MQ_The Core

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Temple University *

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0836

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Marketing

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Jan 9, 2024

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docx

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EES 0836 The Core (2003) Video Response Questions Disasters: Geology vs. Hollywood Introduction For reasons unknown, the earth's outer core has stopped rotating, causing the planet's electromagnetic field to rapidly deteriorate. Instantly, life around the globe begins to change dramatically. In Boston, 32 people with pacemakers, all within a 10-block radius, suddenly drop dead. In San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge collapses, sending hundreds of people plunging to their deaths. In London's Trafalgar Square, flocks of pigeons lose their ability to navigate, flying into panicked crowds, slamming into windshields and causing drivers to lose control of their cars. And in Rome, as thousands of tourists watch helplessly, an electrical superstorm reduces the ancient Roman Colosseum to rubble. Scrambling to resolve the crisis, government and military officials call upon geophysicist Dr. Josh Keyes and a team of the world's most gifted scientists to travel into the earth's core in a subterranean craft piloted by "terranauts" Major Rebecca "Beck" Childs and Commander Robert Iverson. Their mission: Detonate a nuclear device that will reactivate the core and save the world from sure destruction. -imdb.com Learning Objective ● Assess the validity/credibility of statements made in Hollywood movies. (4, a) ● Identify the correct geologic processes that would help explain scenes in Hollywood movies. (1, 5, a, b) Questions During and after watching the video clips, answer the following questions. Add your answers below and submit on Canvas. 1. Dr. Keyes uses a cut peach to demonstrate the layers of the Earth. Other than the obvious issue (which he kind of addresses) about there being no liquid outer core in the peach, do you think this analogy is basically sound? For the purposes that Dr. Keyes needed it for, I would say the peach analogy was basically sound. It lacks finer details, such as explanations of density and pressure variation, but it demonstrates that there are different layers to the Earth and that the layers have different functions. 2. List at least 3 consequences that Dr. Keyes says will result from the loss of the magnetic field. Planes will fall from the sky, superstorms will cover the world, and solar winds will eventually destroy the Earth 3. Based on what we talked about in lecture and the behavior of the magnetic field over the course of Earth’s history, do you think Dr. Keyes’ prediction that “ life on Earth will end in a year ” is realistic? Why or why not?

EES 0836 I don’t think Dr. Keyes’ prediction is realistic because it seems to be based on some concepts that have never been proven, and it also exaggerates the severity of existing concepts. The increase in radiation hitting the Earth, for example, is something that I don’t think would be as severe as the movie demonstrates, and instead it would be possible to come up with solutions that protect us and our planet. Navigation would also not be completely lost around the world, as the majority of navigation used today is GPS, which is not based on magnetism like traditional compasses and instead is based on positioning of satellites in the Earth’s orbit. 4. The ship Virgil crashes inside a giant geode or “gem bubble” in the mantle. Could that large void of empty space really exist at that depth? Explain your answer. That large void of empty space could not exist at that depth. In the mantle, the pressure is high enough that there is no room for empty space; even if we somehow tried to dig out a giant hole of empty space, it would be rapidly filled by more solid material. 5. The terranauts encounter the giant geode at approximately 700 miles (roughly 1127 km) depth, and they state that the temperature is 5000 degrees. They don’t specify whether that is Fahrenheit or Celsius, but let’s assume Fahrenheit since he uses that earlier in the film. So, that’s roughly 2760 degrees Celsius. Is this an accurate temperature estimate for that depth (feel free to refer to our lecture notes)? From our lecture notes, I know that the crust is roughly 70 km thick and that temperature increases at a rate of 25 degrees Celsius going downward in this layer. Therefore, at the start of the mantle, the temperature is approximately 1750 degrees Celsius. From here, the temperature increases at a rate of 1 degree Celsius going downward. Therefore, for the remaining 1057 km, the temperature is increasing by 1057 degrees Celsius, bringing the total temperature to about 2807 degrees Celsius. I believe that 2760 degrees Celsius is an accurate temperature estimate for the depth of 1127 km because it is not too far off from my own calculation of 2807 degrees Celsius. 6. At the end of the film (spoiler alert), our heroes do manage to save the world. Virgil emerges from the Earth’s interior at “a space between some tectonic plates somewhere near Hawaii.” Why is that impossible? I think the most obvious reason that this would be impossible is the structure of the tectonic plates. While plates can converge and diverge in different areas, there is never a gap left when they pull apart; new material will simply fill in from nearby areas in these situations. Virgil would never be able to find such a space between tectonic plates. 7. Describe anything else you saw in these clips that you think might be scientifically questionable. When the crewmembers leave the ship, they walk around mostly normally, the same way they would on the surface of the Earth. However, at such an immense depth, gravity should be drastically stronger. While they explained away the pressure with movie science by saying “oh

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