• Question: What would happen if the Earth’s core no longer exist?

    Asked by Nelson to Lidunka, Jillian, Connor on 16 Jun 2015. This question was also asked by Aradia D, Phoebe, AmyJ.
    • Photo: Lidunka Vocadlo

      Lidunka Vocadlo answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      @Nelson well the most important consequence would be that we would no longer have a magnetic field. The magnetic field is generated in the liquid outer core and it is a very important shield from the harmful rays of the sun. Also, a lot of heat comes out of the core, so if we didn’t have that, we probably wouldn’t have plate tectonics which is a process driven by heat from below. So we wouldn’t have earthquakes, volcanoes, no resurfacing – and some people believe that plate tectonics is essential for life – so no life!

    • Photo: Jillian Scudder

      Jillian Scudder answered on 17 Jun 2015:

      The core is responsible for our magnetic field, so the loss of the core would be pretty tough, actually. The magnetic field protects us from damaging radiation from the sun, and protects a lot of our satellites from damage from the same stuff. So a lot of our satellites would be fried, which would take out our GPS system, which would be a huge navigational problem. We’d have a lot of sunburns and skin cancer rates would probably jump up! Not good. Let’s keep the core 🙂

Comments