GeologyRocksThe Georeactor theory?
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Are you refering to the idea
Sat, 09/25/2010 - 18:27Are you refering to the idea that the Earth's core is a natural nuclear reactor? I read something about that a year ago. I'm not closely familiar with the details though in principle I am not opposed to the theory, however, at the current point there doesn't seem to be enough hard proof, yet. Maybe someone else here has more details on that.
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Yes Mathias2007 I was
Sun, 09/26/2010 - 02:02Yes Mathias2007 I was referring to the natural nuclear reactor. Do you think the core contains most of earths uranium? Do you know if anyone has check for the products of fission in earth's crust? or maybe in Kilauea lava?
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The Earth's core is indeed a
Fri, 10/01/2010 - 13:36The Earth's core is indeed a fission reactor. That is why we still have active plate tectonics.
One of the earliest attempts to date the Earth was by Lord Kelvin who calculated the time for a ball of molten rock the size of the Earth to cool. He calculated the age as between 20million years - 400 million years. Way shorter than the 4.6 billion years that we know now but significantly longer than the 13,000 years the church was teaching!
There was nothing wrong with Lord Kelvin's calculations but there were in his assumptions. Although this is entirely forgivable because radioactivity had yet to be discovered by Marie Curie. It is this radioactive decay (nuclear fission) and the heat it produces that keeps the interior of the Earth hot and the plates in motion.
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I think your statement is
Fri, 10/01/2010 - 14:09I think your statement is not sufficiently proven. To my knowledge the earths core is not yet accepted as a nuclear reactor. The radioactive decay your are citing can be observed in all earth materials. Just think about the potassium in the feldspars and other minerals. The fact that the earth did not cool down because of radioactive decay does not necesarilly imply that the earths core is a fission reactor.
If you have a source that supports the nuclear reactor hypothesis please lead me to it though.
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I agree that some of the
Fri, 10/01/2010 - 19:23I agree that some of the isotopes of potassium in feldspars will also undergo radioactive decay and produce heat. I wonder if we are talking a little at cross-purposes here. Entirely my fault for being somewhat out of date on geological knowledge!
I think the answer to the Earth being a 'georeactor' depends how you wish to define a 'georeactor'. I confess I've not come across the term before. I can only fall back on what I was taught at university which is that the heat produced by radioactive decay is what keeps the Earth hot. And to my mind a fission reactor is, at heart, a device that uses the heat produced by radioactive decay to produce power.
In my opinion we therefore need to determine what criteria need to be met to achieve a 'georeactor'. (Apologies if this is already fairly common knowledge but I've simply not come across the term before.).
I await the further education I frequently receive on this site. 
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Decay or fission
Sat, 10/02/2010 - 03:17al8301'
The Georeactor theory is, the theory that at earth's center fission reactions are taking place and generating our magnetic field, and supplying enough energy to heat most of our planet's interior.
When I said "Georeactor" . I meant splitting atoms, by atoms absorbing neutrons due to the atoms being in close proximity to each other and reaching a critical mass (breaking the strong nuclear force).
The link below is a wiki page describing a place on earth where Natural nuclear fission took place in Africa 2 billion years ago.
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Found more about this subject, if anyone cares?
Sat, 10/02/2010 - 15:22Rank:
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The Georeactor theory?
Submitted by Jbcourt on Sat, 09/25/2010 - 17:27.Do any Geophysicist take the Georeactor theory seriously? If not, why?
It makes sense to think that heavy elements like uranium would collect in the core, but sense the core is 81% iron could enough uranium get close enough to start fission? And if the core is solid how could the Georeactor be replenished with new fuel? Maybe in the deep time the core and mantle was liquid enough to make such a reaction take place?