume" of magnetism emanating from deep within the core. This inner region could be dragging the magnetic field with it. The source of this plume may be found not in geology, but in the physics of a Black Hole.

As readers of this blog know, Earth's centre could be the location of a small Black Hole. The singularity would be a relic of a time near the Big Bang. Earth would have formed around it like a pearl around a grain of sand. The Black Hole is far too tiny to swallow us up, but the small amount it does eat is converted into radiation. Outward radiation pressure prevents the core from collapsing and is responsible for Earth's core heat.

Earth's inner core may be a whirlwind of charged particles spiraling around the singularity. The Black Hole rotates within Earth, dragging charged particles around it to create a dipolar magnetic field. The "positive" pole would be in the South exactly as observed. Periodically the spinning singularity would change direction, dragging Earth's magnetic field with it.

The magnetic pole spent a long time near one spot until 100 years ago. Like a pendulum, the pole would wander away at an increasing rate. It would continue to wander until it nears the other end of its swing. The wanderings of Earth's magnetic pole could be the gyrations of a spinning Black Hole.

As Australia and the US dig out from huge storms, we are reminded how little humans know about the workings of their planet. The amount of radiation reaching Earth is affected by the magnetic field. While we witness the wanderings of Earth's magnetic field, humans have failed to see what may be beneath all their feet. The source of polar wanderings could be a Hole in the Earth.

Big Bang in Iran

A tiny Black Hole in Earth's core would not suck up the planet. The small amount it did eat would be largely converted to radiation. Outward radiation pressure would balance gravity's inward pull until equlilibrium was achieved. We would feel this radiation in the internal heat that causes earthquakes and volcanoes, forms continents and islands. Some of this heat would also form petrochemicals in Earth's interior. The petroleum that powers your car could be formed by leftover energy from a primordial Black Hole.

Though it has been largely forgotten by most media (who would rather obsess over Michael Jackson) the struggle in Iran continues. On August 14 an explosion rocked the Pars Petrochemical facility in Bandar Assaluyeh, the country's largest. The explosion, almost certainly sabotage, knocked out the country's supply of Liquified Petroleum Gas. Most of Tehran's busses and taxis have been converted to run on LPG because of the continuing shortage of gasoline. More protests and strikes are coming soon. Despite the horrific oppression, the people's struggle continues.

Transit of Earth

This is an awe-inspiring sight! On May 29, while we were far below in Washington, the Deep Impact spacecraft filmed the Moon passing in front of Earth from 31 million miles! On July 4, 2005 this mission sent the first impactor to a comet. Now called EPOXI, the mission has been extended to flyby comet Hartley-2 in 2010. Now we see first-hand that the Moon has about as much land area as Africa, and the lunar farside has few maria. Can you see your home?

The Angry Astronomer steps in to host the Carnival of Space!

Poles Are Hot

Saturn's polar aurora imaged by Hubble Space Telescope

Earth's changing climate is always on our mind. According to a newspaper, the North Pole is melting faster than usual, so fast that some scientists think it could melt completely. For the first time in recent memory the Northwest Passage between Atlantic and Pacific is navigable. This is not the first time the climate has changed, for Greenland was once green. Fossils found in the Arctic indicate that it was once home to turtles and even champsosaurs, creatures similiar to Australia's crocodiles.

Humans still put too much junk in the air. A US presidential candidate has proposed a 300 million dollar prize for a better car battery. His people must have been inspired by the Google X-Prize and NASA Centennial Challenges. These prizes nearly all end up being won. This would bring out every lab and backyard inventor until a battery was invented.

In research published by NATURE, scientists have found that the North Pole is home to massive volcanic eruptions. A 1999 event was a big as the eruption that buried Pompeii. The eruption occurred at a depth of 4000 meters beneath the Arctic. Previously scientists thought that explosive eruptions were impossible at such crushing depths. Though humans still put too much junk in the air, these eruptions may contribute to polar melting. Some of this research was done by Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute for Sea and Polar Research. Wegener spent much of his life arguing that the continents moved. Though he was ignored in his own time, Wegener's work led to the theory of plate tectonics.

In the Antarctic, we have found massive lakes thousands of feet beneath the ice. Existence of liquid water where sunlight never shines is proof of massive sources of heat. Though we think of them as cold, Earth's North and South poles are home to volcanic activity. As this blog has chronicled, we have found many examples of polar hot spots. Saturn's poles contain the highest temperatures of the surface. Most telling, the moon Enceladus contains a massive eruption of vapour at its South Pole. As we saw earlier this week, the heat is many times more than could be caused by "radioactive decay." Something is causing the poles of these highly diverse worlds to be hot.

Carl Brannen has pointed out this article:

Chemical clues point to dusty origin for Earth-like planets.

""To achieve this condition, the density of dust in the chondrule-forming regions of the early solar system must have been at least about 10 grams per cubic meter, and possibly much more. This is at least 100 times the densities considered by previous models of chondrule formation, which had assumed at most densities of only about 0.1 grams per cubic meter, and normally considerably less."

The biggest mystery about Earth is how it formed at all. Since Pierre Laplace scientists have theorised that planets collapsed from dust clouds. Particles colliding at orbital velocities will simply not stick together, unless those particles have the mass of mountains. Hypothesising that gas in deep Space could have densities near 10 grams per cubic meter just adds more epicycles.

The Big Bang created many billions of tiny Black Holes. If these little holes collided with dust clouds, they would trigger planetary formation like a pearl forming around a grain of sand. These Black Holes are too tiny to suck everything up, but the small amount they do eat produces radiation. That radiation would exit in polar jets, the classic sign of a singularity. If tiny Black Holes existed in planets they would tend to make the poles warmer, exactly as observed. A Black Hole woud also account for planetary magnetic fields and how planets first formed.

We know more about outer space than we do about Earth's interior. Our North Pole is warming at an alarming rate. Some of this warming might be due to volcanic activity. We have found such activity at the South Pole, and at the poles of Saturn and Enceladus. A planet 's core could easily conceal mysteries like a Black Hole.

Another Journey to the Centre of the Earth

From Kea in New Zealand to Nige in the UK, Lubos in the Czech Republic and Tommaso in Italy, this blog has gained friends worldwide. The latest is Vladimir Barquisimeto from Venezuela in his blog La Cueva del Lobo. (The Wolf's Lair) He has said some very nice things, which hopefully my poor Spanish can do justice to.

"All cosmologists are overweight, old and boring men, or at least that is what we have come to believe...get to know Dr. Louise Riofrio, this Hawaiian, who is revolutionizing the way to comprehend our Universe.

"Black Holes are immense objects that exist far away in the centre of the galaxy, devouring stars and consuming all existence. But another type of Black Holes also exists; after the Big Bang the initial singularity divided into many fragments, some were supermassive, but many others were very small, including microscopic.

"Dr. Riofrio considers whether these mini-holes were an essential part of the development of the Universe, including whether our existence may have been impossible without them. She has suggested that one of these micro-singularities exists just beneath our feet, in the centre of the Earth."

Thank you, Vladimir! Carl has asked how we know there is a discontinuity 300 km from Earth's centre. This inner, inner core was discovered in 2002 by Adam Dzienwonski of Harvard and graduate student Miaki Ishii. Earth's inner core, 1150 km in radius, was discovered in 1936 by Danish seismologist Inge Lehmann. In the early 1970's Dzienwonski and Freeman Gilbert showed that the inner core is solid within a liquid outer core.

The inner, inner core was found by examining 30 years of data covering many thousands of seismic waves. (One suspects that the woman graduate student did most of this work.) Despite Professor Dzeinwonski's credentials, two journals rejected their paper before Proceedings of the National Academy accepted it. "A lot of people resist new ideas," Dzeinwonski concluded.

Inge Lehmann analyzed the paths of waves with names like PKP to find the core boundary. The strongest wave of all should be PKJKP, a wave travelling straight through Earth's centre and out the other side. The PKJKP wave has never been reliably detected; something sucks it up! Scientists have never figured out what could swallow the energy of an earthquake. Lack of the PKJKP wave is evidence for a Black Hole in the Earth.

At a film industry event I met the bodacious BRENDAN FRASER, star of THE MUMMY and GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE. His newest adventure is JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH. Brendan plays a scientist whose theories get him banished from the scientific community. Is resistance to new ideas a constant of the Universe? The movie populates Earth's core with dinosaurs and other fantastic creatures. We know more about Space than we know about Earth's interior. Like Space, Earth's core could hold wonders like a primordial Black Hole.

Diamonds Are Almost Forever

In the Jack Hills of Western Australia, geologists have identified the oldest diamonds ever found, more than 4 billion years old. Diamonds offer clues to Earth's early history. We saw August 6 in Meteor Science that zircon crystals help determine how long a body was molten. Zircons in meteorites showed that asteroid Vesta cooled within the first 10 million years of its existence.

Zircon crytals are resistant to melting, and provide clues to ancient events. Analysis of zircons containing the Australian diamonds indicate that Earth cooled within 300 million years of formation. Diamonds require enormous pressures to form, needing a thick continental crust. These diamonds indicate that Earth's crust and oceans could be 4.4 billion years old.

There are many mysteries about the planet beneath our feet. How Earth condensed from a gas has long been a mystery. Particles colliding at orbital velocity will not attract each other gravitationally unless those particles have the mass of mountains. One way to start a planet forming would via with a tiny Black Hole with the mass of a mountain.

This week Planetary Society Blog hosts the Carnival Of Space!

Hole In Earth Gets Bigger

Just over year ago, from atop a Balinese volcano,Here Be Dragons started advocating that Black Holes could exist inside stars, planets, and even Earth:

"There have been several mysteries about the planet we live on. What causes Earth's internal heat, which has persisted for billions of years? What powers the "dynamo" of planetary magnetic fields? How could the planets coalesce from an orbiting disk of gas? If particles collide at orbital velocities they will not stick together unless they have the mass of mountains. The answer lies not in geology, but in cosmology.

"The Big Bang created billions upon billions of Black Holes. They formed from quantum fluctuations grown large by expansion of the Universe. They are the largest component of mass in the Universe, surrounding the galaxies with invisible haloes. Our own solar system contains hundreds of these tiny holes, and we have been ignorant of their existence.

"When the solar system was but a disk of gas, a number of singularities started orbiting in the disk. One of these objects was smaller than a proton, yet weighed as much as a mountain. Larger particles were attracted and stuck to it. The singularity was far too tiny to eat everything up, but the small amount that was swallowed made the rest grow red hot. Eventually a ball of rock formed with a hot centre. This was the birth of a planet.

"The singularity in Earth's core has the diameter of a grain of sand, and the mass of a moon. It has been giving off radiation for billions of years. The heat generated causes volcanoes to erupt, creates the continents, and forms hydrocarbons in Earth's interior. Our life and this planet would not exist without it. Even the petrol that fills your tank may be the byproduct of a small Black Hole!

"This singularity spins independently within Earth's core. By dragging part of the iron core along, it spins the "dynamo" generating a magnetic field. That is why Earth's magnetic poles are not aligned with the geographic poles, and why this field sometimes changes direction. Venus has no magnetic field because its core does not spin. Mercury has a magnetic field and is here predicted to have vulcanism, which our MESSENGER spacecraft will discover in 2011."

The bit about 2011 was wrong, for just last month observations confirmed that Mercury is Hot!

Now the Hole in the Earth is generating heat online. In a paper entitled Singular Sources of Energy in Stars and Planets someone named Zhilyaev argues for Black Holes inside stars and planets. Does he enjoy this blog? For some reason the idea has been missing from arxiv, but it has been spread in conference papers and elsewhere. It is good news that more people are getting the idea.

(All this science has created technology that could someday save lives. Today the environmental sensors were re-assembled in a smaller, cleaner package. This has led to some ideas for improving the navigational system, which means that expensive new parts must be ordered in a hurry. This is a very exciting time.)

The new Carnival of Space is here!