the science behind journey to the center of the earth
DESCRIPTION
http://marcusvannini2012.blogspot.com/http://www.marcusmoon2022.org/designcontest.htmShoot for the moon and if you miss you'll land among the stars...TRANSCRIPT
Journey to the Center of the Earthby Jules Verne
As you can see, there are a number of things in this picture that just don’t make sense
• No light• No ancient reptiles• No oceans• No air• Too hot for life• No people on boats
Plot
• Prof. Harwigg finds an ancient text by Icelander Arne Saknussemm
• Goes down Sneffels mountain in Iceland
• Travels around the inside of the earth through a series of caves
• Reaches the Central Sea• Gets back to the surface through
an eruption of Stromboli, in Italy
The Science Behind the Book
• Hollow Earth Theory• Underground Water Theory• Plate Tectonics• Magnetic Pole
HOLLOW EARTH THEORY
“Gazing around, I began to think of the theory of the English captain who compared the earth to a vast hollow sphere in the interior of which the air is retained in a luminous state by means of atmospheric pressure, while two stars, Pluto and Proserpine, circled there in their mysterious orbits. After all, suppose the old fellow was right!”
-Harry, looking at the electric light in the cavern of the Central Sea
Sir Edmund Halley’s Theory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow_Earth
•Idea developed in 1692•Earth consists of four concentric spheres •Suspended in atmospheres•Atmospheres are luminous, possibly contain life
Leonhard Euler’s Theory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow_Earth
•Developed in the 1700s•A central sun inside the earth with a radius of 600mi•Provided light to the inhabitants of earth’s interior
Sir John Leslie’s Theory
• 1829 – “Elements of Natural Philosophy,” mentions a hollow earth
• Idea of two suns within the earth, named Pluto and Proserpine
This is the “English captain” that Harry is talking about!
“’Besides, as we approach the center, I except to find it luminous…”
-Prof. Hardwigg
UNDERGROUND WATER THEORY
“A vast, limitless expanse of water, the end of a lake if not of an ocean, spread before us, until it was lost in the distance. . . . It was in reality an ocean, with an the usual characteristics of an inland sea, only horribly wild—so rigid, cold and savage.”
-Harry, upon seeing the Central Sea
The Underworld
http://www.wfu.edu/~sporsl5/FYS/lastjudgment.htm
May Actually be True . . . Kind of
•Discovered by Michael Wysession of Wash U this past February •Red shows unusually soft and weak rock believed to be saturated with water
http://www.livescience.com/environment/070228_beijing_anomoly.html
The Beijing Anomaly
• Analyzed over 600,000 seismic waves• Noticed that some slowed while passing through the
mantle under Asia• As water is sucked under the crust, heated up, rises
into overlying regions of rock• Volume at least as much as the Arctic Ocean
PLATE TECTONICS
“This . . . island must have made its appearance from out of the great world of waters at a comparatively recent date. . . . If this really be the case, its origin can be attributed to only one cause—that of the continued action of subterranean fires.”
-Harry, talking about Iceland
Verne’s Idea of Plate Tectonics“Long before the existence of volcanoes, it was composed of a solid body of massive trap rock lifted bodily and slowly out of the sea, by the action of the centrifugal force at work in the earth.”
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:East_Pacific_Rise.jpg
“At a later period in the world’s history, a huge and mighty fissure must, reasoning by analogy, have been dug diagonally from the southwest to the northeast of the island, through which by degrees flowed the volcanic crust.”
http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/volcano-tours/typo3temp/pics/9e041daa80.jpg
“. . . despite the enormous thickness and weight of the upper crust, the mechanical forces of the combustible gases below became so great, that they actually upheaved the weighty back and made for themselves huge and gigantic shafts. Hence the volcanoes . . .”
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/geophys/volcano.html
What’s Actually Happening
http://www.revisionworld.com/files/seafloor.jpg http://www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=10155&tid=282&cid=2396
MAGNETIC POLE
“Why, that the needle instead of dipping towards the pole as it does on earth, in the northern hemisphere, has an upward tendency.”
Really?
“”This proves,” I cried, “that the great point of magnetic attraction lies somewhere between the surface of the earth and the spot we have succeeded in reaching.””
http://earthsci.org/education/teacher/basicgeol/platec/magfield.gif
Proof of Wavering“. . . near the seventy-third degree of latitude, where Sir James Ross discovered the magnetic pole . . . .”
• 1831: Northwest Passage, Ross located the Magnetic North Pole
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/29dec_magneticfield.html