Telluric current
Encyclopedia
A telluric current or Earth current, is an electric current
which moves underground or through the sea. Telluric currents result from both natural causes and human activity, and the discrete currents interact in a complex pattern. The currents are extremely low frequency
and travel over large areas at or near the surface of Earth
.
and mantle
. In September 1862, an experiment to specifically address Earth currents was carried out in the Munich Alps (Lamont, 1862). The currents are primarily induced by changes in the outer part of the Earth's magnetic field
, which are usually caused by interactions between the solar wind
and the magnetosphere
or solar radiation effects on the ionosphere
. Telluric currents flow in the surface layers of the earth. The electric potential on the Earth's surface can be measured at different points, enabling us to calculate the magnitudes and directions of the telluric currents and thence the Earth's conductance
. These currents are known to have diurnal characteristics wherein the general direction of flow is towards the sun. Telluric currents will move between each half of the terrestrial globe at all times. Telluric currents move equator-ward (daytime) and pole-ward (nighttime).
Both the telluric and magnetotelluric methods are used for exploring the structure beneath the Earth's surface (such as in industrial prospecting). For mineral
exploration the targets are any subsurface structure with a distinguishable resistivity from its surroundings. Uses include geothermal exploration, mining
exploration, petroleum
exploration, mapping fault zones, ground water exploration and monitoring, investigating magma
chambers, and investigating plate tectonic boundaries. Telluric currents can be harnessed to produce a useful low voltage current by means of earth batteries
. Such devices were used for telegraph systems in the United States as far back as 1859. There is a major hotspot near Boston Common that actually diverted the construction of the Western Hemisphere's first subway system from Boylston to Park St in 1897.
In industrial
prospecting
activity that uses the telluric current method, electrode
s are properly located on the ground to sense the voltage difference between locations caused by the oscillatory telluric currents. It is recognized that a low frequency window (LFW) exists when telluric currents pass through the earth's substrata. In the frequencies of the LFW, the earth acts as a conductor.
's novel The Night Land
, the "Earth-Current", a powerful telluric current, is the source of power for the Last Redoubt, the arcology
home of man after the Sun has died. Hodgson's Earth-Current is a spiritual force as well as an electrical one, warding off the monsters of the Night Lands.
The main plot of the novel Foucault's Pendulum
by Umberto Eco
revolves around search for the Ombilicus Mundi (Latin: The Navel of the World), the mystic Center of The Earth which is supposed to be a certain point from where a person could control the energies and shapes of the earth thus reforming it at will. The novel takes this even further by suggesting that monuments like the Eiffel Tower
are nothing more than giant antennae
to catalyze these energies.
Telluric currents are also used as a means of travel by the woman Hsien-Ko and her minions in the Doctor Who
"Missing Adventures" novel, The Shadow of Weng-Chiang
, by David A McIntee.
Telluric currents – along what are effectively ley lines – are discovered to be a means of mysterious communication in Thomas Pynchon's Mason and Dixon and are associated with the book's Chinese-Jesuit sub plot. As with Eco, cited above, Pynchon also reflects upon hollow earth theories in this work.
Other
Electric current
Electric current is a flow of electric charge through a medium.This charge is typically carried by moving electrons in a conductor such as wire...
which moves underground or through the sea. Telluric currents result from both natural causes and human activity, and the discrete currents interact in a complex pattern. The currents are extremely low frequency
Extremely low frequency
Extremely low frequency is a term used to describe radiation frequencies from 3 to 300 Hz. In atmosphere science, an alternative definition is usually given, from 3 Hz to 3 kHz...
and travel over large areas at or near the surface of Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
.
Description
Telluric currents are phenomena observed in the Earth's crustCrust (geology)
In geology, the crust is the outermost solid shell of a rocky planet or natural satellite, which is chemically distinct from the underlying mantle...
and mantle
Mantle (geology)
The mantle is a part of a terrestrial planet or other rocky body large enough to have differentiation by density. The interior of the Earth, similar to the other terrestrial planets, is chemically divided into layers. The mantle is a highly viscous layer between the crust and the outer core....
. In September 1862, an experiment to specifically address Earth currents was carried out in the Munich Alps (Lamont, 1862). The currents are primarily induced by changes in the outer part of the Earth's magnetic field
Earth's magnetic field
Earth's magnetic field is the magnetic field that extends from the Earth's inner core to where it meets the solar wind, a stream of energetic particles emanating from the Sun...
, which are usually caused by interactions between the solar wind
Solar wind
The solar wind is a stream of charged particles ejected from the upper atmosphere of the Sun. It mostly consists of electrons and protons with energies usually between 1.5 and 10 keV. The stream of particles varies in temperature and speed over time...
and the magnetosphere
Magnetosphere
A magnetosphere is formed when a stream of charged particles, such as the solar wind, interacts with and is deflected by the intrinsic magnetic field of a planet or similar body. Earth is surrounded by a magnetosphere, as are the other planets with intrinsic magnetic fields: Mercury, Jupiter,...
or solar radiation effects on the ionosphere
Ionosphere
The ionosphere is a part of the upper atmosphere, comprising portions of the mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere, distinguished because it is ionized by solar radiation. It plays an important part in atmospheric electricity and forms the inner edge of the magnetosphere...
. Telluric currents flow in the surface layers of the earth. The electric potential on the Earth's surface can be measured at different points, enabling us to calculate the magnitudes and directions of the telluric currents and thence the Earth's conductance
Conductance
Conductance may refer to:* Electrical conductance, the ability for electricity to flow a certain path* Fluid conductance, the ability for fluid to transmit through materials* Thermal conductivity, the ability for temperatures to transmit through materials...
. These currents are known to have diurnal characteristics wherein the general direction of flow is towards the sun. Telluric currents will move between each half of the terrestrial globe at all times. Telluric currents move equator-ward (daytime) and pole-ward (nighttime).
Both the telluric and magnetotelluric methods are used for exploring the structure beneath the Earth's surface (such as in industrial prospecting). For mineral
Mineral
A mineral is a naturally occurring solid chemical substance formed through biogeochemical processes, having characteristic chemical composition, highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties. By comparison, a rock is an aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids and does not...
exploration the targets are any subsurface structure with a distinguishable resistivity from its surroundings. Uses include geothermal exploration, mining
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
exploration, petroleum
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
exploration, mapping fault zones, ground water exploration and monitoring, investigating magma
Magma
Magma is a mixture of molten rock, volatiles and solids that is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and is expected to exist on other terrestrial planets. Besides molten rock, magma may also contain suspended crystals and dissolved gas and sometimes also gas bubbles. Magma often collects in...
chambers, and investigating plate tectonic boundaries. Telluric currents can be harnessed to produce a useful low voltage current by means of earth batteries
Earth battery
An Earth battery is a pair of electrodes made of two dissimilar metals, such as iron and copper, which are buried in the soil or immersed in the sea. Earth batteries act as water activated batteries and if the plates are sufficiently far apart, they can tap telluric currents...
. Such devices were used for telegraph systems in the United States as far back as 1859. There is a major hotspot near Boston Common that actually diverted the construction of the Western Hemisphere's first subway system from Boylston to Park St in 1897.
In industrial
Industry
Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...
prospecting
Prospecting
Prospecting is the physical search for minerals, fossils, precious metals or mineral specimens, and is also known as fossicking.Prospecting is a small-scale form of mineral exploration which is an organised, large scale effort undertaken by mineral resource companies to find commercially viable ore...
activity that uses the telluric current method, electrode
Electrode
An electrode is an electrical conductor used to make contact with a nonmetallic part of a circuit...
s are properly located on the ground to sense the voltage difference between locations caused by the oscillatory telluric currents. It is recognized that a low frequency window (LFW) exists when telluric currents pass through the earth's substrata. In the frequencies of the LFW, the earth acts as a conductor.
In fiction
In William Hope HodgsonWilliam Hope Hodgson
William Hope Hodgson was an English author. He produced a large body of work, consisting of essays, short fiction, and novels, spanning several overlapping genres including horror, fantastic fiction and science fiction. Early in his writing career he dedicated effort to poetry, although few of his...
's novel The Night Land
The Night Land
The Night Land is a classic horror novel by William Hope Hodgson, first published in 1912. As a work of fantasy it belongs to the Dying Earth subgenre...
, the "Earth-Current", a powerful telluric current, is the source of power for the Last Redoubt, the arcology
Arcology
Arcology, a portmanteau of the words "architecture" and "ecology", is a set of architectural design principles aimed toward the design of enormous habitats of extremely high human population density. These largely hypothetical structures would contain a variety of residential, commercial, and...
home of man after the Sun has died. Hodgson's Earth-Current is a spiritual force as well as an electrical one, warding off the monsters of the Night Lands.
The main plot of the novel Foucault's Pendulum
Foucault's Pendulum
Foucault's Pendulum is a novel by Italian writer and philosopher Umberto Eco. It was first published in 1988; the translation into English by William Weaver appeared a year later....
by Umberto Eco
Umberto Eco
Umberto Eco Knight Grand Cross is an Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose , an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory...
revolves around search for the Ombilicus Mundi (Latin: The Navel of the World), the mystic Center of The Earth which is supposed to be a certain point from where a person could control the energies and shapes of the earth thus reforming it at will. The novel takes this even further by suggesting that monuments like the Eiffel Tower
Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower is a puddle iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris. Built in 1889, it has become both a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world...
are nothing more than giant antennae
Antenna (radio)
An antenna is an electrical device which converts electric currents into radio waves, and vice versa. It is usually used with a radio transmitter or radio receiver...
to catalyze these energies.
Telluric currents are also used as a means of travel by the woman Hsien-Ko and her minions in the Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
"Missing Adventures" novel, The Shadow of Weng-Chiang
The Shadow of Weng-Chiang
The Shadow of Weng-Chiang is an original novel written by David A. McIntee and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is a sequel to the 1977 serial The Talons of Weng-Chiang, featuring the Fourth Doctor, the first Romana, and K-9....
, by David A McIntee.
Telluric currents – along what are effectively ley lines – are discovered to be a means of mysterious communication in Thomas Pynchon's Mason and Dixon and are associated with the book's Chinese-Jesuit sub plot. As with Eco, cited above, Pynchon also reflects upon hollow earth theories in this work.
See also
- Geomagnetically induced currentGeomagnetically induced currentGeomagnetically induced currents , affecting the normal operation of long electrical conductor systems, are a manifestation at ground level of space weather. During space weather events, electric currents in the magnetosphere and ionosphere experience large variations, which manifest also in the...
- Electrical resistivity tomographyElectrical resistivity tomographyElectrical resistivity tomography or electrical resistivity imaging is a geophysical technique for imaging sub-surface structures from electrical measurements made at the surface, or by electrodes in one or more boreholes. It is closely related to the medical imaging technique electrical...
- MagnetotelluricsMagnetotelluricsMagnetotellurics is an electromagnetic geophysical method of imaging the earth's subsurface by measuring natural variations of electrical and magnetic fields at the Earth's surface. Investigation depth ranges from 300m below ground by recording higher frequencies down to 10,000m or deeper with...
- Seismo-electromagneticsSeismo-electromagneticsSeismo-electromagnetics is the study of electromagnetic phenomena associated with seismic activity such as earthquakes and volcanos, and also the use of electromagnetic methods in seismology such as magnetotellurics. Links between the electromagnetic fields in the lithosphere and those in the...
Further reading
General- "Telluric current" A Dictionary of Earth Sciences. Ed. Ailsa Allaby and Michael Allaby. Oxford University Press, 1999.
- "The Earth's Electrical Environment". US National Academies Press, Commission on Physical Sciences, Mathematics and Applications, 1986.
- Louis J. Lanzerotti and Giovanni P. Gregori, "Telluric Currents: The Natural Environment and Interactions with Man-made Systems", Chapter 16.
- Lamont, J. V., "Der Erdstrom und der Zusammen desselben mit dem Erdmagnetismus". Leopold-Voss-Verlag, Leipzig und Muenchen, 1862.
Other
- Wait, J.R., "On the relation between telluric currents and the earth’s magnetic field", Geophysics, 19, 281-289, 1954.
- Gideon, D. N., A. T. Hopper, and R. E. Thompson, "Earth current effects on buried pipelines : analysis of observations of telluric gradients and their effects". Battelle Memorial Institute and the American Gas Association. New York, 1970.
- Seeley, Robert L., Tippens, C. L., and Hoover, Donald B., "Circuitry of the U.S.G.S. telluric profiler". U.S. Geological Survey open-file report ; 87-332, Denver, Colo. : U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Geological Survey.
- Berdichevskiĭ, Mark Naumovich, "Elektricheskaya razvedka metodom telluricheskikh tokov". Boston Spa, Yorkshire : National Lending Library for Science and Technology, 1963. LCCN 92140338 (Tr., "Electrical surveying by means of telluric currents"; Translation by J.E.S. Bradley)
- Hoover, Donald B., Pierce, H. A., and Merkel, D. C., "Telluric traverse and self potential data release in the vicinity of the Pinson Mine, Humboldt County, Nevada". U.S. Geological Survey open-file report; 86-341. U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Geological Survey, 1986.
External links
General- Gaetan Chavalier, The Earth’s Electrical Surface Potential: A summary of present understanding. January 2007.
- "Electrical Conductivity : Models of the Crust and Mantle". [PDF]
- MTNet, Scientists engaged in the study of the Earth using electromagnetic methods, principally the magnetotelluric technique (magnetotellurics).
- Telluric current in Hydrocarbon Reservoirs, Discussion on the occurrence of Telluric currents in Oil and Gas reservoirs and their nature and application.
- Gummow, R. A., "Telluric and Ocean Current Effects on Buried Pipeline and their Cathodic Protection Systems". CORRENG Consulting Service, Inc. December 3, 2002.
- Sinha, M. C., et al., "Applications of 3-Dimensional Electromagnetic Induction by Sources in the Ocean, ISO-3D". RTD Project, MAST III (Area C: Marine Technology). MAS3-CT97-0120