• Question: when we dig lower in to the surface, it gets hotter so what makes the surface hotter

    Asked by Crazy Mad Scientist to Carolyn, Peter, Richard, Sara, Siana on 18 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Sara Falcone

      Sara Falcone answered on 18 Nov 2015:

      Hello 🙂

      I am not a geologist, but I will try to answer your question.
      The center of the earth is hot (like VERY hot) because of the high pressure and the friction of the core. The surface (or crust) is warm because of the energy of the sun light.
      When we dig the temperature actually drops until we are close to the bottom limit of the crust (so when we get close to the magma that surrenders the core)…. but I don’t think someone manage to dig that deep (if you exclude the movie “The Core” but that is a baaaaaad movie 😛 )

    • Photo: Richard Unwin

      Richard Unwin answered on 18 Nov 2015:

      Hi Crazy – the surface of the earth is heated by the sun – once we get out of the sunlight it’s very cold (if you want to find out for yourself, try going down an old coal or slate mine). the thick rock of the crust stops the searing heat from the mantle (basically molten rock) from reaching us. the only exception is cracks in the crust we call volcanoes. I once went up a volcano in Tenerife and there was a hole which the guide tried pouring water down – the water got about 20cm into the hole before it instantly turned into steam and shot back out with a massive whoosh.

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