Earth Conductivity

[FrankM]

This topic was originally started in the Physics & Mathematics forum before the Earth Science forum had been created. The first post in the thread explains the issue.

 

http://hypography.com/forums/showthread.php?t=316

 

The topic was started because there was evidence that the earth was a better conductor than what could be explained by currently known conductivity characteristics of subsurface materials. It was originally thought there were a lot more free electrons in the deep rock structure and these were being liberated by piezoelectric action by the extreme pressures. Continued searching revealed research by a NASA astrophycisist, Friedemann Freund, who had identified a mechanism in the crystalline structure of rock which causes it to function as a P-type semiconductor when subjected to pressure.

 

Research now reveals that massive current surges leading up to and occurring during earthquakes are a product of the extreme pressure changes during seismic action and the resultant changes in p-type hole conductivity. The constant steady-state pressure maintains the deep rock in a continuous p-type hole conduction mode which makes it much more conductive than is revealed by the measured conductivity/resistivity on the same type of rock in no pressure surface tests. The first report on the pressure tests were submitted in a paper dealing with the 1999 Taiwan Chi-Chi earthquake. (625k)

 

http://www.elfrad.com/FF_iSTEP_2004.pdf

 

A new report, which includes pictures of the testing apparatus, provides an expanded overview of the p-type hole conduction phenomena. (1.7 MB)

 

http://elfrad.com/SETI_Explorer2005Q2_earthquake.pdf

 

Only a limited number of rock types have been tested, thus it is not known at what pressures other rocks exhibit the p-type hole conduction nor if the p-type conduction reaches a maximum value at some elevated pressure.

 

The p-type hole conduction is a paradigm shift from our previous knowledge of the earths electrical characteristics. Early theories postulated that Earth conductivity was the result of the earth providing a near infinite number of resistors in parallel, but it now appears it is due to a somewhat finite number of p-type semiconductors in parallel that result in very good electrical conduction.