How Do You Take the Earth's Temperature? Check Out Undersea Volcanos

A new model, based on "sea glass" from ocean ridges, may help scientists more easily answer a question they have long struggled with. Image View in browser

Image credits: NOAA/NSF/WHOI How Do You Take the Earth's Temperature? Check Out Undersea Volcanos A new model, based on "sea glass" from ocean ridges, may help scientists more easily answer a question they have long struggled with. Image Tom Metcalfe, Contributor August 9, 2021                                                                                                                                                                        (Inside Science) -- How do you take the Earth's temperature? Scientists need this vital figure to assess our planet's geological past and its future. But you can't just wrap the Earth in a blanket and ask it to suck on a thermometer. Scientists have long struggled to find the best way to measure the Earth's interior temperature, and the many different approaches have produced many different answers. "I started this project because it was just driving me crazy," said MIT geochemist Stephanie Krein, the lead author of research that estimates the Earth's temperature by examining basaltic rocks -- rocks that were once molten lava but have since hardened... Read more Copyright 2021 American Institute of Physics. Inside Science syndicates its articles, columns, blogs and videos to news organizations. To initiate syndication, or request permission to republish our content (on a one-time or continuing basis), please contact Inside Science at insidescience@aip.org. News organizations seeking permission to republish Inside Science content must fully credit Inside Science as the original source of the content, include the author byline, and republish the original, unaltered form (excluding content titles, headlines, or sub-headlines). The reprint format can be seen here. Copyright conditions and usage terms are subject to change at any time without consent or any type of prior notice. To unsubscribe from all future mailings from Inside Science please click here. To manage your email subscriptions please click here.

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