Geoneutrinos and the energy budget of the Earth |
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| Institution: | 1. Key Laboratory for Aerosol–Cloud–Precipitation of China Meteorological Administration, School of Atmospheric Physics, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, Jiangsu province, China;2. Institute of Atmospheric Environment Safety and Pollution Control, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China;1. Indian Institute of Astrophysics, 2nd Block Koramangala, Bangalore 560034, India;2. Center for Environmental Remote Sensing, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Chiba 263-8522, Japan;3. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea;1. Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China;2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China;3. Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130102, China;4. Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China;1. College of Atmospheric Sciences, Key Laboratory of Arid Climatic Change and Reducing Disaster of Gansu Province, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China;2. Plateau Atmosphere and Environment Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu 610225, China;3. State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry (LAPC), Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China |
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| Abstract: | The total energy loss of the Earth is well constrained by heat flux measurements on land, the plate cooling model for the oceans, and the buoyancy flux of hotspots. It amounts to 46 ± 2 TW. The main sources that balance the total energy loss are the radioactivity of the Earth's crust and mantle, the secular cooling of the Earth's mantle, and the energy loss from the core. Only the crustal radioactivity is well constrained. The uncertainty on each of the other components is larger than the uncertainty of the total heat loss. The mantle energy budget cannot be balanced by adding the best estimates of mantle radioactivity, secular cooling of the mantle, and heat flux from the core. Neutrino observatories in deep underground mines can detect antineutrinos emitted by the radioactivity of U and Th. Provided that the crustal contribution to the geoneutrino flux can be very precisely calculated, it will be possible to put robust constraints on mantle radioactivity and its contribution to the Earth's energy budget. Equally strong constraints could be obtained from a deep ocean observatory without the need of crustal correction. In the future, it may become possible to obtain directional information on the geoneutrino flux and to resolve radial variations in concentration of heat producing elements in the mantle. |
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