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My Earth is similar to our real Earth, and some scientists have found out a really cheap way to use geothermal energy. Huge generators are built, but one scientist eventually found out that the Earth is not as hot as it was before this huge usage of geothermal energy. The Earth gets colder inside and nobody can stop the cooling. Soon enough, the Earth liquid core has become just like a huge rock.

My question is: are there any catastrophes that are likely to happen, or what will happen? (These power stations will stop working and there is a really big need of power) or will just everything run as it is and there will be no volcanoes or earthquakes any longer (because the energy responsible for the movement of the tectonic plates is no more)

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  • $\begingroup$ The core would stop spinning since the whole thing turned solid so I'd imagine at least for a brief moment it would be similar to the movie "The Core". But I suppose that's only if you have it stop moving before it turns solid otherwise it would happen much more severely and all at once. $\endgroup$
    – Shelby115
    Sep 16, 2015 at 19:56
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    $\begingroup$ Keep in mind though that this is a very unlikely scenario. There is a huge amount of thermal energy in the earth's core. $\endgroup$
    – Tim B
    Sep 16, 2015 at 20:16
  • $\begingroup$ Something to keep in mind for this world is that radioactive decay generates a significant amount of the core's heat. Once these problems were realized, the denizens would be able to transition over from geothermal and have some recovery of the core's temperature. Secondary source: physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2011/jul/19/… $\endgroup$
    – rhrgrt
    Sep 16, 2015 at 21:39

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Mars. We would eventually look like a slightly larger version of Mars.

The molten core generates the Magnetosphere and this does several things for us.

First it protects us from a lot of radiation from the sun, ever hear of the northern lights? That is a visible display of our protection.

Next we currently have an atmosphere, and while a lot of hydrogen and helium are still whisked off into space the magnetosphere protects most of it from being swept away by the solar winds.

So ultimately everything dies that doesn't dig into the planet for protection. And by the way as the atmosphere is eroded away, the oceans and lakes will boil away as well, evaporating into the thinner and thinner atmosphere until both are gone. Leaving a fairly dry husk of a planet.

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    $\begingroup$ Though note that this will be really slow. Millions of years, not decades. $\endgroup$
    – Murphy
    Sep 16, 2015 at 18:06
  • $\begingroup$ @Murphy yes, I know it won't be a couple decades, but had no idea how long it would actually take. The question implies a fairly fast cooling of the core, Mars cooled over millions of years... $\endgroup$
    – bowlturner
    Sep 16, 2015 at 18:10
  • $\begingroup$ Yeah, the reason why I thought it would cool down fast is that is that the power stations are that cheap and nobody could imagine that such thing could happen. Mars was not actively cooled, my Earth would be because these power stations would run until it's too late. $\endgroup$ Sep 16, 2015 at 19:39
  • $\begingroup$ @Schwertspize I was actually refering to the loss of atmosphere. Even if we lost the whole magnetosphere tomorrow the atmosphere would take a long time to get blown away. $\endgroup$
    – Murphy
    Sep 17, 2015 at 9:25
  • $\begingroup$ As mentioned, the amount of heat in the earth is extremely high. To make a significant effect on that, then in addition to making the generators incredibly cheap, you may also want something that also burns massive amounts energy. Some sort of "super" tech may work for that; such as anti-gravity, teleportation, or wormhole generation. $\endgroup$ Sep 23, 2015 at 14:12
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We need a Magnetosphere

The important thing that a liquid iron core gives us is a Magnetosphere around the Earth. This protects us from solar winds which would otherwise strip away our ozone layer which protects us from ultra-violet radiation.

Furthermore the solar wind could actually strip away the atmosphere itself if there was not a magnetosphere to hold in the charged ions in it's upper bounds. Without an atmosphere, we would be dead.

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Core completely solidifies; magnetic field collapses; earth bombarded by "cosmic" rays; everything dies.

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    $\begingroup$ I understand your answer, but If you could, at the very least, expand on your answer a little, it would be much better. This is a one line, one sentence answer, which is generally frowned upon on the SE network. $\endgroup$
    – Jax
    Sep 16, 2015 at 16:17
  • $\begingroup$ The two answers given by Varrick and bowlturner are both a much better worded. I would not object to my answer being deleted. I will strive to be less flippant in future answers. $\endgroup$ Sep 16, 2015 at 17:46
  • $\begingroup$ Actually magnetosphere doesn't protect us that much re: cosmic rays $\endgroup$
    – user3082
    Sep 23, 2015 at 0:48
  • $\begingroup$ Mostly meant it as a generic "space radiation" rather than actual cosmic rays. $\endgroup$ Sep 23, 2015 at 15:00

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