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How is known that the Earth core is solid?

As I know, the Earth core is solid. This is known, because it conducts also transverse waves, while liquids conduct only longitudinal waves. But, how was it found? The inner core is in the outer core, which is liquid. Thus, it is inpermeable for the…
peterh
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Cloud-to-ground lightning in Florida?

I was looking into the odds of getting hit by lightning and ran across this map: My first thought for this was due to a higher number of thunderstorms in Florida. However, the map for that doesn't seem to line up: The midwest clearly has the…
Richard
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Can ultrasounds be used to map the density of large underground regions?

This question arose from a related one at Physics.SE, along with my own personal quest to better understand mineralogical prospecting. I want to know if some kind of ultrasound machine can determine the density of rock, soil, or mountains. Could it…
DrZ214
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Is there a piece of upside down foreign crust in the USA?

When I studied earth science, a lecturer mentioned that one of the anomalies that earth science hasn’t been able to explain is a piece of crust in the USA. This piece of crust appeared to match very well with the crust of another continent, if…
497362
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What's the distance between the center of mass and geometrical center of Earth (CM-CF offset)?

I asked the same question on Physics StackExchange site. I now know that there are several types of "center" and I can tell, I'm interested in the CM-CF offset (CM = geocenter, CF = center of figure). Wu, Ray, and van Dam, "Geocenter motion and its…
balping
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Are there anti-greenhouse gases?

The Greenhouse Effect can be described semi-formally as follows: With no atmosphere, virtually all of the heat received by the Sun would be radiated back into space at night. This can be seen on the moon, for example. Atmospheric gases have a…
Mason Wheeler
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What are baroclinic and barotropic waves?

I have a basic understanding of what baroclinic and barotropic mean but cannot seem to get my head around baroclinic waves and barotropic waves.
Darkgod
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Are clouds significantly easier to simulate in weather models than climate models?

Cloud forcing is still one of the major uncertainties of radiative forcing in climate modeling because there are so many uncertainties in it (and parametrizations). But also because the timescale of cloud development are much shorter than the…
InquilineKea
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Is it possible for Earth to experience Polar Shift?

Many accounts claim that the Magnetic Field of the Earth has been seriously degrading for the past centuries and we are currently in the process of the so called Polar Shift. How likely would it be for Earth to experience this phenomenon. Is it…
stack
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When will glaciation resume? Has global warming delayed return to global cooling?

As far as I understand, we are currently living in the Holocene, an interglacial period of the Quaternary glaciation, i.e. the current ice age that has so far lasted 2.6 million years. The Holocene began about 12,000 years ago. While humans emerged…
Halfdan Faber
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Could the original H. naledi "burial chamber" have originally been at a shallower depth?

Homo naledi was a hominid that has recently made the news, in part because the discovery of a large number of fossils appears to suggest ritual "burials" by a species from 2.5 million years ago, significantly predating those of H. sapiens. The…
Doug B
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In the northern hemisphere only, what percentage of the surface is land?

Across the whole Earth, about 70% of the surface is water and 30% is land. What I want, though, is to restrict the scope to the northern hemisphere (NH) only. What percentage of NH surface is land? It would also be good to clarify exactly how we…
DrZ214
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How can the 'abiogenic oil' hypothesis be disproven?

We do know that complex hydrocarbons (e.g., tholins) exist in the outer Solar System. Some geologists maintain that at least some oil on Earth is of non-biological origin. The mainstream, though, tends to discount their views. Is it possible to…
Deer Hunter
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Why do those glaciers form on the lee side of the mountains?

In the Scandinavian mountains, there is a strong effect of orographic precipitation. The west receives far more precipitation than the east. This difference can be a factor 5 or more in some places. But when I observe the locations of glaciers,…
gerrit
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What determines how fast clouds move?

Do cirrus clouds in the upper troposphere move faster than cumulus and stratus clouds in the lower atmosphere? What about clouds associated with extratropical systems, compared with clouds in the tropics?
InquilineKea
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