I have some trouble trying to understand, why streams and convections in the outer liquid earth core, coriolis forces etc. would create an electric current?
Because you probably need an electric potential first and what then is the cause of the electric potential?
Is it perhaps a property of the earth mantle to have regions that are polarized?
Asked
Active
Viewed 83 times
3
Gerard
- 131
- 1
-
Perhaps caused by tiny initial magnetic matter where nobody knows where this comes from? – Marijn Oct 13 '16 at 09:53
1 Answers
3
Although Temperature boundary conditions at the mantle do affect the dynamo that sustains itself in the earth's core, it is unlikely that the dynamo's genesis came out of polarized regions in the earth's mantle.
Regardless of the manner of genesis of the core, it is now a self-sustaining dynamo where electric current creates a magnetic field which in turn generates electric current owing to rotation of the earth much as in an electric generator. If you want to read more about it in detail, I would recommend an excellent review paper by Prof. Binod Sreenivasan available at http://ceas.iisc.ernet.in/~bsreeni/currsci10.pdf
Gaurav Dhama
- 219
- 1
- 3