Could it be that due to global warming, the Earth’s core becomes more liquid and thus the tectonic activity increases?
Answer
Global warming, or more correctly global warming, is something that takes place in the Earth’s atmosphere, a thin shell of gases several tens of kilometers thick.
Many processes take place in this shell of gases that cause the concentration of certain gases – the greenhouse gases – to increase or decrease, resulting in a warmer or colder climate. These processes are controlled by two engines: the Earth’s internal engine in the form of volcanism, mountain building, etc. and an external engine, the Sun, which supplies a variable amount of energy. Moreover, climatic variations occur on a short geological time scale. Remember that the last ice age ended just 10,000 years ago.
The core of the Earth is about 2,900 kilometers below our feet. What goes on in the atmosphere has absolutely no influence on what goes on at that depth. Processes of a completely different scale and in completely different conditions of temperature and pressure take place here. This indeed makes the rocks in the outer core liquid.
Finally, plate tectonics is also a process that takes place on a completely different scale than that of the climatic processes in the atmosphere. Especially on a different time scale. Keep in mind that plates move at speeds of no more than a few centimeters per year (the rate at which your fingernails grow). For plate tectonics you have to place it in a time frame of millions of years. And in such a time frame, the climate has already undergone many changes between warm and cold.
In short, what goes on deep under our feet and what goes on in the atmosphere are all processes that have to be viewed from a completely different spatial and time frame.
Answered by
Prof. Manuel Sintubin
Tectonics Geodynamics Earthquake Geology Earthquake Archaeology
Old Market 13 3000 Leuven
https://www.kuleuven.be/
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