The Earth is losing 50 thousand tons every year and will eventually disappear. Scientists are worried as the Earth will get thinner until it disappears.
It sounds like the subject of a disaster movie: a researcher in a remote part of the world, renowned for his sui generis theories but at the same time brilliant (and therefore misunderstood), notices that the Earth is losing a little too much weight. Is this a threat to humanity? Scientists believe so.
We have exercised our imaginations with dangers from any subject or direction. From the galaxy, from ourselves (a war, climate change), from nature (a pandemic). But who would have imagined having to worry about what's happening right under our feet?
How concerned should we be that the Earth is losing weight
Unfortunately, the situation is not dramatic. In fact. True, the Earth is losing weight, but there is no need to pack up and move elsewhere.
First, some figures. The weight of the globe is 5.97 billion trillion tons. A figure that, however, is not stable, but undergoes continuous variations (even if small in proportion to the size of the starting number). These are slow and unnoticeable processes, but still in place. Even at this very moment.
According to numerous researches that have analyzed the variations in the Earth's mass, our planet accumulates meteor dust and space debris but loses hydrogen. On average, space debris and meteor dust acquired is estimated to amount to 40 thousand tons each year. The hydrogen dispersed on the contrary is worth 95 thousand tons.
These two phenomena are accompanied by others. Both to be inscribed in the chapter "loss", related to the mass of our home planet. Specifically, it is the loss of helium, which is worth 1600 tons every year, and the radioactive decay of the nucleus, equal to 160 tons every 365 days.
The Earth will disappear. But when?
Compounding these and other factors that contribute to the change in Earth's mass, we arrive at a net loss of 50 thousand tons each year. Considering that there are 5.97 billion trillion tons to erode, it is natural that the process will be very very long. And however, it could be, according to some scientists, the reason for the thinning of our home in the galaxy to decree the definitive disappearance: in 120 thousand trillion years.
Among other phenomena more or less worrying the disappearance of oxygen from the oceans and earthquakes capable of lasting decades.
Giuseppe Giordano