What make middle of the earth keep on burning?
The primary energy source of the interior of the Earth is radioactive decay. Minor amounts of energy are generated by tidal effects and electric currents induced by the solar wind, but these are insignificant compared to radioactive decay. As a radioactive isotope decays, particles are ejected from its nucleus for the purpose of stabilizing the atom. Radioactive decay processes produce electromagnetic radiation (gamma rays, for example) which transmit energy from the nucleus to the environment. Additionally, the ejected particles have kinetic energy that ultimately converts to thermal energy as the particles are mechanically resisted by their environment. The crust, mantle, and core of Earth contain varying amounts of radioactive elements, the most important for heat production being Uranium-238, Uranium-235, Thorium-232, and Potassium-40, with half-lives of roughly 4.47 billion years, 704 million years, 14.1 billion years, and 1.28 billion years, respectively. The half life of an radi
