Earth’s Internal Heat

Two Geologic Processes that occur on Earth:

Exogenic processes are those that originate externally to the surface of the Earth and is driven by
exogenic forces. On the other hand, endogenic processes are those that occur beneath the surface of the
Earth and is associated with the thermal energy originating from the interior of the solid Earth.

How hot is the internal of the Earth?

Though not in uniform rate, the temperature of the Earth increases as the depth increases
towards the core. Within the crust, the geothermal gradient of Earth is about 15° to 30°C per km. Then, it
drops off dramatically through the mantle but increases more quickly at the base and increases slowly
towards the core. At the base of the crust, the temperature is approximately 1000°C, about 3500°C at the
base of the mantle and is estimated to 6000°C at the center of the Earth.
Within the lithosphere, temperature gradient varies depending on the tectonic setting. It is lowest in
the central part of the continents and higher in parts where plates collide as well as in boundaries where
plates are moving away from each other.

What makes the internal of the Earth hot?

The Earth’s interior heat comes from several sources which includes heat produced when the
planets formed and accreted, frictional heating and decay of radioactive elements.

Sources of Earth’s Internal Heat

1. Heat from the formation and accretion of planet

This source of heat is a leftover during the formation of planet around 4.6 billion years ago. It was thought
that planetoids had accreted from dust, hurtled around the sun, and crashed into each other to formed
planets. Moreover, the collisions build up a surprising amount of heat-over 10,000 Kelvin (9,726.85 °C).
The history of Earth’s accretion did not stop there. Three other major accretion events happened.
First, less than 100 million years after the Earth’s initial formation, Earth, and Theia (a planet, with an
original mass of about 15–45 percent of Earth’s original mass) merged, increasing Earth’s mass, thus,
producing the Moon. This merging event was considered the most significant after Earth’s initial formation
and had vastly added to Earth’s heat-bank.
Secondly, after the Moon-forming event, Earth received a “late veneer”-a bombardment by large
asteroids and comets.
Lastly, about 3.9 billion years ago, Earth received the late heavy bombardment of large asteroids
and comets.

2. Frictional heating
Frictional heating, caused by denser core material sunk to the center of the planet. As it sunk, the
friction may have generated heating of as much as 2000 Kelvin or 1726.85°C, which is smaller than the
other sources of heat but still extremely significant.

3. Heat from the decay of radioactive elements

Radioactive elements are considered as the major source of Earth’s internal heat. In the early days
about 100 million years, its radiogenic heat was dominated by short-half-life radioisotopes such as
aluminum-26, cesium-135, hafnium-182, iron-60, neptunium237, technetium-97, and plutonium-244. When
it decays, it releases high amount of energy.
At present, the radioactive isotopes uranium-235 (235U), uranium-238 (238U), potassium-40 (40K),
and thorium-232 (232Th) in Earth’s mantle are the primary source. Radioactive decay produced more heat
early in Earth’s history than it does today, because fewer atoms of those isotopes are left. Heat contributed
by radioactivity is now roughly a quarter of what it was when Earth formed.
The endogenic processes on Earth are the driving force for plate-tectonic motion, and for different
catastrophic events such earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that lead to the formation of different
landforms. Also, it is responsible for melting in Earth to create magmas.
 Magmatism

What is magma?
Magma and lava are among of the few words that we often interchanged but technically, these two
words mean different. The main difference between magma and lava is its environment. The former is
within the interior of the Earth while the latter is at the surface.
Magma is composed of liquefied. rocks, crystals, and dissolved gases. It varies in temperature and
in chemical compositions. Figure 4. shows the average elemental properties in magma. The most abundant
element is oxygen (O2) which is about 50% of the total, followed by 25% silicon (Si) and the remaining
elements make-up about the other 25% of the total.

Where does magma originated?

Magma do not form everywhere beneath the surface of the Earth. It is formed from the melting of
rocks in the Earth’s lithosphere, which is the lower part of the crust and in the upper portion of the mantle
known as asthenosphere. Rock melts under tremendous pressure and high temperatures. Molten rock flows
like a hot wax. Most magmas are formed at temperatures between 600°C and 1300°C.
Magma chamber collects magma beneath Earth’s surface. It is located where the heat and pressure
are great enough to melt rock. These locations are at divergent or convergent plate boundaries or at hotpots.

How are magmas formed?

Temperature and pressure differences as well as structural formations in the mantle and crust cause
magma to form in different processes.

Ways to Generate Magma

1. Decompression Melting
Considering the different sources of the Earth’s internal heat that would cause rock at Earth’s surface
to melt, Earth’s mantle is almost entirely a solid rock. It remains solid at those temperatures because the rock
is under high pressure. Remember that pressure is the most important factor in the formation of magma. As
the depth increases towards the center of the Earth, the pressure also increases due to the overlying rocks
above. This means that if rock is already hot enough and pressure is reduced, melting will proceed even
without the addition of heat triggered by a reduction in pressure is called decompression melting. This
process involves the upward movement of the Earth's mantle to an area where pressure is reduced, and rock
molecules are given more space. Thus, the reduction in overlying pressure enables the rock to melt, lead in
decompression melting to magma formation.

This process usually occurs at divergent plate boundaries, wherein the two tectonic plates are moving
away from each other. It also occurs at mantle plumes, columns of hot rocks that rise from the Earth’s high-
pressure core to the lower pressure crust.

2. Increase in Temperature
Though it is considered as the least among the three process, magma formation is also possible with
this process. Recall the previous lesson on Earths internal heat, as the depth increases towards the core, the
temperature also increases. With the increasing temperature, the solid rock masses begin to vibrate then the
bonding between them breaks and finally convert into magma.

3. Flux Melting
This process occurs when impurities such as water H2O or carbon dioxide CO2 are added to rock.
These compounds cause the rock to melt at lower temperatures. As a result, magma will form in places
where it originally maintained a solid structure. When addition of CO2 and H2O takes place in the deep Earth
where temperature is already high, lowering its melting temperature could cause partial melting of rock to
generate magma.
 Furthermore, flux melting also occurs around subduction zones. In this case, water overlying the
subducting seafloor would lower the melting temperature of the mantle, generating magma that rises to the
surface.
Since magma are less dense than the surrounding rocks, it will therefore move upward. It tries to
escape from the source through openings such as volcanoes or existing cracks on the ground. Extrusive or
volcanic rock form if magma crystallizes to the surface while intrusive or plutonic rock form if it will
crystallize before it reaches to the surface.

Types of Magma

Properties of magma depends on the rock that initially melts, as well as the process that occur during
partial melting and transport.

Magma is classified into three, these are Mafic or Basaltic, Intermediate or Andesitic, and Felsic
or Rhyolitic. Take note, chemical analyses are usually given in terms of oxides of silica (most commonly,
SiO2), since O2 is the most abundant element. In terms of oxides of silicon, rhyolitic has the highest and
basaltic has the lowest content. On the other hand, basaltic has the highest content of iron (Fe), magnesium
(Mg) and Calcium (Ca) and lowest in potassium (K) and sodium (Na) while rhyolite has low Fe, Mg, and Ca
content and high in K and Na.

Furthermore, nearly all magmas at the depth of the Earth contain gases such as CO2, H2O, small
amount of S, Cl, and F. As shown in Table 1, felsic magma has the highest gas contents. In terms of
viscosity, the resistance of a liquid to flow, felsic is the most viscous while basaltic is the least. It is also
shown in Table 1 that magma with higher SiO2 and with low temperature, most likely to contain higher
number of gases to be more viscous.

In addition, viscosity is a significant property in determining the eruptive behavior of magmas.

Viscous magmas, like felsic, which are high in silica, tend to stay below the surface or erupt explosively.
On the other hand, if magma is fluid and runny, like low-silica mafic magma, it is not viscous. This magma
often reaches the surface by flowing out in rivers of lava.