The core of the Earth leaked more than 2.5 billion years ago, what is happening?

This finding addresses the debate that has been going on for decades: Does the core and the underlying coating exchange any material with the surface of the Earth?

The core of the Earth is not completely isolated from the rest. The material inside the core is likely to leak out and 'blow' to the ground. This process took place over the past 2.5 billion years.

The 74th element Tunsten (W) in the periodic table is found in many of the Earth's core with some chemical isotopes. By studying the isotopes W-182 (108 neutrons) and W-184 (there are 110 neutrons), the scientific community concluded that they originated in the core.

Structures that make up the Earth.(Photo: Wikipedia).

Another element, Hafnium (Hf) is found in Earth's rich silicate coating. With a half-life of 8.9 million years, the radioactive isotope of Hafnium is Hf-182 decayed into W-182. This means the coating must have more W-182 than the core.

Therefore, the chemical exchange between core and coating can be detected by comparing the W-182 and W-184 ratios of basalt soil in the ocean.

However, this difference of tungsten is also extremely small: The tungsten-182 composition in the coating and core is expected to be only about 200 parts per million (ppm). No more than five laboratories around the world are capable of performing this kind of analysis.

In addition, studying the planet core is not easy, because it starts at a depth of about 2,900 kilometers underground. The deepest bore hole of a former digger is the Kola Superdeep drilling well in Russia only about 12.3 km.

The molten rock tends to overflow to the core.(Photo: Universal-sci).

So the researchers looked for other subjects to extrapolate: Layers of molten rock from deep mantle at Pilbara Craton, Western Australia, Réunion Island and Kerguelen Archipelago in the Indian Ocean. These molten rock layers tend to overflow to the core.

The researchers found that the W-182 ratio compared to W-184 of the core rock was higher than most of today's rock in the coating. While it is true, the stone of the mantle must have a higher rate.

Because the W-182 ratio is higher than W-184, it means Tunsgten from the core has been rising to the surface for a long time.

The Earth is about 4.5 billion years old, however, the oldest rock layer of the planetary shell does not have any significant changes in the tungsten isotope. This suggests 4.3 billion to 2.7 billion years ago, with little or no material exchange from the core and coating.

But over the past 2.5 billion years, tungsten isotope composition in the coating has changed dramatically. Researchers say oxygen generated from organisms may have affected Tungsten.

Today's theories all claim that the Earth's core is the cause of the magnetic field that protects our planet from deadly cosmic radiation.(Photo: Livescience).

The layers of molten rock from the Earth's crust carry abundant amounts of oxygen to the edge of the coating and cause Tungsten to separate from the core, rising over the coating.

Or it may be that after the Earth is shaped, the core solidifies, gradually increasing the concentration of oxygen in the outer core, causing physical leakage. In that case, further studies of this phenomenon could tell us how the Earth's core was transformed, and also find out the origin of the main planet's magnetic field.

Today's theories are that the molten core of iron and nickel is the cause of the magnetic field that protects our planet from deadly cosmic radiation.

1. The core of the earth has melted and solidified
2. The possibility of life is wiped out when the core of the Earth cools down