LESSON 6 The Earths Internal Heat

The Earth’s
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Internal Heat
LESSON 6
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After going through this lesson, you
are expected to:
 1. Describe the parts and function of earth’s interior.
 2. Describe where the earth’s internal heat comes from.
 3. Identify the sources of earth’s internal heat; namely,
radiogenic heat and primordial heat.
 4. Describe the processes of heat transfer in earth’s
mantle.
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 Heat energy plays a vital role in our planet. It
is one of the extreme factors in what makes
the world liveable. If you think of a volcano,
you know earth must be hot inside. Our
planet's internal heat shifts continents, creates
mountains, and produces earthquakes, but
where does all this heat inside the earth
originate?
Before
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we proceed to the sources of heat, let’s have a
short review of layers of the earth.
 Basically, Planet Earth has 3 main layers, these are Crust, Mantle and Core.
 The Crust of the earth is a very thin layer when compared to the 3 other layers.
 The Mantle is the largest layer of the earth with estimated 1800 miles thick. The
mantle is composed of very hot dense rock called magma, because of the high
temperatures with the Mantle, the rock is kept in a semi-liquefied state.
 The Outer Core is composed of liquefied metals such as nickel and iron. It is kept
in it liquefied state because of the immense heat in this layer.
 The Inner Core is also composed of metals however they are not kept in a
liquefied state.
 It is believed that the temperature and pressure at depth is so great that the metals
are squeezed tightly together restricting movement, so much that the particles
have to vibrated in place almost like a solid structure.
Sources of heat in our planet can be identified
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as Primordial and Radiogenic heat.
 During the early formation of the Earth, the internal

heat energy that gradually gathered together by
means of dispersion in the planet during its few
million years of evolution is called Primordial heat.
 The major contribution of this internal heat is the
accretional energy – the energy deposited during
the early formation of a planet.
 The core is a storage of primordial heat that originates from
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times of accretion when kinetic energy of colliding particles
was transformed into thermal energy.
 This heat is constantly lost to the outer silicate layers of the
mantle and crust of the earth through convection and
conduction.
 In addition, the heat of the core takes tens of thousands of
years to reach the surface of the earth.
 Today, the surface of the earth is made of a cold rigid rock
since 4.5 billion years ago, the earth’s surface cools from
the outside but the core is still made of extremely hot
material.
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 On the other hand, the thermal energy
released as a result of spontaneous nuclear
disintegration is called Radiogenic Heat.
 It involves the disintegration of natural
radioactive elements inside the earth – like
Uranium, Thorium and Potassium. Uranium is
a special kind of element because when it
decays, heat (radiogenic) is produced.
 Estimated
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Earth’s interior to the surface and it comes from two
main sources in equal amounts: the radiogenic heat
produced by the radioactive decay of isotopes in the
mantle and crust, and the primordial heat left over
from the formation of the Earth.
 Radioactive elements exist everywhere on earth in a
fairly significant concentration. Without the process of
radioactive decay, there would be fewer volcanoes
and earthquakes – and less formation of earth’s vast
mountain ranges.
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Sources of Heat and Heat Transfer
 Both sources of heat whether primordial or radiogenic

undergo heat transfer and it plays an important role to the
continuous changes and development of our planet. In
connection, another part of this module describes the heat
transfer in the Earth. Three processes can transfer heat:
conduction, convection, and radiation.
CONDUCTION
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 Conduction processes happen in the earth’s surface and it directs

the thermal settings in almost entire solid portions of the Earth and
plays a very important role in the lithosphere. One of the three main
ways of heat transfer is conduction. Technically, it can be defined as
the process by which heat energy is transmitted through collisions
between neighboring atoms or molecules. Conduction carries heat
from the Earth's core and radiation from the Sun to the Earth's
surface. When the atmosphere in normal temperature contacts with
the warm surfaces of the land, it transfer thermal energy, then it will
heats up the rest of the air through convection.
z CONVECTION
 Convection is the transfer of heat by the movement of mass, and it is a
more effective mode of heat transport in the Earth than pure conduction.
Convection dominates the thermal conditions in zones with significant
amounts of fluids (molten rocks) and thus governs the heat transport in
the fluid outer core and the mantle. In geological time scale, due to the
tremendous temperature, the mantle acts like a viscous fluid. In
convection current, the mantle of the earth moves slowly because of
transfer of heat from the interior of the earth up to the surface. This
results to the movement of tectonic plates. Hot materials are added at
the edges of a plate and then it cools. At those edges, it becomes dense
by its exposure from the heat and sinks into the earth at an ocean
trench. This starts the formation of volcanoes.
z RADIATION
 Radiation is the least important mode of heat transport in
the Earth. The process of heat exchange between the Sun
and the Earth, through radiation, controls the temperatures
at the Earth's surface. Inside the Earth, radiation is
significant only in the hottest parts of the core and the lower
mantle. When the land and water become warm in summer,
it emits long – wavelength infrared radiation that is readily
absorbed by the atmosphere. This continues during night
time too. Convection in the air then spreads out the thermal
energy throughout the atmosphere.

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The Earth’s

 During the early formation of the Earth, the internal

 Both sources of heat whether primordial or radiogenic

 Conduction processes happen in the earth’s surface and it directs

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