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OCR for page R1
(~.~}:= it'' i- :'
1
JOHN VERHOOGEN
University of California,
Berkeley
Energetic so
the Earthy
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
Washington, D.C. 1980
Hi'
OCR for page R2
The National Academy of Sciences was established in 1863 by Act of Congress as a
private, non-profit, self-governing membership corporation for the furtherance of science
and technology, required to advise the federal government upon request within its fields
of competence. Under its corporate charter the Academy established the National Re-
search Council in 1916, the National Academy of Engineenng in 1964, and the Institute
of Medicine in 1970.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Verhoogen, John, 1912
Energetics of the Earth.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Earth temperature. 2. Earth-Internal structure.
I. Title.
QE509.V45 551.1'2 80-17501
ISBN ~309 0307~5
Available from
National Academy Press
National Academy of Sciences
2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20418
Printed in the United States of America
OCR for page R3
Preface
This is the text, somewhat enlarged, of a series of four lectures deliv-
ered at Stanford University in January 1979 by the happy recipient of
the 1978 Arthur L. Day Prize and Lectureship of the National Academy
of Sciences. Funds are earmarked for publication of the lectures, which
according to the terms of the award should "prove a solid, timely and
useful addition to the knowledge and literature in the field."
Whether the lectures will prove to be solid, timely, or useful is as
uncertain as their topic. This topic, which has been of great interest to
me for more than 40 years, remains largely speculative. Progress has
been slow; there is not so terribly much more to say about temperature
at the core-mantle boundary than Francis Birch said in 1952 in his
celebrated paper on the constitution of the earth's interior. As the
reader will readily perceive, there is still room for considerable differ-
ence of opinion on almost every subject.
Much of the uncertainty stems from our ignorance of physical prop-
erties of terrestrial materials at pressures of a few megabars, such as
exist in the lower mantle and core. One may hope that much more
information will become available in the next few years, now that static
experiments appear feasible in the megabar range. On the other hand,
our understanding of thermal events at the time of, or shortly after,
formation of the earth will remain speculative for many years to come,
as also will the crucial matter of the abundance of radioactive elements
in the mantle and core. On the theoretical side, perhaps the greatest
step forward in the last four decades or indeed since the discovery of
. . .
OCR for page R4
iY Preface
radioactivity-has been the recognition of convection as the dominant
mode of heat transfer in most of the mantle and core. Here, at long last,
is something to hang on to.
The writer wishes to express deep thanks to all his colleagues at
Berkeley who have helped him throughout the years, and particularly
to the graduate students who have discussed these matters with him in
seminars. He is grateful also to the audience at Stanford University for
their warm welcome, and to Professor Allan Cox for the perfection of
the arrangements.
Berkeley, March 1979
