Question

what is in the center of the earth: I read claims about it to be iron, but should it not be osmium, which is denser

Answer 1

Why do you say that?

Answer 2

well i read about how shadow zones during earthquakes show us the core is liquid, and i would think the densest elements sink the deepest in this damned rock called earth.

Answer 3

osmium has the greatest density known in the chemist tables.

Answer 4

but i do not know anything about crystals and their behaviour

Answer 5

so i could be wrong with my suspicion or conjecture or what you call it, hence the question to other intellignet beings

Answer 6

ah, well osmium is a very rare substance, and there isn't nearly enough of it around for the entire earth's core to be comprised of it. The earth's core is a little complex also, If I remember correctly, there are 2 layers of core, the outer core is much less dense than the inner core and is liquid, while the inner core is a solid ball of iron.

Answer 7

@ junkiejim: but this ball of osmium must at least be bigger than a bowling ball, and right in the center of the inner core...

Answer 8

That would be true if the inner core were liquid, but even a dense solid can't sink through another solid

Answer 9

anyway, these thought cannot be verified from where i stand with the knowledge i have now, so i will put them up in the fantasy department again.

Answer 10

I like the thought process though

Answer 11

but but, the typical longitudinal or transversal earthquakes (one of them) do not propagate through liquid matter, and so we must deduce that the core is liquid since there are shadow spots (i believe the earthquake science so far).

Answer 12

suppose the inner core is one monolithic (cat like) piece of iron, would the osmium then bounce around it ?

Answer 13

any way this question was on chocolate, the next being without that foodtype, and thus better and without the typos.

Answer 14

okay, so even if longitudinal and transversal earthquakes don't pass through liquids, that just means that directly beneath the crust is a liquid, not necessarily straight through to the core, there can be a solid beneath the liquid layer. But we can't know that directly from these earthquakes.

On a separate note, the core is supposed to be very hot (much hotter than the melting point of osmium, so i suppose its fair to say that the iron core could be coated in a very very thin layer of osmium, or could even have osmium impurities

Answer 15

not so junkie after all. bye jim. bed calls for this body