• Question: How could the surface of earth be normal when the core is hot?

    Asked by kanas047 to Alexis, Dr D, Helen, Jasmine, Mario on 20 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Mario Ruiz

      Mario Ruiz answered on 20 Jun 2013:

      Although the core of the Earth is hot, the way between there and the surface is huge, and there are lots of layers that isolate and disipate the heat from it. So we cannot feel any heat because of the centre of the Earth, except if you get close to a volcano! But even there, the temperatures are smaller than in the core, for sure. Don’t drop anything there though!

    • Photo: Alexis Barr

      Alexis Barr answered on 20 Jun 2013:

      This is a very good question! I’m probably not fully qualified to answer this because I’m not a Geologist or a Physicist. But I think because the surface of the earth (the crust) is made of rock – that’s actually a really good insulator and stops the heat from the centre of the earth from being conducted to the surface. You occasionally get a blast of the really hot stuff though when a volcano erupts!

    • Photo: Andrew Devitt

      Andrew Devitt answered on 23 Jun 2013:

      We just haven’t had chance to lose that heat yet – the earth isn’t great at conducting the heat out of itself. And more heat is being generated all the time. I can’t say that I fully understand it all. One way we can get heat is by decay of radioactive elements.

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