How does radioactivity make it possible to understand how Earth can be so old and still have a hot interior?
A. Radioactive elements trap heat from underground magma chambers.
B. Radioactive elements absorb heat from the atmosphere and release it underground.
C. Radioactive elements near the core release heat as their nuclei decay.
D. Radioactive elements absorb the cold temperatures underground.
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The reason is that there are radioactive elements that are in the center of the earth.
If the earth were only a rock cooling from the time of its birth. It should have already cooled completely thousands of years ago. However, volcanoes continue to shed hot magma and this is proof that there is a source of heat in the center of the earth. This source of heat is due to the radioactivity of elements such as Uranium and Thorium that were enclosed during the formation of the earth. These elements slowly disintegrate emitting particles that collide with others emanating heat. For example, the half-life of uranium is 4.5 billion years, which means that it decays very slowly.
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