Hi dsooks,
Although the comment by secret109 is accurate and provides the basic
essence of the answer, I’ll give you some added information so that I
can be sure you’ll get a good night’s sleep tonight. ;-)
First, from a question that I answered for another customer who was
bothered by a slightly different aspect of the earth’s molten core ---
https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=29757
"Earth has two cores--the inner core and the outer core. The inner
core is solid and is about 5100 kilometers down (approximately 3150
miles). Surrounding the inner core is the outer core, which is
believed to be liquid, and starts about 2900 kilometers below the
surface of the earth (1800 miles)."
http://newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/gen99/gen99175.htm
The Earth's crust serves as insulation against heat loss. Heat can
only escape through breaks in the crust. Even if you stand in a
volcano, one place where heat can leak out, you can’t get a true idea
of the earth’s core temperature because even that is cooler than the
actual core.
http://www.earthsky.com/2002/es020719.html
This chart puts into perspective our distance from the earth’s core
-------
Inside the Earth
http://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/text/inside.html
“There is no way to measure the temperature at the Earth's core
directly. We know from mines and drill holes that, near the surface
of the Earth, the temperature increases by about 1 degree Fahrenheit
for every 60 feet in depth. If this temperature increase continued to
the center of the Earth, the Earth's core would be 100,000 degrees
Celsius!"
http://newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/gen99/gen99256.htm
More details on the make up of the earth ---------
“The Earth is divided into several layers which have distinct chemical
and seismic properties (depths in km):
0- 40 Crust
40- 400 Upper mantle
400- 650 Transition region
650-2700 Lower mantle
2700-2890 D'' layer
2890-5150 Outer core
5150-6378 Inner core
The crust varies considerably in thickness, it is thinner under the
oceans, thicker under the continents. The inner core and crust are
solid; the outer core and mantle layers are plastic or semi-fluid.
The core is probably composed mostly of iron (or nickel/iron) though
it is possible that some lighter elements may be present, too.
Temperatures at the center of the core may be as high as 7500 K,
hotter than the surface of the Sun.”
http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/earth.html
As you can see on that website, the earth’s surface temperature has
more to do with solar radiation, the large bodies of water on earth,
and the CO2 content of our atmosphere, than with the core temperature.
“The heat capacity of the oceans is also very important in keeping the
Earth's temperature relatively stable… The tiny amount of carbon
dioxide resident in the atmosphere at any time is extremely important
to the maintenance of the Earth's surface temperature via the
greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect raises the average surface
temperature about 35 degrees C above what it would otherwise be (from
a frigid -21 C to a comfortable +14 C); without it the oceans would
freeze and life as we know it would be impossible.”
http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/earth.html
Earth’s surface temperatures in degrees Kelvin ---
Mean surface temperature (K).........................281
Maximum surface temperature (K)......................310
Minimum surface temperature (K)......................260
http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/welcome/earth.htm
You can convert Kelvin to Celsius or Fahrenheit here:
http://www.admiralmetals.com/metric_conv.htm#temperature
Here you can see a short animation of the earth’s average temperature
(you’ll need Media Player) ---
http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEAWIFS/IMAGES/MOVIES.html
Here’s an article explaining the effects of solar radiation,
atmosphere, rotation and planet size on a planet’s surface temperature
–
The Surface Temperatures of the Planets
http://www.rog.nmm.ac.uk/leaflets/surface/surface.html
A technical article on the earth’s various internal temperatures --
http://earth.agu.org/revgeophys/duffy01/duffy01.html
It should be clear that we are so far and so insulated from the
earth’s core, that we’ll never be in danger of burning our feet when
we jump out of bed in the morning! So, I hope this gives you enough
peace of mind enough to allow you to sleep tonight. :-)
If anything I’ve said isn’t clear, please feel free to ask for a
clarification, and do write to us again should you spend another night
wondering ….
--K~
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