• Question: Is it possable for the earth implode

    Asked by to Andrei, Ekbal, Gemma, Helen, Ruth on 16 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Ekbal Hussain

      Ekbal Hussain answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      Hi,
      Interesting question and one that I must say I’ve never thought of before.

      OK, so the Earth is split up into a few layers like an onion: we have the crust on top, then the mantle, the outer core and the inner core. All of these layers are solid rock apart from the outer core, which is a liquid (mostly molten iron).

      So, to have an implosion where everything falls into itself, different to an explosion where everything flies apart, we really need to somehow squeeze all the fluid outer core. But it is already pretty squashed by all the rest of the mantle and the crust and has nowhere to go.

      So, no the Earth cannot implode… which I for one think is a good thing! 🙂

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