• Question: Why is there magma in the center of the earth?

    Asked by anon-197432 to Sonal, Rosanna, Matthew, Marleen, Dan, Atreya on 4 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Matthew Selwood

      Matthew Selwood answered on 4 Mar 2019:

      This really isn’t my area of expertise, but this article may be of interest to you 🙂

      https://www.universetoday.com/75895/why-is-the-center-of-the-earth-hot/

    • Photo: Marleen Wilde

      Marleen Wilde answered on 11 Mar 2019:

      Not my expertise either, but my understanding is that magma is melted stone, earth, gravel etc. The closer you come to the centre of the earth, the more pressure there is coming in from the outer layers. And high pressure and friction increases temperature, so much that it can melt whatever it is compressing and therefore the solid parts melt to magma.
      Try with your hands to rub and press them hard together and you will feel the heat rising. But don’t worry, your hands won’t become magma 🙂

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