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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!harpo!seismo!ut-sally!utastro!ethan
From: ethan@utastro.UUCP (Ethan Vishniac)
Newsgroups: net.misc
Subject: Heating the planet
Message-ID: <122@utastro.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 5-Apr-84 10:23:48 EST
Article-I.D.: utastro.122
Posted: Thu Apr  5 10:23:48 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 7-Apr-84 03:36:36 EST
Organization: UTexas Astronomy Dept., Austin, Texas
Lines: 24


>>rmrin@inuxa.UUCP (D Rickert) states:
>> Ongoing decay of trapped radioactive matter is responsible for most
>> of the heat which shows up in places like Yellowstone and Hawaii.

>Nonsense.  NPR's Morning Edition (dated 4/4) had a sequence about the
>recent volcanic activity in Hawaii.  A geologist they interviewed clearly
>stated that both the Hawaiian Island chain and Yellowstone were good
>examples of mid-tectonic-plate upwellings of magma.  NO radioactive matter
>of any sort was involved.
>-andy kegel

No, D Rickert is right.  He didn't say that the radioactivity shows
up in places like Hawaii.  He said the heat did.  The radioactive
matter is distributed throughout the Earth's core and causes
it to remain hot.  Tectonic activity is the result of this heat.

                     "Just another Cosmic Cowboy"
                         
                         Ethan Vishniac
                         {ut-sally,ut-ngp,kpno}!utastro!ethan
                         Department of Astronomy
                         University of Texas
                         Austin, Texas 78712