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The heating of the Earth and oceans by induced electric currents

1937; Volume: 42; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1029/te042i004p00359

2379-5697

Steven Curtis Chapman,

Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics

§1. This note is a sequel to the preceding paper, in which the heating of the ionosphere by electric currents is considered. The ionospheric currents induce secondary currents in the Earth and oceans, whose magnetic effect appreciably modifies the transient magnetic variations at the Earth's surface. The possible interest of the heating‐effect of these induced currents was first drawn to my notice in 1935 by Drs. R. E. Gibson and F. E. Wright of the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, who pointed out to me that if, as the analysis of magnetic records has shown, the main induced earth‐currents flow at a depth of 200 km or more, any heat there generated will have much difficulty in escaping; hence a very small rate of heat‐generation may be of importance. This led to my examination of the problem, with the result, perhaps to be expected, that the rate of this generation of heat is found in fact to be of too low an order of magnitude to be important, even if the heat accumulated without any escape, over the long life of the Earth, taken as 1010 years.