Neutrinos are neutral elementary particles that come from nuclear reactions or radioactive decay. According to research team member, Glenn Horton-Smith, associate professor of physics at Kansas State University
Previous research has shown that Earth’s total heat output is about 44 terawatts, or 44 trillion watts. The researchers estimate that the other half of the earth’s heat comes from primordial sources left over when the earth formed and from other sources of heat. Earth’s heat is the cause behind plate movement, magnetic fields, volcanoes and seafloor spreading.
“Understanding the earth’s heat source and where it is being produced affects models for the earth’s magnetic field, too.”
Itaru Shimizu of Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, and collaborating physicists, including Horton-Smith, made the measurement using a neutrino detector in Japan.
Neutrinos are neutral elementary particles that come from nuclear reactions or radioactive decay.
By gathering measurements of radioactive decay, researchers were able to observe geoneutrinos, or neutrinos from a geological source.
The researchers estimate that the other half of the earth’s heat comes from primordial sources left over when the earth formed and from other sources of heat.
Earth’s heat is the cause behind plate movement, magnetic fields, volcanoes and seafloor spreading.
Almost half of Earth's heat comes from naturally occurring radioactive decay of underground materials, U.S. and other scientists have calculated.
Observations of the activity of subatomic particles -- particularly uranium, thorium and potassium -- undergoing natural fission produced close estimates of the decay's contribution to the globe's heat.
By observing geoneutrinos -- neutrinos from a geological source -- they determined radioactive decay was responsible for about half the Earth's heat output of about 44 trillion watts.