What's happening to Earth's core? - Shannon Odell
A hydrogen atom travels high
within the outermost layer
of the Earth’s atmosphere.
This particular atom first entered
the exosphere millions of years ago,
and during its tenure on Earth,
it’s spent time in the waves
of the Atlantic Ocean,
the ground soil of the Amazon,
and even the steam rising
off a boiling pot of spaghetti.
But today, traveling 30 times faster
than the speed of sound,
it overcomes the Earth’s gravitational
pull and escapes,
joining the roughly 90 tons of material
that leak out of our atmosphere each day.
This daily whale-sized atmospheric loss
is just one example
of how the Earth is leaking.
Atoms, energy, and molecules seep
from one layer of the planet to another.
And for Earth, whose stability
is necessary to sustain life,
these leaks can seem troubling.
To better understand the extent
of the planet’s imperfect plumbing,
and when it becomes a problem,
let’s visit two more leakage sites.
Our second spot takes us
to the Earth’s surface,
to a field in Central Appalachia.
Below, a 1,500 meter deep shaft connects
an oil reservoir
with the Earth’s surface.
The oil supply here is dried up,
leaving the site neglected and abandoned.
But this underground reservoir also houses
the potent greenhouse gas methane,
which continues to travel up the shaft
and escape through cracks and loose pipes.
This leaky well joins the more than
3 million abandoned wells
scattered throughout the US,
that collectively emit,
by lower estimates,
280,000 metric tons of methane each year.
Our final leakage point takes us deep
within the innermost boundary
of the Earth, the core.
Heat, originating from the formation
of our solar system,
drives the rotation of liquid metal
around the solid inner core.
The motion, in turn,
creates the planet’s magnetic field,
a barrier that protects it
from cosmic radiation and solar wind.
But the core isn't perfectly insulated,
so heat constantly leaks,
escaping to the surrounding mantle
and driving plate tectonics
and magmatic activity.
As a result, the core’s outer molten metal
is slowly solidifying.
Once fully cooled,
the magnetic field will disappear,
leaving us exposed
to the Sun’s harshest rays.
The Earth clearly has
some cracks and bleeds.
Should we be worried?
Thankfully, the immediate risks
of our hydrogen leak are low.
At its current rate, it would take
over 150 billion years
to lose all our hydrogen to space.
The same goes for our core leak.
Scientists estimate the core
won't completely cool
for another 700 million
to several billion years.
Methane emissions, however,
have the power to alter our Earth's
climate within the next decade.
The gas’s unique structure efficiently
absorbs energy radiating off the Earth,
trapping it in the atmosphere as heat.
This gives methane incredible
warming potential,
86 times that of carbon dioxide.
The impact of methane escaping
from abandoned wells in the US
is comparable to burning
10 billion pounds of coal each year.
As abandoned wells in most
of the world’s top oil producers
have yet to be extensively
counted or surveyed,
the global emissions of all abandoned
wells is likely much, much higher.
And they join the estimated
570 million tons of methane
emitted by other anthropological
and natural sources each year.
Beyond their climate impact,
these unsealed wells can leach methane
and other toxic gases
into nearby groundwater,
contaminating drinking water
and impacting local ecosystems.
Luckily, non-producing oil wells can be
plugged by pumping cement
into their depths.
While many state and federal governments
require oil and gas companies
to plug defunct wells,
plugging comes at a high expense,
so companies have historically
dodged policies.
For decades, these leaky, low-producing,
and economically non-viable wells
were sold off and abandoned.
It's clear that oil and gas companies
won't fix this problem on their own.
It'll take concerted governmental efforts,
such as placing high fees
on methane emission
and coordinated oversight on plugging,
to make sure companies
are held accountable.
But the problem starts before
these wells are abandoned.
Within the US,
active oil and gas production
emits massive amounts of methane,
about 28 times that of abandoned wells.
The best way to eliminate this leak
is to stop drilling oil and gas wells
in the first place.
