Energetics of the Earth's Interior

There are various sources of energy within the earth and this report will give the values that were calculated by the author. They will be numbered and the values will be those calculated by the author with a brief discussion of each. For a detail calculation one must go to the book which is available from the author.

1. The first energy calculated is the energy required to increase the rotation rate of the solid core from what it is today, 365 days per year, to 366 days per year after a period of 400 years. In order to make those calculations, one must calculate the rotational inertia of the solid core, then calculate the difference in rotational energy today as compared to rotational energy the solid core would have in 400 years from the present. Then convert this energy into megatons of TNT and dividing this by 400 in order to get the energy per year input into the earth. This is the energy input for 100% efficiency of this geomotor. If this geomotor is only 5% efficient then the energy put into the earth is 31,200 megatons of TNT. If the earth’s magnetic field reverses then this value would go to zero then become negative.

    

2. The second source of energy is the energy lost from the interior due to the conduction constant of 1.2 microcalories per centimeter squared per second. This value is calculated to be 193,000 megatons of TNT per year and is energy lost from the interior and radiated out into space.

    

3. The third loss of energy is from volcanoes, hot spots, and from the oceanic ridges. This value is estimated to be approximately the same amount as from the second source of energy, which was calculated to be 193,000 megatons of TNT.

    

4. Another loss of rotational energy is due to slowing of the rate of rotation. Historically, the earth made a complete rotation in 23 hours versus the 24 hours it takes to rotate today. We also know that the length of the day is increasing at the rate of .001 second per century due to tidal action. This would result in 1 hour gained over a period of 360,000,000 years. Then by calculations similar to #1 we would arrive at the figure of 15,100 megatons of TNT per year.

    

5. The next energy that we will consider is the total rotation energy that the earth has due to rotating on its own axis. We know the rotational rate of the earth today and at some time in the future, the rotational rate will be zero. The calculations are similar to the first energy calculation except we must consider the whole earth and the final rate of rotation is zero. The value of this energy is 61,000,000,000,000 megatons of TNT. This is the energy available due to rotation.

    

6. Next lets consider the total energy within the earth due to heat within the earth. This value is unknown and the calculations at best would be an approximation therefore I choose to accept the same value calculated previously for the total rotational energy of the earth. This then gives us twice the value of the previously calculated value or 122,000,000,000,000 megatons of TNT as the total available energy that the earth has at present time.

Now energies listed as #2, #3, and #4 are the yearly rate of loss of energy from the earth and the total yearly loss is then 401,100 megatons of TNT per year. The total available energy is approximately 122,000,000,000,000 megatons of TNT. If we divide the total rate of loss into the total available energy we arrive at the conclusion that in 304,000,000 years there would be no energy remaining on earth. The earth would be rotating once per year and there would be two sides, one extremely hot due to sun and the other side would be near absolute zero degrees.