Yeah, molten iron at the surface is for sure. Would something not become significantly less viscous the hotter and more pressurised it becomes?The thing is that molten Iron is sticky stuff. It's viscous.
Because it's still immensely hot and under intense pressure? Obviously I'm guessing here if the correct answer equals a Nobel prize. But it seems logical to me that so long as there's molten iron at the core, it will move with the rotation of the earth, and fluctuate in line with other influences such as gravity. It will keep moving for as long as it's molten, regarless of how viscous it is.But why, after 3.5 billion years, is the Iron still moving around?
What surrounding material? The rest of the molten iron and whatever else is mixed in with it? I don't expect we're talking about a liquid moving against a solid. We're talking about an iron rich mixture here of molten whatever. It's all liquid, so the viscosity is kinda irrelevant. What happens if water comes into contact with mercury? Does the water (more viscous) experience significant friction as it comes into contact with the mercury (less viscous)? Can they mix at very high temperatures and pressures? What happens when they mix? Does the mixture share a common viscosity?It drags on the surrounding material unless that material is moving with the same velocity.
It's the gravity which I suspect has influence, not the electrical charge. The liquid interior will be subject to tides, just like the oceans. It's this movement that causes the constant fluctuation that results in a magnetic field, I believe.The sun, moon, Jupiter, etc. are pretty much neutral of charge and have next to no bearing on the electromagnetic fields on and quite near Earth.
Where's my Nobel prize?
Originally Posted by wufwugy
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