How are the conventional current in the mantle initiate and maintained
Answers
Like any other convectional current it requires a hot source to be cooled down, right?! It is obvious.
Here, the answer lies in the Earth’s core, which is to the best of our knowledge molten radioactive metal. In other words, heat is generated as the radioactive metal activity decays at the Earth’s core. But this is not the only source.
According to the concept of “Earth’s Internal Heat Budget, ” there are two sources for the heat at the core: “radiogenic” and “primordial”. The first one was mentioned before (“radioactive decay of isotopes”), while the later is the heat stored at the core of Earth when it was formed.
Existence and continuous production of heat is vital for Earth life, since it impacts the magnetic field. However, they are not small sources. There are estimations for the rate of heat flux outward of Earth’s core is mentioned in the second source. That answers how it is maintained.